List of Dan Simmons Quotes

I Think Challenges Are What Any Decent Writer Would Be All About. If You Actually Do Find Your Slide And Grease It, Shame On You. Me, I Get Bored Very Easily. As A Writer I Get Bored Even Faster Than I Do In Real Life. I Mean, I Like Fast Cars; I've Driven A Lot Of Racecars. You Need Some Stimulation. If I Find Something That Seems Too Difficult To Do, Too Difficult To Research, Or Beyond Your Writing Abilities, It's A Perfect Invitation To Try It.

There Are Many Other Writers Whose Work I Admire Tremendously, But None Whose Work Struck Me At Just The Right Young Age. Jack Vance Taught Me That Speculative Fiction, Science Fiction, Could Be Wonderfully And Liberatingly Stylistic. It Didn't Have To Be Pulp Stuff. He Really Changed My Writing And My View Of Science Fiction, So If Nothing Else, My Little Homage To Him In The Novelette I Wrote For That Anthology Is My Thank-you To Him. He Helped Me See That Any Genre Can Have Excellent Writing In It.

When I Get About Five Readers I Can Rub Together In One Genre, I Leave That Genre And Go Somewhere Else. And This Is Due To A Vow That I Made Myself When I Started Writing - That If I Had Any Success At All, I Would Not Be Bound To One Form Of Writing. That I Would Write What Moves Me. The Only Way I Can See Me Surviving And Doing More Than One Book Is To Present The Readers With A Dan Simmons Novel, With Whatever Tropes And Protocols From Whatever Genre I Want To Borrow Them. If That Builds A Dan Simmons Readership, Well Then, Okay. Otherwise, Forget About It. I'd Rather Drive A Truck.

The Best Advice That An Accomplished Writer Could Give A Beginning Writer Is Probably, "find Your Slide And Then Grease It." Almost Every Writer That Wants A Rewarding Career, In Terms Of Money And Status And Number Of Readers, Finally Finds A Certain Genre Or Certain Style That He Or She Sticks With Until Reaching A Critical Mass Of Readership. And I've Violated This From The Get-go.

The Never-ending Competition Between Writers Hasn't Changed Between 1868 And 2000. I Used To Belong To Writers' Workshops With Other Professionals, But That Becomes Impossible After A While. Everyone's On A Different Step Of The Career Ladder. Jealousy Doesn't Have To Erupt Into Murder And Burying Someone In Wells Cathedral, But It Is Always There.

I'm Very Interested In The Evolution Of Technology, And It's Really The Idea Of Artificial Life Which Intrigues Me, More Than Just Intelligence - A New, Evolving Life Form Arising Within Our Datasphere And Coming Into Living Relation With Humanity.

The Victorians, They Were Like The Germans In World War Ii. They Could Not Stop Recording Details About Their Lives And Their Age.

You've Probably Heard About The Theory Of Steam-engine Time - That Even After The Steam Engine Had Been Invented, It Had To Wait Until People Were Ready To Make Use Of It. The Same Thing Happens In Literary Circles. The Truth Is, I'm Not Terribly Interested In Victorian Times; I'm Interested In Victorian Writers. I'm Interested In Most Eras Of History, But Not The Victorian Era Especially. I Was Interested In The John Franklin Expedition. I Was Interested In These Last Five Weird Years Of Dickens' Life. And I Just Have To Take The Age That Comes With All That When I Write About It.

Merely To Live Without A Pain Is Little Gladness, Little Gain, Ah, Welcome Joy Tho' Mixt With Grief-- The Thorn-set Flower That Crowns The Leaf.

If There Is A True Religion In The Universe, It Must Include The Truth Of Contact Or Be Forever Hollow.

I Despair At The Rise Of Modern Violence. I Truly Give In To Despair At Times, That Deep, Futureless Pit Of Despair.... I Watch The American Slaughterhouse, The Casual Attacks On Popes, Presidents, And Uncounted Others, And I Wonder If There Are Many More Out There With The Ability Or If Butchery Has Simply Become The Modern Way Of Life.

His Imagination Was Always More Real Than The Reality Of Daily Life.