Gene Wolfe Quotes (102 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

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The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories

Gene Wolfe

Innocents Aboard

Gene Wolfe

Gene Wolfe: 102 quotes 4 likes

Famous Gene Wolfe Quotes

“If you rob someone who would help you if you needed help you only rob yourself. […] Do you imagine you can be cruel without teaching others to be cruel to you?”

Gene Wolfe

Volume 3, Ch. 17
Fiction, The Book of the Short Sun (1999–2001)

“There is no magic. There is only knowledge, more or less hidden.”

Gene Wolfe

Source: Shadow & Claw

“We're going to fight to the end. But it's better if you fight to somebody else's end.”

Gene Wolfe

Volume 2, Ch. 2
Fiction, The Book of the Short Sun (1999–2001)

“You never learn how to write a novel. You just learn how to write the novel that you're writing.”

Gene Wolfe

“There's a certain kind of lonely man who rejects love, because he believes that anyone who offers it wouldn't be a lover worth having.”

Gene Wolfe book There Are Doors

Source: There Are Doors

“When a gift is deserved, it is not a gift but a payment.”

Gene Wolfe

Source: Shadow & Claw

Gene Wolfe Quotes about God

“What little I have learned in the course of a long life, regarding the gods, I have tried to forget.”

Gene Wolfe

Volume 3, Ch. 4
Fiction, The Book of the Long Sun (1993–1996)

“The slight criticism of evolution I offer should not be taken as evidence that I do not believe in evolution; I do. Let's not blame God for everything. I also believe in Lamarckism, as it was put forward by Lamarck. (The Lamarckism presented in standard textbooks is actually Lysenkoism, a straw man set up by the opponents of Lamarckism, palpably false and easily disproved.) There is no paradox in that: Lamarckism and Darwinism are not mutually exclusive, except politically.”

Gene Wolfe

"Sun of Helioscope", in Castle of the Otter (1982), Reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Castle of Days (1992)
Nonfiction

“Any representation of a god is ultimately a lie, Silk explained. It may be a convenient lie, and it may even be a reverent one; but it's ultimately false. … Neither image would be more nearly true than the other, or more true than any other—merely more appropriate.”

Gene Wolfe

Volume 1, Ch. 11
Fiction, The Book of the Long Sun (1993–1996)

“When neither our fellows nor our gods spoil our plans, we spoil them ourselves.”

Gene Wolfe

Volume 4, Ch. 15
Fiction, The Book of the Long Sun (1993–1996)

“We don't harm the gods when we mingle their names with our curses and obscenities. We harm ourselves. I said that I didn't regard most gods as holy, but they don't have to be for our malice and mockery to recoil upon ourselves.”

Gene Wolfe

Volume 3, Ch. 10
Fiction, The Book of the Short Sun (1999–2001)

“Men build scales, but the gods blow upon the lighter pan.”

Gene Wolfe

Volume 1: Nightside the Long Sun (1993), Ch. 1
Fiction, The Book of the Long Sun (1993–1996)

Gene Wolfe Quotes about people

“Weak people believe what is forced on them. Strong people what they wish to believe, forcing that to be real.”

Gene Wolfe

Source: Shadow & Claw

“People don't want other people to be people.”

Gene Wolfe

Source: Shadow & Claw

“What I would like to know is what I should be doing."
"I see what you mean," Freeling said, "but I'm afraid I can't tell you. If you were a lathe operator I'd say make that part, but you're a part of management, and you can't treat managerial people that way."
"Go ahead," Forlesen told him. "I won't mind."
[…] "What I meant was that if I knew what you ought to be doing I'd hire a clerk to do it. You're where you are because we feel—rightly or wrongly—that you can find your own work, recognize it when you see it, and do it or get somebody else to. Just make damn sure you don't step on anybody's toes while you're doing it, and don't make more trouble than you fix. […] Don't come running to me with complaints, and don't let me get any complaints about you. Now what was it you wanted to see me about?"
"I don't," Forlesen said. "You said you wanted to see me.”

Gene Wolfe book Gene Wolfe's Book of Days

"Oh. Well, I'm through."
"Forlesen", Orbit 14 (1974), ed. Damon Knight, Reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Gene Wolfe's Book of Days (1981), Reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Castle of Days (1992), Reprinted in Gene Wolfe, The Best of Gene Wolfe (2009)
Fiction

“I have never in my whole life had a fight with a smart person or even seen anybody else have one either. That is because when the fight starts the smart people are not there anymore. They have gone off someplace else, and when it is over they come back and tell you how much they did in the fight, only it is all lies.”

Gene Wolfe book Starwater Strains

"Has Anybody Seen Junie Moon?", Moon Shots (1999), ed. Peter Crowther, Reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Starwater Strains (2005), Reprinted in Gene Wolfe, The Best of Gene Wolfe (2009)
Fiction

“People who fear death live no longer than those who don't, and live scared.”

