Quote

If one must explain a magic trick, one should do so after the show is over.

Larry Niven

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Larry Niven
Age: 86
Born: 1938
Born: April 30
Author
Mathematician
Novelist
Science Fiction Writer
Screenwriter
Writer
LA
California
Laurence van Cott Niven
Must
Trick
Tricks
Explain
Magic
Show
Shows

More quotes by Larry Niven

Image
We should not have assumed that a political space station could be built.
Larry Niven
Image
My problem with new writers is that it takes me five or six years to memorise the right names.
Larry Niven
Image
In a collaboration, each author will do 75% of the work.
Larry Niven
Image
That's the thing about people who think they hate computers. What they really hate is lousy programmers.
Larry Niven
Image
I've got five or six unpublished stories kicking around looking for somebody to buy them.
Larry Niven
Image
The Product of Freedom and Security is a constant (F X S = k). Giving up freedom for security is beginning to look naive.
Larry Niven
Image
Mother Nature doesn't care if you're having fun.
Larry Niven
Image
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
Image
Building one space station for everyone was and is insane: we should have built a dozen.
Larry Niven
Image
We learn only to ask more questions.
Larry Niven
Image
How much intelligence does it take to sneak up on a leaf?
Larry Niven
Image
One mark of a good officer, he remembered, was the ability to make quick decisions. If they happen to be right, so much the better.
Larry Niven
Image
The reader has certain rights. He bought your story. Think of this as an implicit contract. He's entitled to be entertained, instructed, amused maybe all three. If he quits in the middle, or puts the book down feeling his time has been wasted, you're in violation.
Larry Niven
Image
But... watching Steven Barnes taught me to treat my life like an art form.
Larry Niven
Image
I do suspect that privacy was a passing fad.
Larry Niven
Image
In the world of words the imagination is one of the forces of nature.
Larry Niven
Image
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.
Larry Niven
Image
A civilization has the ethics it can afford
Larry Niven
Image
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.
Larry Niven
Image
Hopeless causes are the only ones worth fighting for. The fight for the taxpayer is the most hopeless of them all.
Larry Niven