Gene Wolfe Quotes

Quotes about:

• You never learn how to write a novel. You just learn how to write the novel that you're writing.

  Gene Wolfe

  Writing, Novel

  42 Copy quote

• Imagine a man who stands before a mirror; a stone strikes it, and it falls to ruin all in an instant. And the man learns that he is himself, and not the mirrored man he had believed himself to be.

  Gene Wolfe

  Fall, Men, Mirrors

  Gene Wolfe (1997). “The Urth of the New Sun: The sequel to 'The Book of the New Sun'”, p.225, Macmillan

  22 Copy quote

• Weak people believe what is forced on them. Strong people what they wish to believe, forcing that to be real.

  Gene Wolfe

  Strong, Real, Believe

  Gene Wolfe (1994). “Shadow & Claw: The First Half of 'The Book of the New Sun'”, p.66, Macmillan

  11 Copy quote

• People don't want other people to be people.

  Gene Wolfe

  People, Getting High, Want

  "The Claw of the Conciliator". Book by Don Maitz and Gene Wolfe, March, 1981.

  14 Copy quote

• There is no limit to stupidity. - Space itself is said to be bounded by its own curvature, but stupidity continues beyond infinity.

  Gene Wolfe

  Ignorance, Space, Stupidity

  Gene Wolfe (1994). “Sword & Citadel: The Second Half of 'The Book of the New Sun'”, p.327, Macmillan

  8 Copy quote

• Certain mystes aver that the real world has been constructed by the human mind, since our ways are governed by the artificial categories into which we place essentially undifferentiated things, things weaker than our words for them. We believe we invent symbols. The truth is that they invent us; we are their creatures, shaped by their hard, defining edges.

  Gene Wolfe

  Real, Believe, Mind

  "The Shadow of the Torturer". Book by Gene Wolfe, 1980.

  9 Copy quote

• Evolution teaches us the original purpose of language was to ritualize men's threats and curses, his spells to compel the gods; communication came later.

  Gene Wolfe

  Communication, Men, Purpose

  Gene Wolfe (2009). “The Best of Gene Wolfe: A Definitive Retrospective of His Finest Short Fiction”, p.111, Macmillan

  6 Copy quote

• All time exists. That is the truth.... If the future did not exist now, how could we journey toward it? If the past does not exist still, how could we leave it behind?

  Gene Wolfe

  Time, Past, Journey

  Gene Wolfe (1982). “The claw of the conciliator”, Pocket

  6 Copy quote

• We believe that we invent symbols. The truth is that they invent us; we are their creatures, shaped by their hard, defining edges.

  Gene Wolfe

  Believe, Defining, Truth Is

  Gene Wolfe (1994). “Shadow & Claw: The First Half of 'The Book of the New Sun'”, p.14, Macmillan

  5 Copy quote

• So powerful is the charm of words, which for us reduces to manageable entities all the passions that would otherwise madden and destroy us.

  Gene Wolfe

  Powerful, Passion, Charm

  Gene Wolfe (1994). “Shadow & Claw: The First Half of 'The Book of the New Sun'”, p.151, Macmillan

  1 Copy quote

• My definition of good literature is that which can be read by an educated reader, and reread with increased pleasure.

  Gene Wolfe

  Literature, Definitions, Pleasure

  8 Copy quote

• You do not characterize by telling the reader about the character. You do it by showing the character thinking, speaking and acting in a characteristic way. You simply show it and shut up.

  Gene Wolfe

  Writing, Character, Thinking

  3 Copy quote

• That was when I found out that the best way in the world to make yourself feel better when you have hit bottom is to try to get somebody else to feel better. There are certain things in life that are truly worth knowing, and that is one of the big ones.

  Gene Wolfe

  Feel Better, Things In Life, Knowing

  Gene Wolfe (2007). “Pirate Freedom”, p.252, Macmillan

  1 Copy quote

• All novels are fantasies. Some are more honest about it.

  Gene Wolfe

  Honest, Fantasy, Novel

  4 Copy quote

• There's a certain kind of lonely man who rejects love, because he believes that anyone who offers it wouldn't be a lover worth having.

  Gene Wolfe

  Lonely, Believe, Men

  Gene Wolfe (2001). “There Are Doors”, p.277, Macmillan

  0 Copy quote

• A hundred wise men have said in various ways that love transcends the power of death, and millions of fools have supposed that they meant nothing by it. At this late hour in my life I have learned what they meant. They meant that love transcends death. They are correct.

  Gene Wolfe

  Life, Wise, Men

  Gene Wolfe (2009). “The Best of Gene Wolfe: A Definitive Retrospective of His Finest Short Fiction”, p.338, Macmillan

  0 Copy quote

• There is no magic. There is only knowledge, more or less hidden.

  Gene Wolfe

  Magic

  Gene Wolfe (1994). “Shadow & Claw: The First Half of 'The Book of the New Sun'”, p.404, Macmillan

  0 Copy quote

• ...I rejoiced in the flaws that made her more real to me

  Gene Wolfe

  Real, Flaws, Made

  Gene Wolfe (1994). “Shadow & Claw: The First Half of 'The Book of the New Sun'”, p.119, Macmillan

  0 Copy quote

• Religion and science have always been matters of faith in something. It is the same something.

  Gene Wolfe

  Matter, Science And Religion

  Gene Wolfe (1994). “Sword & Citadel: The Second Half of 'The Book of the New Sun'”, p.288, Macmillan

  0 Copy quote

• You're a materialist, like all ignorant people. But your materialism doesn't make materialism true. Don't you know that? In the final summing up, it is spirit and dream, thought and love and act that matter.

  Gene Wolfe

  Dream, People, Ignorant

  Gene Wolfe (2011). “The Citadel of the Autarch: Urth: Book of the New Sun”, p.40, Hachette UK

  0 Copy quote

• My whole life experience feeds into my writing. I think that must be true for every writer. Clearly the Army and combat were major influences; just the same, you need to understand that many of the writers we have now couldn't load a revolver.

  Gene Wolfe

  Writing, Army, Thinking

  3 Copy quote

• Knowledge is soon changed, then lost in the mist, an echo half-heard.

  Gene Wolfe

  Change, Echoes, Tanks

  Gene Wolfe (1986). “Soldier of the Mist”, p.114, Macmillan

  9 Copy quote

• We have treatments for disturbed persons, Nicholas. But, at least for the time being, we have no treatment for disturbing persons.

  Gene Wolfe

  Treatment, Disturbed, Persons

  Gene Wolfe (2009). “The Best of Gene Wolfe: A Definitive Retrospective of His Finest Short Fiction”, p.102, Macmillan

  3 Copy quote

• We think that we know a man or a woman, when so much of what we know is actually that man's or that woman's situation, his or her place on the board of life. Move the pawn to the last row and see her rise in armor, sword in hand.

  Gene Wolfe

  Moving, Men, Thinking

  Gene Wolfe (2011). “Home Fires”, p.137, Macmillan

  5 Copy quote

• You must know the story of how the race of ancient days reached the stars, and how they bargained away all the wild half of themselves to do so, so that they no longer cared for the taste of the pale wind, no for love or lust, nor to make new songs nor to sing old ones, nor for any of the other animal things they believed they had brought with them out of the rain forests al the bottom of time--though in fact, so my uncle told me, those things brought them

  Gene Wolfe

  Song, Stars, Uncles

  Gene Wolfe (1994). “Sword & Citadel: The Second Half of 'The Book of the New Sun'”, p.38, Orb Books

  3 Copy quote

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