Gene Wolfe The Wizard Knight

The Wizard Knight (2004), Volume 1: The Knight, Ch. 62
Fiction

“Nobody bothers crazy people. […] In the end, maybe it's the crazy people who win after all.”

Gene Wolfe book Gene Wolfe's Book of Days

"The Adopted Father", Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine (1980), Reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Gene Wolfe's Book of Days (1981), Reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Castle of Days (1992)
Fiction

Gene Wolfe: Trending quotes

“My definition of good literature is that which can be read by an educated reader, and reread with increased pleasure.”

Gene Wolfe

Pleasure , Education , Literature , Reading

“All novels are fantasies. Some are more honest about it.”

Gene Wolfe

“What a man knows hardly matters. It is what he does.”

Gene Wolfe

Source: The Wizard

Gene Wolfe Quotes

“That we are capable only of being what we are remains our unforgivable sin.”

Gene Wolfe The Claw of the Conciliator

Source: The Claw of the Conciliator

“You seem to think that the only genuine existence evil can have is conscious existence - that no one is evil unless he admits it to himself. I disagree.”

Gene Wolfe

Thinking , Evil

“We believe that we invent symbols. The truth is that they invent us; we are their creatures, shaped by their hard, defining edges.”

Gene Wolfe

Source: Shadow & Claw

Truth

“Imagine a man who stands before a mirror; a stone strikes it, and it falls to ruin all in an instant. And the man learns that he is himself, and not the mirrored man he had believed himself to be.”

Gene Wolfe book The Urth of the New Sun

Source: The Urth of the New Sun

Imagination , Learning

“The only actors who can really do justice to their parts are the ones who don't know what they are.”

Gene Wolfe

"Kevin Malone", New Terrors (1980), ed. Ramsey Campbell, Reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Endangered Species (1989), Reprinted in Gene Wolfe, The Best of Gene Wolfe (2009)
Fiction

Justice , Parting

“He was proud, like all lonely men. Lonely men must be proud or die.”

Gene Wolfe book Starwater Strains

"The Arimaspin Legacy" (1987), first appeared as a Winter Solstice chapbook from Cheap Street, Reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Starwater Strains (2005)
Fiction

Men

“Perhaps I need to begin before I can think clearly about the task. The chief thing is to begin, after all—after which the chief thing is to finish.”

Gene Wolfe

Volume 1: On Blue's Waters (1999), Ch. 1
Fiction, The Book of the Short Sun (1999–2001)

Thinking

“The true dawn of adulthood, of intellectual maturity, if you like, is the realization that adults are all fools.”

Gene Wolfe

"The Pirates of Florida and Other Impossibilities", speech at the Conference on the Fantastic (1991), as published in Castle of Days (1992)
Nonfiction

Fools , Adulthood

“It will come as no surprise to those of you in the book trade when I say that although books do not cause cancer, books in general do not sell as well as cigarettes.”

Gene Wolfe

Guest of Honor speech at Aussiecon Two (43rd World Science Fiction Convention, August 1985), as published in Castle of Days (1992)
Nonfiction

Books

“Some are haunted by ghosts. I am haunted by stories.”

Gene Wolfe

The Best of Gene Wolfe (2009), afterword to "Kevin Malone", p. 355
Nonfiction

“Does anyone know an effective way of keeping rabbits out of a garden that does not involve building a fence? I have tried that already, but the rabbit will not sit still long enough for me to get the fence all the way around him.”

Gene Wolfe

"From a Chain letter to George R. R. Martin and Greg Benford", 10 July 1982; as published in Castle of Days (1992)
Nonfiction

Way

“Yours is a race of pawns,” Tzadkiel told me. “You move forward only, unless we move you back to begin the game again. But not all the pieces on the board are pawns.”

Gene Wolfe

Source: Fiction, The Book of the New Sun (1980–1983), The Urth of the New Sun (1987), Chapter 24, "The Captain" (p. 176)

Game

“The Falklands War continues to fascinate me. What a conflict! What an unlikely pair of antagonists! The British have always fought, to be sure. No nation on Earth can be taken seriously in historical circles unless it has had at least one war with the British; it's like not having an American Express card. And yet the very idea of Britain in a contemporary war is a shock. Britain, one feels, fights in history books and not on TV.”

Gene Wolfe

"A Few Points About Knife Throwing", Fantasy Newsletter (1983), Reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Castle of Days (1992)
Nonfiction

War , Books , Feeling , History

“Very small, child, are the flying days of love, and men and women must catch them when they can, if they are to know love at all.”

