Iain Banks citations

Iain Menzies Banks, né le 16 février 1954 à Dunfermline dans le Fife et mort le 9 juin 2013 , est un écrivain écossais qui publie ses romans grand-public sous le nom de Iain Banks et ses romans de science-fiction sous le nom de Iain M. Banks. Il a étudié l'anglais et la philosophie à l'université de Stirling. En 2009 il devient membre de la Royal Society of Literature. Wikipedia  

✵ 16. février 1954 – 9. juin 2013
Iain Banks photo
Iain Banks: 139   citations 0   J'aime

Iain Banks: Citations en anglais

“A guilty system recognizes no innocents.”

Iain Banks Culture series

Source: Culture series, The Player of Games (1988), Chapter 2 “Imperium” (p. 215).
Contexte: A guilty system recognizes no innocents. As with any power apparatus which thinks everybody’s either for it or against it, we’re against it. You would be too, if you thought about it. The very way you think places you among its enemies. This might not be your fault, because every society imposes some of its values on those raised within it, but the point is that some societies try to maximize that effect, and some try to minimize it. You come from one of the latter and you’re being asked to explain yourself to one of the former. Prevarication will be more difficult than you imagine; neutrality is probably impossible. You cannot choose not to have the politics you do; they are not some separate set of entities somehow detachable from the rest of your being; they are a function of your existence. I know that and they know that; you had better accept it.

“Empathize with stupidity and you’re halfway to thinking like an idiot.”

Iain Banks Culture series

Source: Culture series, Consider Phlebas (1987), Chapter 2 “The Hand of God 137” (p. 27).

“I just think people overvalue argument because they like to hear themselves talk.”

Iain Banks livre Use of Weapons

Source: Culture series, Use of Weapons (1990), Chapter II (p. 417).
Contexte: He shrugged. “Whatever.”
“Aw, Darac, come on; argue, dammit.”
“I don’t believe in argument,” he said, looking out into the darkness (and saw a towering ship, a capital ship, ringed with its layers and levels of armament and armor, dark against the dusk light, but not dead).
“You don’t?” Erens said, genuinely surprised. “Shit, and I thought I was the cynical one.”
“It’s not cynicism,” he said flatly. “I just think people overvalue argument because they like to hear themselves talk.”
“Oh well, thank you.”
“It’s comforting, I suppose.” He watched the stars wheel, like absurdly slow shells seen at night: rising, peaking, falling...(And reminded himself that the stars too would explode, perhaps, one day.) “Most people are not prepared to have their minds changed,” he said. “And I think they know in their hearts that other people are just the same, and one of the reasons people become angry when they argue is that they realize just that, as they trot out their excuses.”
“Excuses, eh? Well, if this ain’t cynicism, what is?” Erens snorted.
“Yes, excuses,” he said, with what Erens thought might just have been a trace of bitterness. “I strongly suspect the things people believe in are usually just what they instinctively feel is right; the excuses, the justifications, the things you’re supposed to argue about, come later. They’re the least important part of the belief. That’s why you can destroy them, win an argument, prove the other person wrong, and still they believe what they did in the first place.” He looked at Erens. “You’ve attacked the wrong thing.”

“One should never mistake pattern for meaning.”

Iain Banks livre The Hydrogen Sonata

Source: The Hydrogen Sonata

“It was the day my grandmother exploded.”

Iain Banks livre The Crow Road

Source: The Crow Road

“My gratitude extends beyond the limits of my capacity to express it”

Iain Banks The Player of Games

Source: The Player of Games

“Looking at me, you'd never guess I'd killed three people. It isn't fair.”

Iain Banks livre The Wasp Factory

Source: The Wasp Factory

“Something in your voice tells me we approach the question of remuneration.”

Iain Banks Culture series

Source: Culture series, Consider Phlebas (1987), Chapter 2 “The Hand of God 137” (p. 20).

“The news team, and Hamin, seemed well pleased. “You should have been an actor, Jernau Gurgeh,” Hamin told him.
Gurgeh assumed this was intended as a compliment.”

Iain Banks Culture series

Source: Culture series, The Player of Games (1988), Chapter 3 “Machina Ex Machina” (p. 306).

“While the forces of repression need to win every time, the progressive elements need only triumph once.”

“A Few Notes on the Culture” (p. 169)
Short fiction, The State of the Art (1991)

“There are no gods, we are told, so I must make my own salvation.”

Iain Banks Culture series

Source: Culture series, Use of Weapons (1990), Chapter V (p. 303).

““So it’s false.”
“What isn’t?”
“Intellectual achievement. The exercise of skill. Human feeling.””

Iain Banks Culture series

Source: Culture series, The Player of Games (1988), Chapter 1 “Culture Plate” (p. 5).

“Pity they didn’t devote a little more ingenuity to staying alive rather than conducting mass slaughter as efficiently as possible.”

Iain Banks Culture series

Source: Culture series, Consider Phlebas (1987), Chapter 4 “Temple of Light” (p. 96).

““You’re a wicked man.”
“Thank you. It’s taken years of diligent practice.””

Iain Banks Culture series

Source: Culture series, Use of Weapons (1990), Chapter Eleven (p. 355).

Auteurs similaires

Frank Herbert photo
Frank Herbert 24
écrivain américain, auteur de romans de science-fiction
Mario Vargas Llosa photo
Mario Vargas Llosa 14
écrivain péruvien et espagnol, auteur de romans et d'essais…
Arthur Conan Doyle photo
Arthur Conan Doyle 15
écrivain et médecin écossais
Haruki Murakami photo
Haruki Murakami 21
écrivain japonais
Elias Canetti photo
Elias Canetti 8
écrivain britannique germanophone
Stephen King photo
Stephen King 90
écrivain américain
Wole Soyinka photo
Wole Soyinka 6
écrivain nigérian
Thomas Mann photo
Thomas Mann 69
écrivain allemand
George Bernard Shaw photo
George Bernard Shaw 15
dramaturge et scénariste irlandais
John Steinbeck photo
John Steinbeck 18
écrivain américain