Quote

There is a technical, literary term for those who mistake the opinions and beliefs of characters in a novel for those of the author. The term is 'idiot'.

Larry Niven

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Larry Niven
Age: 86
Born: 1938
Born: April 30
Author
Mathematician
Novelist
Science Fiction Writer
Screenwriter
Writer
LA
California
Laurence van Cott Niven
Character
Beliefs
Idiot
Characters
Novel
Mistake
Technical
Opinion
Literary
Term
Author
Belief
Opinions

More quotes by Larry Niven

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The Unexpected always comes at the most awkward times.
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How much intelligence does it take to sneak up on a leaf?
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We should not have assumed that a political space station could be built.
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The Product of Freedom and Security is a constant (F X S = k). Giving up freedom for security is beginning to look naive.
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There were timelines branching and branching, a mega-universe of universes, millions more every minute. Billions? Trillions? The universe split every time someone made a decision. Split, so that every decision ever made could go both ways. Every choice made by every man, woman, and child was reversed in the universe next door.
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Psi and/or magical powers, if real, are nearly useless.
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My problem with new writers is that it takes me five or six years to memorise the right names.
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The majority is always sane.
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Love was a delicious blend of warm and cold. There was comfort in making love. It solved no problems: but one could run away from problems.
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A civilization has the ethics it can afford
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There is no cause so good or noble that it will not attract fuggheads and the fuggheads will get all the press.
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The Gods do not protect fools. Fools are protected by more capable fools.
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If one must explain a magic trick, one should do so after the show is over.
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SF isn't a genre SF is the matrix in which genres are embedded, and because the SF field is never going in any one direction at any one time, there is hardly a way to cut it off.
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Hopeless causes are the only ones worth fighting for. The fight for the taxpayer is the most hopeless of them all.
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Mother Nature doesn't care if you're having fun.
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Bruce Sterling is one terrific writer and he's relatively new, but I don't know how long he's been doing it he probably doesn't need the publicity anymore!
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We learn only to ask more questions.
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I do suspect that privacy was a passing fad.
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Anything beats an expensive stack of paper.
Larry Niven