Quote

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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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
Better
Master
Slaughter
Writing
Doctors
Magician
Slaughters
Work
Masters
Chef
Discusses
Room
Writes
Hinges
Writer
Chickens
Prescriptions
Rooms
Latin
Dining
Less
Doctor
Hides
Care
Mirrors
Utmost

More quotes by 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
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A barbarian is not aware that he is a barbarian.
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I'd never been published when I was young.
Jack Vance
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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.
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I don't read other science fiction. I don't read any at all.
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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Notice this rent in my garment I am at a loss to explain its presence! I am even more puzzled by the existence of the universe.
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Law cannot reach where enforcement will not follow. —Popular aphorism.
Jack Vance
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Mischief moves somewhere near and I must blast it with my magic.
Jack Vance
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I categorically declare first my absolute innocence, second my lack of criminal intent, and third my effusive apologies.
Jack Vance
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This is no science, this is art, where equations fall away to elements like resolving chords, and where always prevails a symmetry either explicit or multiplex, but always of a crystalline serenity.
Jack Vance
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Good music always defeats bad luck
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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 an omnivore at reading, so that everything I ever read contributed.
Jack Vance
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Since we are not permitted to act, we are obliged to know.
Jack Vance
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I just wrote what I felt like writing since they seemed to sell.
Jack Vance
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Nothing is more conspicuous than a farting princess.
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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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.
Jack Vance
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A man is like a rope: both break at a definite strain....The solution is not splicing the rope it's lessening the tension.
Jack Vance