Quotes from Walter Jon Williams

I have no sword, Steward thought, and the thought was triumphant. From the state which is above and beyond, from thought I make my sword.

Steward felt closest to Reese. However cautious they were, however little they knew each other, there was a friendship there, a mutual respect. Steward was careful not to presume on it, to tread on Reese's privacy. That, he concluded, was what friends did. *

Gabriel knew that he had let himself in for a certain amount of ridicule when he decided to allow himself to be worshiped. In the end he decided that the precedent of actually forbidding a religion was more distasteful than being plagued by the devout.

Gabriel flashed him the one-fingered Mudra of Contempt.

If only the heart's advice were infallible.

When you revealed that the Rani was in fact the Nagi," Charlie said, "the players collectively pissed their pants." "I'd rather they creamed their jeans.

It is late afternoon. The world has paused to catch its breath, and the ice-cream streets melt slowly in the sun. The people of Pennsylvania wait in the hush for the twilight that will soften the tempered Gerber edges of their world.

Even if you only want to write science fiction, you should also read mysteries, poetry, mainstream literature, history, biography, philosophy, and science.

I want a platform that, like a book or a magazine, I can carry into the bath or leave at the beach.

When state and religion are one, religion becomes a means for the powerful to remain in power.

I went to college, though I didn't take many writing courses.

I'm not afraid of werewolves or vampires or haunted hotels, I'm afraid of what real human beings to do other real human beings.

How long it takes to write a book depends on its length.

That's why editors and publishers will never be obsolete: a reader wants someone with taste and authority to point them in the direction of the good stuff, and to keep the awful stuff away from their door.

Science fiction readers probably have the gene for novelty, and seem to enjoy a cascade of invention as much as a writer enjoys providing one.

I've experienced writer's block, but never for more than a few days.

If you can find collaborators whose strengths compliment your own, the result can be more than the sum of its authors.

I found college useful for a lot of other reasons. It exposed me to a great many influences I wouldn't otherwise have encountered, and gave me a lot of time with some very intelligent people whose thoughts are still with me.

Some of my ideas were shot down by Lucasfilm because they stepped on territory that has been reserved for the movies. I didn't have a problem with that.

The Rift, which was well over a thousand pages of manuscript, took two years.

I was pretty much grown-up by the time I attended school in Britain - or as grown-up as I'll ever get.

For every SF reader of that period, Robert A. Heinlein was also a touchstone.

It's a tough job to tell a story when the audience already knows the ending, and the ending is bleak.

The big battle at the end of DW isn't drawn from history, but it's influenced by history, certainly.