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

Jack Vance

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Jack Vance
Age: 96 †
Born: 1916
Born: August 28
Died: 2013
Died: May 26
Novelist
Science Fiction Writer
Writer
San Francisco County
California
John Holbrook Vance
Jack Vance
John H. Vance
Foreknowledge
Inch
Inches
Miles
Ten
Worth
Thought

More quotes by Jack Vance

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I don't read other science fiction. I don't read any at all.
Jack Vance
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I was an omnivore at reading, so that everything I ever read contributed.
Jack Vance
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Well, I think everything I've ever read contributes to the background from which I write.
Jack Vance
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Good music always defeats bad luck
Jack Vance
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But Roy Rockwood, it was science fiction for the sake of science fiction.
Jack Vance
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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.
Jack Vance
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I was a carpenter for a time and everybody watches what you do.
Jack Vance
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A barbarian is not aware that he is a barbarian.
Jack Vance
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Jack Vance's Lyonesse books are the greatest fairy tale of the twentieth century.
Jack Vance
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I give dignity second place to expedience.
Jack Vance
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Nothing is more conspicuous than a farting princess.
Jack Vance
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I know that the history of man is not his technical triumphs, his kills, his victories. It is a composite, a mosaic of a trillion pieces, the account of each man's accommodation with his conscience. This is the true history of the race.
Jack Vance
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Since we are not permitted to act, we are obliged to know.
Jack Vance
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Law cannot reach where enforcement will not follow. —Popular aphorism.
Jack Vance
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But, for instance, when I was awfully young, I read all the Oz books. They were an enormous influence on me.
Jack Vance
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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
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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.
Jack Vance
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I never worked in an office in my life.
Jack Vance
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The less a writer discusses his work and himself the better. The master chef slaughters no chickens in the dining room the doctor writes prescriptions in Latin the magician hides his hinges, mirrors, and trapdoors with the utmost care.
Jack Vance
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Right now I'm so old that if I had a big gush of money, I don't know what I'd do with it. I don't travel anymore. I don't need anything, don't want anything. I'd give it to my son, I guess, and let him enjoy it.
Jack Vance