187 Quotes by Jack Vance

Earth . . . A dim place, ancient beyond knowledge . . . Ages of rain and wind have beaten and rounded the granite, and the sun is red and feeble . . . A million cities have lifted towers, have fallen to dust. In place of the old peoples a few thousand strange souls live. There is evil on Earth . . . Earth is dying . . .

the reality is it costs a lot of money.

So I'll write it, and then I'll find out that I actually wrote something that is utterly useless. You can't use it in the story and it doesn't fit. So I just throw it away. I've done that countless times.

I don't have much vanity. I just know what I do. I just do because I'm capable of doing it and do it easily without any pretentiousness.

The story was such that I couldn't make a graceful ending and then make a graceful new beginning. I could have, but I didn't want to. So, it isn't the most graceful way of writing a story. This new story is, I think, is pretty good stuff. I'm pleased with it anyway.

Sometimes some of these little side excursions are useful and I manage to fit them in the book somewhere.

This flattery has been rather slow in coming. I think all of sudden late in life now I'm getting some credit for what I've done. Which is gratifying, but it's kind of a little late.

It's just I wanted to get myself in a line of work where I didn't have a boss, where I didn't have to show up any place at any particular time.

It seems to limit you; when you're working in an office, you're a creature in a small cell under somebody's supervision and surveillance.