Jack Vance

Quotes

1. I am an unhappy man. I am haunted by my inability to express the inexpressible, to come to terms with the unknown. The pursuit of beauty is, of course, a major psychological drive. It its various guises—which is to say, the urge to perfection, the yearning to merge with the eternal, the explorer’s restlessness, the realization of an Absolute created by ourselves, yet larger than our totality—it is perhaps the most important human thrust.

   p. 346

2. 

   “Be on your way; this is holy soil.”

   “How can you be so sure? It looks like ordinary dirt.”

   p. 419

3. 

   I have much to say about the world, but every year the compulsion dwindles. Let them live and die; it is all one to me.

   p. 342

4. 

   “What are you doing here?”

   “I’m looking at you, and grateful for the opportunity.”

   p. 124

5. 

   My great pleasure is creation—of this I never tire. Some of my guests have complained of a gentle melancholy which hangs in the air; I agree that the mood exists. The explanation, I believe, arises from the fugacity of beauty, the tragic pavanne to which all of us step.

   p. 415

6. 

   There is too much knowledge already in the world; we use facts as crutches, to the impoverishment of our senses. Facts are falsehoods; logic is deceit. I know a single system of communication: the declaiming of poetry.

   p. 343

7. 

   My own concepts in this regard are easy and clear, and I am sure that the word “simplistic” will be used by my critics. These folk are callow and turgid of intellect; I am reassured by their howls and yelps.

   p. 172

8. 

   I am a legalist and a financial expert, I admit as much; but my disregard for the law goes no further.

   p. 56

9. 

   “May I inquire as to your motives?”

   “Why do you trouble to ask? You would believe nothing told you.”

   p. 166

10. 

    A man without friends is a tree without leaves.

    p. 341

11. 

    Remember, not all lawyers are fools!

    p. 39

12. 

    “Don’t you think it’s a bit—well, intense? Are people really interested in these matters?”

    “If not they should be.”

    “Easily said, but it’s no way to run a magazine. People don’t want to really understand anything; they want to think they have learned without the necessity of application.”

    p. 327