Gene Wolfe book Starwater Strains

"Empires of Foliage and Flower" (1987), first appeared as a limited edition chapbook from Cheap Street, Reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Starwater Strains (2005)
Fiction

Love , Women , Men , Flying

“We never really got married. When we both wanted to we never had the money, somehow. And when we had the money, there was always some kind of quarrel. After a couple of years everybody thought we were married anyway.”

Gene Wolfe

Source: Fiction, The Book of the New Sun (1980–1983), The Urth of the New Sun (1987), Chapter 46, "The Runaway" (p. 326)

Money

“Whenever a man and a woman come to words or blows, fools are quick to attribute it to the differences between the sexes. The sexes differ much less than they wish to believe, and such differences as are real tend less to promote strife than to prevent it.”

Gene Wolfe

Volume 2, Ch. 23
Fiction, The Book of the Short Sun (1999–2001)

Fools , Sex

“He is indeed a creature of evil; but so are you, and so am I.”

Gene Wolfe

Source: Fiction, The Book of the New Sun (1980–1983), The Urth of the New Sun (1987), Chapter 43, "The Evening Tide" (p. 303)

Evil

““We can only hope.”
“That’s like the frog said when he seen the stork.””

Gene Wolfe

Source: Fiction, The Book of the New Sun (1980–1983), The Urth of the New Sun (1987), Chapter 46, "The Runaway (p. 328)

Hope

“There is no human quality more attractive than the courage of the weak.”

Gene Wolfe book Home Fires

Home Fires (2011), Reflection 1
Fiction

Courage

“You’re called a holy man,” she said. “I see you’re wholly deranged.”

Gene Wolfe

Source: Fiction, The Book of the New Sun (1980–1983), The Urth of the New Sun (1987), Chapter 36, "The Citadel Again" (p. 255)

“Paradoxes explain everything. Since they do, they cannot be explained.”

Gene Wolfe

Volume 1, Ch. 9
Fiction, The Book of the Short Sun (1999–2001)

“They based their extrapolations on numbers. That worked as long as money, which is easily measured numerically, was the principle motivating force in human affairs. But as time progressed, human actions became responsive instead to a multitude of incommensurable vectors.”

Gene Wolfe book Storeys from the Old Hotel

"The Marvelous Brass Chessplaying Automaton", Universe 7 (1977), ed. Terry Carr, Reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Storeys from the Old Hotel (1988), Reprinted in Gene Wolfe, The Best of Gene Wolfe (2009)
Fiction

Money , Motivation , Time

“People who wish to be lost always get their way.”

Gene Wolfe book Innocents Aboard

"The Sailor Who Sailed After the Sun", Grails, Quests, Visitations, and Other Occurrences (1992), ed. Richard Gilliam, Martin Harry Greenberg, and Edward E. Kramer, Reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Innocents Aboard (2004)
Fiction

People , Way

“When we're young, we notice things that are young, like ourselves. New grass on old graves. New leaves on old trees”

Gene Wolfe

Volume 3: Caldé of the Long Sun (1994), Ch. 1
Fiction, The Book of the Long Sun (1993–1996)

Tree , Grass

“No man has a home unless he is master of a place where he must please no one—a place where he can go and lock the door behind him.”

Gene Wolfe book Storeys from the Old Hotel

"Slaves of Silver", Galaxy, 1971, Reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Storeys from the Old Hotel (1988)
Fiction

Home

“Be careful about extending credit, too, and doubly careful about refusing to extend it.”

Gene Wolfe

Volume 1, Ch. 1
Fiction, The Book of the Short Sun (1999–2001)

“Almost any interesting work of art comes close to saying the opposite of what it really says.”

Gene Wolfe

"What I Know About Writing (in no particular order)", as quoted in Michael Swanwick, "The Wolf in the Labyrinth", Fantasy & Science Fiction, April 2007
Nonfiction

Art

“Most Christians know next to nothing about the life and teachings of Christ and are afraid to learn, sensing that the knowledge will upset their preconceptions.”

Gene Wolfe

"Sun of Helioscope", in Castle of the Otter (1982), Reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Castle of Days (1992)
Nonfiction

Life , Knowledge , Sense , Learning

“Here in two flat sentences are the best things I can say about our field on American television: Dr. Who is sometimes aired. Sometimes Battlestar Galactica is not.”

Gene Wolfe

Guest of Honor speech at Aussiecon Two (August 1985), as published in Castle of Days (1992)
Nonfiction

“I was the core of the universe, as we always are to ourselves.”

