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Experience as well as common sense indicated that the most reliable method of avoiding self-extinction was not to equip oneself with the means to accomplish it in the first place.

Iain Banks

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Iain Banks
Age: 59 †
Born: 1954
Born: February 16
Died: 2013
Died: June 9
Author
Novelist
Philosopher
Science Fiction Writer
Writer
Iain M. Banks
Iain Menzies Banks
Oneself
Well
Equip
Self
Common
Indicated
First
Means
Reliable
Mean
Experience
Extinction
Sense
Avoiding
Place
Accomplish
Wells
Method
Firsts

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It gripped her hand gently. 'Regret is for humans,' it said. She laughed. 'Really?' The machine shrugged and let go of her hand. 'Oh, no. It's just something we tell ourselves.
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Science fiction is trying to find alternative ways of looking at realities.
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Smell is a very animal thing, almost reptilian, where the more cerebral things like reading less so.
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In theory, I work an eight-hour day and a five-day week which means I can socialise with my pals who mostly have normal jobs like teaching and computer programming.
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I love writing and can't imagine not being able to do it. I want an easy life and if it had been difficult I wouldn't be doing it. I do admire writers who do it even though it costs them.
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I'm an only child so am happy with my own company and I don't really get lonely.
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I think we need politicians we need people who want to serve.
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A lot of what the 'Culture' is about is a reaction to all the science fiction I was reading in my very early teens.
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Don't you have a religion? Dorolow asked Horza. Yes, he replied, not taking his eyes away from the screen on the wall above the end of the main mess-room table. My survival.
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If this goes badly and I make a crater, I want it named after me!
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I'm from out of town, he said breezily. This was true. He'd never been within a hundred light-years of the place.
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In so much of politics you're not allowed to disagree with what's been agreed.
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Intellectual achievement. The exercise of skill. Human feeling.
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...and I confess that, like a child, I cry. Ah, self-pity I think we are at our most honest and sincere when we feel sorry for ourselves.
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Well, he sighed to no one in particular, and looked up into yet another alien sky. Here we are again.
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Escape is a consumer goods like another
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I remember being shocked when I discovered some of my school pals didn't have books in their homes. I thought it was like not having oxygen, or hot water.
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There has seldom if ever a shortage of eager young males prepared to kill and die to preserve the security, comfort and prejudices of their elders, and what you call heroism is just an expression of this simple fact there is never a scarcity of idiots.
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As long as a film stays unmade, the book is entirely yours, it belongs to the writer. As soon as you make it into a film, suddenly more people see it than have ever read the book.
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The trouble with writing fiction is that it has to make sense, whereas real life doesn't.
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