Michael Swanwick: Trending quotes (page 4)

““You are still infested with hope. You think there is a life worth living somewhere, and that some combination of action, restraint, knowledge, and luck will save you, if only you can get the mix right. Well, I’ve got news for you. Right here, right now—this is as good as it gets.”
“Things will get better!”
“Have they ever?” The dragon’s contempt was palpable. The cabin hatch hissed open. “Go. Return to your dormitory room and enjoy your present. Come back when you’ve grown large enough to look upon futility without flinching. Come back when you’ve despaired and moved beyond despair to vengefulness. Come back when you’ve decided to stop lying to yourself.””

Michael Swanwick book The Iron Dragon's Daughter

Source: The Iron Dragon's Daughter (1993), Chapter 17 (p. 304)

Life , Hope , Lying , Knowledge

“There are three stages to a battle: First you’re bored. Then you’re terrified. Then you’re dead. Each is necessary, and they must all come in the proper order.”

Michael Swanwick book Jack Faust

Source: Jack Faust (1997), Chapter 14, “Dreadnought” (pp. 248-249)

Dead

“If I have to play your stupid games, at least I don’t have to pretend to enjoy them.”

Michael Swanwick

Source: In the Drift (1985), Chapter 1, “Mummer Kiss” (p. 4)

Stupidity , Game

“Sam stood in the center of the church, listening for the presence of God. It was a hot place. The air was blue with floating radioisotopes. She glanced up at the clouds and they staggered by as if the walls were falling in on her. She looked away quickly. The air flowed around her, calm and peaceful and blue. But there was no divine presence.”

Michael Swanwick

Source: In the Drift (1985), Chapter 3, “Boneseeker” (pp. 99-100)

God , Peace

“It was the kind of discovery that shatters old universes and opens up new ones in their place.”

Michael Swanwick book Vacuum Flowers

Source: Vacuum Flowers (1987), Chapter 11, “Cislunar” (p. 179)

Universe

“Money can always be traced. It leaves a trail of slime behind it wherever it goes.”

Michael Swanwick book Stations of the Tide

Source: Stations of the Tide (1991), Chapter 2, “Witch Cults of Whitemarsh” (p. 26)

Money

“The universe has backed you into another corner—you can kill or die. There are no other choices. Doesn’t that make you angry? Doesn’t it make you want revenge? Or are you going to truckle to Dame Fate one more time, to be crushed and for all I know resurrected to run the maze of torment again and yet again? Stand up on your hind legs for once!”

Michael Swanwick book The Iron Dragon's Daughter

Source: The Iron Dragon's Daughter (1993), Chapter 22 (p. 407)

Fate , Revenge , Universe , Time

““Now here is a treasure, Averroës Commentaries on Aristotle in a tolerable translation from the Arabic by Gerard of Cremona.” He lasciviously stroked the red leather boards, knowing well how his pupil ached for the chance to pore through it. “A liar’s gloss on a liar’s lies. Surely this is a rare criminal.””

Michael Swanwick book Jack Faust

Source: Jack Faust (1997), Chapter 1, “Trinity” (p. 7)

Chance

““What was all that about?”
“It’s an occupational hazard… You start by reading books, and you end by loving them.””

Michael Swanwick book The Iron Dragon's Daughter

Source: The Iron Dragon's Daughter (1993), Chapter 15 (p. 262; ellipsis represents a minor elision of description)

Love , Books , Reading

“This is the price you must pay for knowledge: You must understand and acknowledge its consequences.”

Michael Swanwick book Jack Faust

Source: Jack Faust (1997), Chapter 2, “Revelations” (p. 30)

Understanding , Knowledge

“Faust had no delusions of Heavenly aid. An involved and benevolent deity would have helped him long years ago when, young, he had yearned for knowledge as achingly as now and with far fewer stains on his soul.”

Michael Swanwick book Jack Faust

Source: Jack Faust (1997), Chapter 1, “Trinity” (p. 15)

Soul , Knowledge , Help

“He was not actually drunk, but emotion made him feel as if he were. Sorrow, loss, anger—these were as good as a bottle of the very worst gin.”

Michael Swanwick book Jack Faust

Source: Jack Faust (1997), Chapter 19, “Ashes” (pp. 318-319)

Feeling , Loss , Anger

“What the common man calls Evil, he once told me, is nothing more than the fear of one’s own potential.”

Michael Swanwick book Jack Faust

Source: Jack Faust (1997), Chapter 16, “The Wild Hunt” (p. 278)

Fear , Evil

““Surely,” he cried, “this is not inevitable. Surely humanity could take the knowledge you offer and use it to ennoble itself. Surely they could apply it wisely and without folly.”
“They could,” Mephistopheles said dryly. “But will they?””

Michael Swanwick book Jack Faust

Source: Jack Faust (1997), Chapter 2, “Revelations” (p. 32)

Knowledge

“Urban life was thus founded upon the principle of deliberately confounding those who were not a part of it. Civilization was a strategy of exclusion.”

Michael Swanwick book Jack Faust

Source: Jack Faust (1997), Chapter 16, “The Wild Hunt” (p. 287)

Life , Parting

“Time was a flickering gray fire constantly consuming all things, so that what appeared to be motion was actually the oxidation and reduction of possibilities, the collapse of potential matter from grace to nothingness.”

Michael Swanwick book Stations of the Tide

Source: Stations of the Tide (1991), Chapter 6, “Lost in the Mushroom Rain” (p. 105)

Appearance , Time

“For all that she’d had no great expectations for it, sex was turning out to be even more squalid, tawdry, and cynical than she had suspected it would.”

Michael Swanwick book The Iron Dragon's Daughter

Source: The Iron Dragon's Daughter (1993), Chapter 10 (p. 172)

Sex

““Did you experience hallucinations or illusions?”
“What’s the difference?”
“An illusion is a misreading of actual sensory data, while a hallucination is seeing something that isn’t there.””

Michael Swanwick book Stations of the Tide

Source: Stations of the Tide (1991), Chapter 7, “Who Is the Black Beast?” (p. 109)

“People will believe in just about any kind of superstitious crap nowadays.”

Michael Swanwick

Source: In the Drift (1985), Chapter 5, “Marrow Death” (p. 152)

People

“That is the true measure of love, you see, the evil one will stoop to for its sake…”

Michael Swanwick book Jack Faust

Source: Jack Faust (1997), Chapter 16, “The Wild Hunt” (p. 292)

Love , Evil