Gene Wolfe

Source: Fiction, The Book of the New Sun (1980–1983), The Urth of the New Sun (1987), Chapter 6, "A Death and the Dark" (p. 38)

Universe

“Do you know the story about the farmer who complained all his life about getting too much rain or too little, about the soil and the winds and so on? […] The farmer died and went to Mainframe, and was soon called to the magnificent chamber in which Pas holds court. Pas said to him, "I understand you feel that I botched certain aspects of the job when I built the Whorl; and the farmer admitted it was so, saying, "Well, sir, pretty often I thought I could have made it better."”

Gene Wolfe

To which Pas replied, "Yes, that's what I wanted you to do."
Volume 3: Return to the Whorl (2001), Ch. 6
Fiction, The Book of the Short Sun (1999–2001)

Life , Feeling , Understanding

“As you intend to live hereafter, it is in your power to live here.”

Gene Wolfe

Volume 2: Lake of the Long Sun (1994), Ch. 1
Fiction, The Book of the Long Sun (1993–1996)

“What is perceived is dictated by the instrument. If you had other eyes, or another mind, you would see all things otherwise.”

Gene Wolfe

Source: Fiction, The Book of the New Sun (1980–1983), The Urth of the New Sun (1987), Chapter 40, "The Brook Beyond Briah" (p. 285)

“You have a walking stick. Suppose it could walk by itself, and that it chose to walk away from you. […] It would no longer be a walking stick at all, only a stick that walked.”

Gene Wolfe

Volume 3, Ch. 13
Fiction, The Book of the Short Sun (1999–2001)

“The most trivial skirmish is not trivial to those who die in it, and so should not be trivial in any ultimate sense to us.”

Gene Wolfe

Source: Fiction, The Book of the New Sun (1980–1983), The Urth of the New Sun (1987), Chapter 13, "The Battles" (p. 95)

Sense

“It is well not to spend one's symbols improvidently.”

Gene Wolfe

Volume 1, Ch. 9
Fiction, The Book of the Short Sun (1999–2001)

“It’s easy—very easy—to slay a ruler. But it’s very difficult to prevent a worse one from coming to his place.”

Gene Wolfe

Source: Fiction, The Book of the New Sun (1980–1983), The Urth of the New Sun (1987), Chapter 39, "The Claw of the Conciliator Again" (p. 278)

“Now I must, I suppose, explain why I have been writing this account. […] I have written to disclose myself to myself, and I am writing now because I will, I know, sometime read what I am now writing and wonder. Perhaps by the time I do, I will have solved the mystery of myself, or perhaps I will no longer care to know the solution.”

Gene Wolfe

Fiction, "The Fifth Head of Cerberus", Orbit 10 (1972)

Time , Reading

“Until we reach the end of time, we don’t know whether something’s been good or bad; we can only judge the intentions of those who acted.”

Gene Wolfe

Source: Fiction, The Book of the New Sun (1980–1983), The Urth of the New Sun (1987), Chapter 33, "Aboard the Alcyone" (p. 237)

Time

“In the marketplace he told of honor, and how it is a higher law than any law.
At the crossroads he talked of freedom, the freedom of the wind and clouds, and freedom that loves all things and is without guilt.
Beside the city gates he told stories of the forgotten cities that were and of the forgotten cities that might be, if only men would forget them.”

Gene Wolfe

"The God and His Man", Asimov's Science Fiction, 1980, Reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Endangered Species (1989), Reprinted in Gene Wolfe, The Best of Gene Wolfe (2009)
Fiction

Love , Men , Law , Freedom

“A trooper fights for honor … or from loyalty. Or for loot sometimes. But he waits for pay. He will not wait without it, because when there is no fighting there is no honor to win, no flag to die for, no loot to gain.”

Gene Wolfe

Volume 4: Exodus from the Long Sun (1996), Ch. 9
Fiction, The Book of the Long Sun (1993–1996)

Waiting , Fight , Loyalty

“You have need of learning, children, in order that the whorl will someday have need of you.”

Gene Wolfe

Volume 1, Ch. 2
Fiction, The Book of the Long Sun (1993–1996)

Children , Learning

“Every theory is true in some discipline.
The beauty of this is that it carries its own confirmation.”

Gene Wolfe book Starwater Strains

"In Glory like Their Star", The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October/November 2001, Reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Starwater Strains (2005)
Fiction

Beauty

“One of the questions whose answers we seek is why we seek.”

Gene Wolfe

Fiction, "The Fifth Head of Cerberus", Orbit 10 (1972)

Question

““You’re a poet too, aren’t you? And a good liar, I bet.”
“I was the Autarch of Urth; that required a little lying, if you like. We called it diplomacy.””

Gene Wolfe

Source: Fiction, The Book of the New Sun (1980–1983), The Urth of the New Sun (1987), Chapter 3, "The Cabin" (p. 20)

Lying

“The best way to be thought honest is to be honest.”

Gene Wolfe

Volume 1, Ch. 12
Fiction, The Book of the Long Sun (1993–1996)