Michael Swanwick Quotes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: Jack Faust (1997), Chapter 15, “The Abortion” (p. 265)

Source: Vacuum Flowers (1987), Chapter 4, “Londongrad” (p. 57)

Source: Stations of the Tide (1991), Chapter 6, “Lost in the Mushroom Rain” (p. 92)

Source: The Iron Dragon's Daughter (1993), Chapter 20 (p. 349)

Source: Stations of the Tide (1991), Chapter 13, “A View from a Height” (p. 236)

Source: Vacuum Flowers (1987), Chapter 4, “Londongrad” (p. 50)

Source: Stations of the Tide (1991), Chapter 8, “Conversations in the Puzzle Palace” (p. 130)

Source: Jack Faust (1997), Chapter 17, “The Agent” (p. 304)

Source: Jack Faust (1997), Chapter 6, “Practical Designs” (p. 83)

“That is, umm, not an entirely pleasant word for it.” Dreschler’s doughy face took on a pained expression. “It is more in the nature of an advance payment to ensure the labor force will be satisfied with the negotiated wage schedules.”
Source: Jack Faust (1997), Chapter 15, “The Abortion” (p. 265)

“Good men are dying every moment,” Gretchen replied coldly, “somewhere. Since they did not ask my leave to do so, I feel no particular obligation toward them.”
Source: Jack Faust (1997), Chapter 13, “Tabloids” (p. 219)

Mette sneered. “Only fools, footpads, and astrologers stray where there is no light.”
Source: Jack Faust (1997), Chapter 4, “Flight” (p. 57)

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

Jane asked.
“You stupid gobbet of flesh! Don’t you understand yet? There is no Goddess.”
“No,” Jane cried. “You said yourself—”
“I lied,” the dragon said with a fearful complacency. “Everyone you have ever met has lied to you. Life exists, and all who live are born to suffer. The best moments are fleeting and bought with the coin of exquisite torment. All attachments end. All loved ones die. All that you value passes away. In such a vexatious existence laughter is madness and joy is folly. Shall we accept that it all happens for no reason, with no cause? That there is nobody to blame but ourselves but that accepting the responsibility is pointless for doing so cannot ease, defer, or deaden the pain? Not likely! It is so much more comforting to erect a straw figure on which to blame it all.
“Some bow down before the Goddess and others curse her every name. There is not a fart’s difference between the two approaches. They cling to the fiction of the Goddess because admitting the alternative is unbearable.”
Source: The Iron Dragon's Daughter (1993), Chapter 19 (pp. 339-340)

As she spoke, Jane became convinced that she herself would never willingly die for a principle. She might feel guilty about it, but she’d smile and lie, knuckle under, pretend, anything, in order to survive. It made her feel a little sad to realize this, but also, at the same time, very adult.
Source: The Iron Dragon's Daughter (1993), Chapter 15 (p. 263)

Source: Short fiction, King Dragon (2003), p. 6