Jack Vance Quotes

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All quotes by Jack Vance: Books Giving Universe Writing more...
  • I thought that automobiles were going to have mufflers and go fast and airplanes were going to fly fast.

  • Mischief moves somewhere near and I must blast it with my magic.

    Jack Vance (2000). “Mazirian the Magician: (previously titled The Dying Earth)”, p.10, Macmillan
  • What are your fees?" inquired Guyal cautiously. "I respond to three questions," stated the augur. "For twenty terces I phrase the answer in clear and actionable language; for ten I use the language of cant, which occasionally admits of ambiguity; for five, I speak a parable which you must interpret as you will; and for one terce, I babble in an unknown tongue.

    Jack Vance (2000). “Mazirian the Magician: (previously titled The Dying Earth)”, p.91, Macmillan
  • How to know, oh how to know! All is relative ease and facility in orthodoxy, yet how can it be denied that good is in itself undeniable? Absolutes are the most uncertain of all formulations, while the uncertainties are the most real.

    Jack Vance (2007). “The Jack Vance Treasury”, Subterranean
  • I categorically declare first my absolute innocence, second my lack of criminal intent, and third my effusive apologies.

    Jack Vance (1950). “The Dying Earth”, p.199, Spatterlight Press
  • I become drunk as circumstances dictate.

    Jack Vance (2000). “Cugel the Clever: (previously titled The Eyes of the Overworld)”, p.187, Macmillan
  • But I've sure worked at jobs where I have been under inspection.

  • A barbarian is not aware that he is a barbarian.

    Jack Vance (1957). “Big Planet”, p.21, Spatterlight Press
  • I understand the gist of your speculation,' said Rhialto. 'It is most likely nuncupatory.

    Jack Vance (2000). “Rhialto the Marvellous”, p.601, Macmillan
  • As I mentioned, I was a carpenter for a time.

  • I haven't sold to the movies. In other words, I haven't gotten any enormous checks yet.

  • I do read books. I suppose it's more or less the same thing, but at least I'm alone and I'm an individual. I can stop anytime I want, which I frequently do.

  • Well, I think everything I've ever read contributes to the background from which I write.

  • I was an omnivore at reading, so that everything I ever read contributed.

  • There was a writer in the '20s called Christopher Morley, who I remember a little bit of, who had some influence on me, but I couldn't tell you what it was.

  • A reader is not supposed to be aware that someone's written the story. He's supposed to be completely immersed, submerged in the environment.

  • A man is like a rope: both break at a definite strain....The solution is not splicing the rope; it's lessening the tension.

    "To Live Forever". "Emphyrio" by Jack Vance, (Chapter XVI, section 3), 1956.
  • You used the word "civilization", which means a set of abstractions, symbols, conventions. Experience tends to be vicarious; emotions are predigested and electrical; ideas become more real than things.

  • I haven't been to a movie since somebody gave me free tickets to Star Wars, which I went to.

  • The void is a mouth crying to be filled, a blank mind aching for thought, a cavity desperate for shape. What is not implies what is.

    "To Live Forever" by Jack Vance, (Chapter XI, section 1), 1956.
  • The inscrutability [of economics] is perhaps not unintentional. It gives endless employment to dialecticians who otherwise might become public charges or, at very worst, swindlers and tricksters.

  • I just wrote what I felt like writing since they seemed to sell.

  • If there were no such creatures as minstrel-maidens, it would be necessary to invent them.

    Jack Vance (1965). “The Dragon Masters”, p.58, Spatterlight Press
  • In the end, death came uniformly to all, and all extracted as much satisfaction from their dying as this essentially graceless process could afford.

    Jack Vance (1966). “The Last Castle”, p.5, Spatterlight Press
  • Why make plans? The sun might well go out tomorrow.

    Might  
    Jack Vance (2000). “Cugel: The Skybreak Spatterlight: (previously titled Cugel's Saga)”, p.576, Macmillan
  • I never worked in an office in my life.

  • But Roy Rockwood, it was science fiction for the sake of science fiction.

  • An inch of foreknowledge is worth ten miles of after-thought.

    Jack Vance (2000). “Cugel: The Skybreak Spatterlight: (previously titled Cugel's Saga)”, p.528, Macmillan
  • Law cannot reach where enforcement will not follow. —Popular aphorism.

    Jack Vance (1981). “Star King”, p.7, Spatterlight Press
  • Then there was Clark Ashton Smith, who wrote for Weird Tales and who had a wild imagination. He wasn't a very talented writer, but his imagination was wonderful.

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  • We hope you have found the saying you were looking for in our collection! At the moment, we have collected 72 quotes from the Writer Jack Vance, starting from August 28, 1916! We periodically replenish our collection so that visitors of our website can always find inspirational quotes by authors from all over the world! Come back to us again!
    Jack Vance quotes about: Books Giving Universe Writing