Space.com interview (2000)
Larry Niven: 138 quotes3 likes
Larry Niven Quotes
““Perhaps I was expecting too much.”
“Perhaps. We’re all waiting as fast as we can.””
Larry Niven book The Mote in God's Eye
Source: The Mote in God's Eye (1974), Chapter 13 “Look Around You” (p. 107)
“Half of wisdom is learning what to unlearn.”
Larry Niven book The Ringworld Throne
The Ringworld Throne (1996)
Larry Niven book N-Space
Foreword: Playgrounds for the mind
N-Space (1989)
““That’s impossible. Isn’t it? Carlos?”
Carlos’ mouth twisted. “Not if it’s being done.””
Larry Niven book The Borderland of Sol
The Borderland of Sol (p. 160)
Short fiction, Tales of Known Space (1975)
“Louis knew a few xenophobes, and regarded them as dolts.”
Source: Ringworld (1970), p. 9
Larry Niven book The Mote in God's Eye
Source: The Mote in God's Eye (1974), Chapter 51 “After the Ball Is Over” (p. 491)
“Forget the infinities: Concentrate on detail.”
Larry Niven book The Ringworld Engineers
Source: The Ringworld Engineers (1980), p. 68
“To witness titanic events is always dangerous, usually painful, and often fatal.”
Source: Ringworld (1970), p. 133
The Warriors (p. 142)
Short fiction, Tales of Known Space (1975)
“I sometimes wonder why the aristocracy isn’t extinct, the lot of you seem so stupid sometimes.”
Larry Niven book The Mote in God's Eye
Source: The Mote in God's Eye (1974), Chapter 40 “Farewell” (p. 397)
“Sometimes there’s no point in giving up.”
Larry Niven book The Ringworld Engineers
Source: The Ringworld Engineers (1980), p. 282
“God was knocking, and he wanted in bad.”
Describing the sound inside a spacecraft propelled by nuclear explosions, in Footfall (1986)
Larry Niven book The Mote in God's Eye
Source: The Mote in God's Eye (1974), Chapter 53 “The Djinn” (p. 516; spoken by a politician to a scientist)
“1) Writers who write for other writers should write letters.”
Niven's Laws, Niven's Laws For Writers
Source: A Gift From Earth (1968), Ch. 2 : The Sons Of Earth
“Peace isn’t a stable condition, not for us. Maybe not for anything that lives.”
The Warriors (p. 151)
Short fiction, Tales of Known Space (1975)
“The morning was blacker than the inside of a smoker’s lungs.”
Becalmed in Hell (p. 16)
Short fiction, Tales of Known Space (1975)
There Is a Tide (p. 206)
Short fiction, Tales of Known Space (1975)
“Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.”
Anonymous saying, this is an inversion of the third of Arthur C. Clarke's three laws : "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." It has been attributed to Niven, and even called "Niven's Law" by some, and to Terry Pratchett by others, but without any citation of an original source in either case, and the earliest occurrence yet located is in Keystone Folklore (1984) by the Pennsylvania Folklore Society.
Misattributed
Larry Niven book World of Ptavvs
Source: World of Ptavvs (1966), p. 40
Larry Niven book Flash Crowd
Flash Crowd, section 7, in Three Trips in Time and Space (1973), edited by Robert Silverberg, p. 65
“Seen through the glow of a building orgasm, a woman seems to blaze with angelic glory.”
Source: Ringworld (1970), p. 165
Cloak of Anarchy (p. 124)
Short fiction, Tales of Known Space (1975)
“What’s intelligence for if not for seeking knowledge?”
Larry Niven book Destiny's Road
Source: Destiny's Road (1997), Chapter 30, “Hydraulic * Empire” (p. 299)
Larry Niven book A World Out of Time
Source: A World Out of Time (1976), Chapter 5 Stealing Youth, Section 3 (p. 126)
“He felt good. At worst he had found a brand-new way to die.”
Larry Niven book A World Out of Time
Source: A World Out of Time (1976), Chapter 2 Don Juan, Section 4 (p. 54)
“You’re insane. Imagine my amazement.”
Larry Niven book A World Out of Time
Source: A World Out of Time (1976), Chapter 2 Don Juan, Section 3 (p. 52)
“Perhaps I was expecting too much.”
Larry Niven book The Mote in God's Eye
“Perhaps. We’re all waiting as fast as we can.”
Source: The Mote in God's Eye (1974), Chapter 13 “Look Around You” (p. 107)
“That’s impossible. Isn’t it? Carlos?”
Larry Niven book The Borderland of Sol
Carlos’ mouth twisted. “Not if it’s being done.”
The Borderland of Sol (p. 160)
Short fiction, Tales of Known Space (1975)
A Kind of Murder (p. 66)
Short fiction, A Hole in Space (1974)
“Do you like strange places and faraway people—or vice versa?”
“Both.”
Rammer (p. 4)
Short fiction, A Hole in Space (1974)
“Any time seems long when you need to make a decision but can’t.”
Larry Niven book Grendel
Grendel (p. 252)
Short fiction, Neutron Star (1968)
Larry Niven book Grendel
Grendel (p. 251)
Short fiction, Neutron Star (1968)
“Just take my word for it, will you? Assume I’m a genius.”
Larry Niven book Grendel
Grendel (p. 248)
Short fiction, Neutron Star (1968)
“And the air was full of the smell of burning bridges.”
Larry Niven book Protector
Section 2, Vandervecken (p. 166)
Protector (1973)
Larry Niven book N-Space
The smartest of my pupils would get all my attention, and the rest would have to fend for themselves. And I can’t handle being interrupted.
Writing is the answer. Whatever I have to teach, my students will select themselves by buying the book. And nobody interrupts a printed page.
Foreword: Playgrounds for the Mind (pp. 26-27)
Short fiction, N-Space (1990)
Larry Niven book A World Out of Time
Source: A World Out of Time (1976), Chapter 2 Don Juan, Section 4 (p. 59)
Source: A Gift From Earth (1968), Chapter 12, "The Slowboat" (p. 210)
Source: A Gift From Earth (1968), Chapter 10, "Parlette's Hand" (p. 174)
“With all its horrors and all its failures, life was bearable where there were hot showers.”
Source: A Gift From Earth (1968), Chapter 3, "The Car" (p. 53)
“A species that can't develop spaceflight is no better than animals.”
Larry Niven book A Hole in Space
Source: Short fiction, A Hole in Space (1974), The Fourth Profession (p. 167)
“Do you know what it's like to be suddenly poor and not know how to live poor?”
Larry Niven book A Relic of the Empire
Source: Short fiction, Neutron Star (1968), A Relic of the Empire (p. 43)
