Quotes from book
Space Opera

Space Opera
Jack Vance

Space Opera is a novel by the American science fiction author Jack Vance, first published in 1965 .

Jack Vance photo

“We are sufficiently at the mercy of machines, Roger; if our music must necessarily be mechanical, then it is time for us to throw in the sponge, and abandon all hope for the future of humanity.”

Jack Vance book Space Opera

Source: Space Opera (1965), Chapter 4 (p. 31)

Jack Vance photo

“Music is like a language: you cannot understand it unless you learn it, or more accurately, are born into it.”

Jack Vance book Space Opera

Source: Space Opera (1965), Chapter 1 (p. 12)

Jack Vance photo

“And I understand they are, in a sense, artists? That is to say, they understand the creative process, the sublimation of fact to symbol and the use of symbol to suggest emotion?”

Jack Vance book Space Opera

Source: Space Opera (1965), Chapter 8 (p. 65)

Jack Vance photo

“Roger tried to find out all about her: he wanted, in one brief hour, to make up for a lifetime of non-acquaintance, a lifetime for all practical purposes wasted.”

Jack Vance book Space Opera

Source: Space Opera (1965), Chapter 4 (p. 30)

Jack Vance photo

““Now it seems that Roger has once more taken up with Miss Roswyn. I can’t say that I approve, but he has not troubled to ask my advice.” She heaved a sigh. “But I am sure that the world will never go precisely to my liking.”
“Does it for anyone?” asked Bernard Bickel with good-natured cynicism.
“Probably not, and I must reconcile myself to the fact.””

Jack Vance book Space Opera

Source: Space Opera (1965), Chapter 13 (p. 134)

Jack Vance photo

“He looked around the landscape. Drenched in the golden haze of late afternoon it seemed wonderfully tranquil and beautiful, though permeated with a sense of remoteness and even melancholy, like a scene remembered from one’s youth.”

Jack Vance book Space Opera

Source: Space Opera (1965), Chapter 13 (p. 130)

Jack Vance photo

““I'm sure you didn’t mean to hurt anyone.”
Madoc Roswyn laughed a soft forlorn laugh. “The sad truth is that I didn’t care—which may be worse.””

Jack Vance book Space Opera

Source: Space Opera (1965), Chapter 12 (p. 127)

Jack Vance photo

“He was neither lazy nor incompetent; he merely had occupational claustrophobia.”

Jack Vance book Space Opera

Source: Space Opera (1965), Chapter 4 (p. 30)

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