Steven Brust: Quotes about thinking

“All literature consists of whatever the writer thinks is cool. The reader will like the book to the degree that he agrees with the writer about what’s cool.”

Steven Brust

Source: The Paths of the Dead

Books , Literature , Thinking

“Stalin is the perfect example of what I was talking about. To simply call him corrupt tells us nothing useful. What circumstances put him into power? What objective pressures, as well as subjective characteristics, led him to make the decisions he made? I'm currently reading Trotsky's writings from 1932 (scary how accurately he predicts the way WWII would play out), and analyzing the details of why Stalin did as he did is far more complex and useful than just, 'power corrupts.'
And it is even more true for the other great dictators of the 20th Century: I don’t think you can even say that Hitler and Mussolini were corrupt: they came to power in order to do the very things they did.”

Steven Brust

"Truisms rot brains; absolute truisms rot brains absolutely" (9 August 2010) http://dreamcafe.com/words/2010/08/09/truisms-rot-brains-absolute-truisms-rot-brains-absolutely/
The Dream Café

Way , Thinking , Decision , Reading

“Why do you work so hard to make yourself disliked? I should think you'd find it happens enough on its own without putting yourself to any extra trouble.”

Steven Brust book Tiassa

Tiassa ( 2011) (goodreads) http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/13578278

Thinking