17 Quotes by John Thomas Sladek

See, I have no journalism in my background, so I wasn’t practised at research or writing non-fiction, nor at handling the truth in a journalistic way. Journalists know when to call a halt and write something, but I kept on looking for answers.

An artist’s life is supposed to lead toward his masterpiece, not away from it.

Most publishers seem very reluctant to publish short story collections at all; they bring them out in paperback, often disguised as novels.

In most conventional novels, God is not allowed to be nuts. Nor are nuts allowed to be God.

This is mainly because I spend a lot of time writing and so don’t have much time to read; I hate to waste that time reading what may turn out to be junk food for the mind, when there’s so much real writing to be read.

The future, according to some scientists, will be exactly like the past, only more expensive.

I have a kind of standard explanation why, which goes like this: Science fiction is one way of making sense out of a senseless world.

The problem and privilege we all have is being alive in this century and able to read this language. It makes any list meaningless except the list of an illiterate.

I found some time ago that I have to be careful, while working on a novel, what I read.