Gene Wolfe: Trending quotes

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Gene Wolfe: 204 quotes4 likes

“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

“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

“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

“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)

“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

“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

“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

“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)

“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

“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)

“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)

““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)

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

Gene Wolfe book Home Fires

Home Fires (2011), Reflection 1
Fiction

“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)

“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

“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

“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)