Samuel R. Delany

Quotes

1. In a sense, modern philosophy is a series of introductions to introductions to introductions, the movement between them controlled by the pro-tective/pro-textive play of forces about desire.

   p. 368

2. 

   I’ve always thought thinking about how to live was more important than thinking about after we die. One likes to assume death will take care of itself. It’s just a bit disconcerting to see so many other people putting so much energy into taking care of it for you. Life has always been such a surprise, death, I expect—even if it’s nothing—will be one too.

   p. 199

3. 

   Men and women are less than a chromosome apart.

   p. 374

4. 

   Half dead’s a lot worse than dead, when you know you’re gonna die in another three, six days no matter what anyone else does.

   p. 166

5. 

   Myself, I suspect it’s a kind of madness: the madness that makes one repeat whatever one is trained to repeat.

   p. 367

6. 

   I’m a public man, my princess. That means my only meaning is the web of signs I publicly inhabit.

   p. 111

7. 

   But whatever you say of them, finally I had to dismiss such notions as the ratiocinations desire can entangle about the most sensible of us.

   p. 164

8. 

   For better or for worse, she found herself putting aside fear in favor of curiosity.

   p. 163

9. 

   To be a bandit is better than to be a slave!

   p. 86

10. 

    It is the rare society that does not abuse its artists.

    p. 216

11. 

    What makes a boy interesting does not make a man interesting.

    p. 136

12. 

    Play makes a human being! Work just means you don’t have to feel guilty about playing, which I don’t feel much anyway. Mainly work means I don’t have to suffer the taunts of my friends who wonder why I’m playing as hard as I do!

    p. 238