infinity plus interview (2001)
Context: The battle between good and evil is a legitimate theme for a Fantasy (or for any work of fiction, for that matter), but in real life that battle is fought chiefly in the individual human heart. Too many contemporary Fantasies take the easy way out by externalizing the struggle, so the heroic protagonists need only smite the evil minions of the dark power to win the day. And you can tell the evil minions, because they're inevitably ugly and they all wear black.
I wanted to stand much of that on its head.
In real life, the hardest aspect of the battle between good and evil is determining which is which.
“In real life, the hardest aspect of the battle between good and evil is determining which is which.”
infinity plus interview (2001)
Variant: In real life, the hardest aspect of the battle between good and evil is determining which is which.
Context: The battle between good and evil is a legitimate theme for a Fantasy (or for any work of fiction, for that matter), but in real life that battle is fought chiefly in the individual human heart. Too many contemporary Fantasies take the easy way out by externalizing the struggle, so the heroic protagonists need only smite the evil minions of the dark power to win the day. And you can tell the evil minions, because they're inevitably ugly and they all wear black.
I wanted to stand much of that on its head.
In real life, the hardest aspect of the battle between good and evil is determining which is which.
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George Raymond Richard Martin 35
American writer, screenwriter and television producer 1948Related quotes
Source: Why Men Are the Way They Are (1988), p. 73.
“See the good in that which is evil, and the evil in that which is good.”
“Life—the way it really is—is a battle not between good and bad, but between bad and worse”
“The hardest thing to learn in life is which bridge to cross and which to burn.”
“Sometimes the hardest thing in life is to know which bridge to cross and which to burn”
Variant: The hardest thing to learn in life is which bridge to cross and which to burn.
p, 125
The History of Freedom in Antiquity (1877)