“ And what of the dead? I own that I thought of myself, at times, almost as dead. Are they not locked below ground in chambers smaller than mine was, in their millions of millions? There is no category of human activity in which the dead do not outnumber the living many times over. Most beautiful children are dead. Most soldiers, most cowards. The fairest women and the most learned men – all are dead. Their bodies repose in caskets, in sarcophagi, beneath arches of rude stone, everywhere under the earth. Their spirits haunt our minds, ears pressed to the bones of our foreheads. Who can say how intently they listen as we speak, or for what word? ”
- Gene Wolfe- Copy
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“ You that read all of this in a year that I will never see will think me wretched, perhaps... But know this: The best and happiest of my hours you know nothing about. I have seen days like gold. ”
- Gene Wolfe- Copy
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“ I would like [my readers] to better understand human beings and human life as a result of having read [my] stories. I'd like them to feel that this was an experience that made things better for them and an experience that gave them hope. I think that the kind of things that we talk about at this conference fantasy very much so, science fiction, and even horror the message that we're sending is the reverse of the message sent by what is called "realistic fiction." (I happen to think that realistic fiction is not, in fact, realistic, but that's a side issue.) And what we are saying is that it doesn't have to be like this: things can be different. Our society can be changed. Maybe it's worse, maybe it's better. Maybe it's a higher civilization, maybe it's a barbaric civilization. But it doesn't have to be the way it is now. Things can change. And we're also saying things can change for you in your life. Look at the difference between Severian the apprentice and Severian the Autarch [in The Book of the New Sun], for example. The difference beteween Silk as an augur and Silk as calde [in The Book of the Long Sun]. You see? We don't always have to be this. There can be something else. We can stop doing the thing that we're doing. Moms Mabley had a great line in some movie or other she said, "You keep on doing what you been doing and you're gonna keep on gettin' what you been gettin'." And we don't have to keep on doing what we've been doing. We can do something else if we don't like what we're gettin'. I think a lot of the purpose of fiction ought to be to tell people that. ”
- Gene Wolfe- Copy
- 2.4K
“ You believe me wise because I taught you once, but I have not been north, as you have. You have seen (what) I have never seen...You flatter me by asking my opinion. ”
- Gene Wolfe- Copy
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“ There is no limit to stupidity. Space itself is said to be bounded by its own curvature, but stupidity continues beyond infinity. ”
- Gene Wolfe- Copy
- 155
“ There is no limit to stupidity. Space itself is said to be bounded by its own curvature, but stupidity continues beyond infinity. ”
- Gene Wolfe- Copy
- 3.6K
“ There is no limit to stupidity. Space itself is said to be bounded by its own curvature, but stupidity continues beyond infinity. ”
- Gene Wolfe- Copy
- 3.5K
“ There is no limit to stupidity. Space itself is said to be bounded by its own curvature, but stupidity continues beyond infinity. ”
- Gene Wolfe- Copy
- 1.8K
“ There is no limit to stupidity. Space itself is said to be bounded by its own curvature, but stupidity continues beyond infinity. ”
- Gene Wolfe- Copy
- 1.7K
“ There is no limit to stupidity. Space itself is said to be bounded by its own curvature, but stupidity continues beyond infinity. ”
- Gene Wolfe- Copy
- 1.9K
“ There is no limit to stupidity. Space itself is said to be bounded by its own curvature, but stupidity continues beyond infinity. ”
- Gene Wolfe- Copy
- 175
“ So powerful is the charm of words, which for us reduces to manageable entities all the passions that would otherwise madden and destroy us. ”
- Gene Wolfe- Copy
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“ The best way to describe silence is to say nothing — but what grace! ”
- Gene Wolfe- Copy
- 511
“ So powerful is the charm of words, which for us reduces to manageable entities all the passions that would otherwise madden and destroy us. ”
- Gene Wolfe- Copy
- 599
“ There is no limit to stupidity. Space itself is said to be bounded by its own curvature, but stupidity continues beyond infinity. ”
- Gene Wolfe- Copy
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“ There is no limit to stupidity. Space itself is said to be bounded by its own curvature, but stupidity continues beyond infinity. ”
- Gene Wolfe- Copy
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“ Everyone knows... that we have fallen far from the brave days of the past. ”
- Gene Wolfe- Copy
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“ There is no limit to stupidity. Space itself is said to be bounded by its own curvature, but stupidity continues beyond infinity. ”
- Gene Wolfe- Copy
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“ There is no limit to stupidity. Space itself is said to be bounded by its own curvature, but stupidity continues beyond infinity. ”
- Gene Wolfe- Copy
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“ So powerful is the charm of words, which for us reduces to manageable entities all the passions that would otherwise madden and destroy us. ”
- Gene Wolfe- Copy
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“ There is no limit to stupidity. Space itself is said to be bounded by its own curvature, but stupidity continues beyond infinity. ”
- Gene Wolfe- Copy
- 1.1K
“ There is no limit to stupidity. Space itself is said to be bounded by its own curvature, but stupidity continues beyond infinity. ”
- Gene Wolfe- Copy
- 2K
“ Everyone knows... that we have fallen far from the brave days of the past. ”
- Gene Wolfe- Copy
- 1.9K
“ There is no limit to stupidity. Space itself is said to be bounded by its own curvature, but stupidity continues beyond infinity. ”
- Gene Wolfe- Copy
- 3.9K
“ There is no limit to stupidity. Space itself is said to be bounded by its own curvature, but stupidity continues beyond infinity. ”
- Gene Wolfe- Copy
- 2K
“ There is no limit to stupidity. Space itself is said to be bounded by its own curvature, but stupidity continues beyond infinity. ”
- Gene Wolfe- Copy
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