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
Term
Author
Belief
Opinions
Character
Beliefs
Idiot
Characters
Novel
Mistake
Technical
Opinion
Literary

More quotes by Larry Niven

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Anything beats an expensive stack of paper.
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The Gods do not protect fools. Fools are protected by more capable fools.
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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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Everything starts as somebody's daydream.
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We learn only to ask more questions.
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The Unexpected always comes at the most awkward times.
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And every friend I've got has been writing Mars stories. It was pretty clear I'd never catch up.
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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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In a collaboration, each author will do 75% of the work.
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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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That's the thing about people who think they hate computers. What they really hate is lousy programmers.
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Psi and/or magical powers, if real, are nearly useless.
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A civilization has the ethics it can afford
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I do suspect that privacy was a passing fad.
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I don't have a strong interest in history.
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Stupidity is always a capital crime.
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I'm not predicting I just love playing with superconductors.
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But... watching Steven Barnes taught me to treat my life like an art form.
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If one must explain a magic trick, one should do so after the show is over.
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As for AIDS, it's a plague. We are human, we get plagues. They come along every so often, kill off two thirds of the population in the next generation it's a quarter after that it's a childhood disease.
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