Gene Wolfe: Quotes about people

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

Gene Wolfe

Source: Shadow & Claw

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 , Strong

“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

Death , People , Fear

“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

People

“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

“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

Life , People , Fight , Personality

“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

People , Way , Feeling , Parting

“We may be damned at last, by God or our consciences; and though I've met a good many people who profess to credit no God, I've never met one who believed he had no conscience—this though he could no more produce it for my inspection than I could point out the God he demanded to see.”

Gene Wolfe

Introduction for R. A. Lafferty, Episodes of the Argo (1990), Reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Castle of Days (1992)
Nonfiction

God , People

“There are people who love birds so much they free them. There are others who love them so much they cage them.”

Gene Wolfe

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

Love , People , Bird

“People who get eyeball arthritis see only what they're supposed to see, like that TV screen.”

Gene Wolfe book Starwater Strains

"Hunter Lake", The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October/November 2003, Reprinted in Gene Wolfe, Starwater Strains (2005)
Fiction