A lot of people still maintain genre prejudice. I still meet matrons who tell me kindly that their children enjoyed my books but of course they never read them, and people who make sure I know they don’t read that space-ship stuff. No, no, they read Literature – realism. Like The Help, or Fifty Shades of Grey.
Having intelligence, we must not act in ignorance. Having choice, we must not act without responsibility.
What is the sense of giving a boundary to all that, of giving it a name and ceasing to love where the name ceases to apply? What is love of one’s country; is it hate of one’s uncountry?
To make something well is to give yourself to it, to seek wholeness, to follow spirit. To learn to make something well can take your whole life. It’s worth it.
Meaning in art isn’t the same as meaning in science. The meaning of the second law of thermodynamics, so long as the words are understood, isn’t changed by who reads it, or when, or where. The meaning of Huckleberry Finn is.
His gentleness was uncompromising; because he would not compete for dominance, he was indomitable.
There must be darkness to see the stars.
I was with you at the beginning of your journey. It is right that I should follow you to its end.
You are like a lantern swathed and covered, hidden away in a dark place. Yet the light shines; they could not put out the light. They could not hide you.
Let age be age. Let your old relative or old friend be who they are. Denial serves nothing, no one, no purpose.
A person is defined solely by the extent of his influence over other people, by the sphere of his interrelationships; and morality is an utterly meaningless term unless defined as the good one does to others, the fulfilling of one’s function in the sociopolitical whole.
You always have to defend the imagination against idiots.
You have not thought things through,” he said. By his standards it was a brutal insult.
I was in too much haste, and now have no time left.
Orr had a tendency to assume that people knew what they were doing, perhaps because he generally assumed that he did not.
I hope you’ll understand that I am not quoting those great words lightly. I do mean it. Knowledge sets us free, art sets us free. A great library is freedom.
But even the most unmissionary soul, unless he pretend he has no emotions, is sometimes faced with a choice between commission and omission. ‘What are they doing?’ abruptly becomes, ‘What are we doing?’ and then, ‘What must I do?
The most winning characteristic of the rather harsh Cetian temperament was curiosity, inopportune, and inexhaustible curiosity; Cetians died eagerly, curious as to what came next.
Old age generally involves pain and danger and inevitably ends in death. The acceptance of that takes courage. Courage deserves respect.
I prefer to save talking till I know what I’m talking about.