“To present a whole world that doesn’t exist and make it seem real, we have to more or less pretend we’re polymaths. That’s just the act of all good writing.”

—  William Gibson

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "To present a whole world that doesn’t exist and make it seem real, we have to more or less pretend we’re polymaths. Tha…" by William Gibson?
William Gibson photo
William Gibson 117
American-Canadian speculative fiction novelist and founder … 1948

Related quotes

“I say, when Mercury arrives, we just pretend we’re not here.” Lawe
tipped back his whiskey and swallowed in a single drink. “Stay real quiet.
Don’t make eye contact.”
They all nodded.”

Lora Leigh (1965) American writer

Source: Mercury's War

Brook Taylor photo

“It is generally thought very ridiculous to pretend to write an Heroic Poem, or a fine Discourse upon any Subject, without understanding the Propriety of the Language wrote in; and to me it seems no less ridiculous for one to pretend to make a good Picture without understanding Perspective…”

Brook Taylor (1685–1731) English mathematician

New Principles of Linear Perspective (1715, 1749)

Joe Biden photo

“Every disagreement is a crisis. But when you take a step back and look at what’s happening, we’re actually making real progress. Maybe it doesn’t seem fast enough.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

Biden Celebrates Drop in Unemployment Even as Job Growth Weakens https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/biden-celebrates-drop-in-unemployment-even-as-job-growth-weakens-1.1663842(October 2021)
2021, October 2021

John Cage photo

“There is one term of the problem which you are not taking into account: precisely, the world. The real. You say: the real, the world as it is. But it is not, it becomes! It moves, it changes! It doesn’t wait for us to change... It is more mobile than you can imagine. You are getting closer to this reality when you say as it 'presents itself'; that means that it is not there, existing as an object. The world, the real is not an object. It is a process.”

John Cage (1912–1992) American avant-garde composer

Quote in 'John Cage, For the Birds: John Cage In Conversation with Daniel Charles', London/New York: Marion Boyars, 1981; as quoted in: 'Tàpies: From Within', June ─ November, 2013 - Presse Release, Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC ), p. 17, note 10
1980s

Joe Biden photo

“Turn on the news and every conversation is a confrontation. Every disagreement is a crisis. But when you take a step back and look at what’s happening, we’re actually making real progress. Maybe it doesn’t seem fast enough”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

Biden Celebrates Drop in Unemployment Even as Job Growth Weakens (8 October 2021) https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/biden-celebrates-drop-in-unemployment-even-as-job-growth-weakens-1.1663842
2021, October 2021

Joseph Joubert photo

“What good is modesty? — It makes us seem more beautiful when we are beautiful, and less ugly when we are ugly.”

Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French moralist and essayist
Bill Maher photo

“Acknowledging progress isn’t saying ‘we’re done’ or ‘we don’t need more’, and being gloomy doesn’t make you a better person.”

Bill Maher (1956) American stand-up comedian

New Rule: ‘Progressophobia’, (2021)

Daniel T. Gilbert photo

“The benefit of knowledge is that it makes the world more predictable, but the cost is that a predictable world sometimes seems less delicious, less exciting, less poignant.”

Daniel T. Gilbert (1957) American psychologist

Daniel Gilbert, Timothy Wilson, David Centerbar, & Deborah Kermer, The Pleasures of Uncertainty: Prolonging Positive Moods in Ways People Do Not Anticipate, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88(1): 5 (2005).

Gloria Steinem photo

“It doesn’t surprise me to learn that there is bias and sexism everywhere, just like there are problems of racism and homophobia stemming from the whole notion that we’re arranged in a hierarchy, that we’re ranked rather than linked.”

Gloria Steinem (1934) American feminist and journalist

The Humanist interview (2012)
Context: It doesn’t surprise me to learn that there is bias and sexism everywhere, just like there are problems of racism and homophobia stemming from the whole notion that we’re arranged in a hierarchy, that we’re ranked rather than linked. I think we’ve learned that we have to contend with these divisions everywhere.

Related topics