Quotes from Brian Herbert

There's so much overlapping in science fiction.

My dad was an adventurer, my mother a romantic. When they met in college, both were creative writers; the writing was a bond.

I didn't actually get along with my dad when I was growing up, so by the time I was in my 20s, I didn't think I was going to be a writer.

The man who sees an opportunity and does nothing is asleep with his eyes open.

Anything imagined can be made real ... given sufficient genius.

The capacity to learn is a gift; The ability to learn is a skill; The willingness to learn is a choice.

Facts mean nothing when they are preempted by appearance. Do not underestimate the power of impression over reality.

Life is filled with tests, one after another, and if you don't recognize them, you are certain to fail the most important ones.

In 'Sidney's Comet,' thanks to all the consumerism, all the garbage had to be put in deep space, even though we're not supposed to litter the cosmos - that was an environmental message. Although it was funny, it had an important message.

My grandfather was a police officer. He taught Dad about lie detectors and police interrogation methods, so Dad got this old World War II lie detector and used it on us regularly. He was obsessed with the truth.

We could be dreaming all the time, but we do not perceive those dreams while we are awake because consciousness (like the sun obscuring stars during the day) is much too brilliant to allow the unconscious content so much definition.

The universe is our picture. Only the immature imagine the cosmos to be what they think it is.

The Universe operates on a basic principle of economics: everything has its cost. We pay to create our future, we pay for the mistakes of the past. We pay for every change we make . . . and we pay just as dearly if we refuse to change.

If you surrender, you have already lost. If you refuse to give up, though, no matter the odds against you, at least you have succeeded in trying.

Every hammer has the innate capacity to strike a nail. Every human mind has the innate capacity for greatness. But not every hammer is properly used, nor is every human mind.

Even victories take their toll on a man.

Brilliant, Piter! I'm glad I didn't execute you all those times when you were so annoying.' 'So am I,' de Vries said.

In adverse circumstances, every creature becomes something else, evolving or devolving. What makes us human is that we know what we once were, and, let us hope, we remember how to change back.

Humans are different in private than in the presence of others. While the private persona merges into the social persona in varying degrees, the union is never complete. Something is always held back.

No one has yet determined the power of the human species . . . what it may perform by instinct, and what it may accomplish with rational determination.

There is no reality -- only our own order imposed on everything.

It is said that there is nothing firm, nothing balanced, nothing durable in all the universe -- that nothing remains in its original state, that each day, each hour, each moment, there is change.

We create our own future by our own beliefs, which control our actions. A strong enough belief system, a sufficiently powerful conviction, can make anything happen. This is how we create our consensus reality, including our gods.

The greatest relevancy can become irrelevant in the space of a heartbeat.