Quotes from Samuel R. Delany

One of the more depressing things about reading your fiction 25 years later, or 10 years later, is you realize the only things going on are things you made go on. Strange and interesting and new and wonderful things don't happen. It's the book you wrote; that's all.

If people are busy living out myths you don't like, leave them to it.

You can be bored with anything if you try hard enough.

Neurotics, proceed with delusions of grandeur. Napoleon Bonaparte, take the lead. Jesus Christ, bring up the rear. Simulate severe depression. Non-communicative with repressed hostility.

The concept of a writer writing a vivid and accurate scene in a language transparent and devoid of decoration so that we see through to the object without writerly distraction suffers the same contradiction as the concept of a painter painting a vivid and accurate scene with pigments transparent and devoid of color, including white and black—so that the paint will not get between us and the picture.

You are trapped in that bright moment where you learned your doom

Things have made you what you are," she recited "What you are will make you what you will become.

Fire, slavery, cloth, coin, and stone - these are the basis of civilized life. Sometimes it happens that one or another of them gets hopelessly involved in the most basic appetites of a woman or a man. There are people I have met in my travels who cannot eat food unless it has been held long over fire; and there are others, like me, who cannot love without some mark of possession. Both, no doubt, seem squally strange and incomprehensible to you, 'ey, barbarian?

Those moments when we learn that mothers rage and fathers kill, that friends betray and authority is fallible, or that our own blank, innocent ignorance can destroy the pure, the good, and the loved are moments the very memory of which constitutes the beginning of a strategy to live in a world where such horrors exist.

Discourse says, 'You are.' Rhetoric preserves the freedom to say, 'I am not.

It's a very new, not to mention vulgar, idea that the spectator's experience should be identical to, or even have anything to do with, the artist's

Well, most textbooks say language is a mechanism for expressing thought. But language is thought. Thought is information given form. The form is language.

Do you follow the wrestling? Most people think it's illegal, but you can watch it there. Ruby and Python are on display this evening.

To be sure, the Road of Excess leads to the Palace of Wisdom, even when it takes you through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders. Just watch out for parasites.

He wanted to talk and had nothing to say.

It's easy to repeat; it's hard to speak

Unnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn …nnnnnnnnnnnn … Ak-k-k … nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn … Hhhhh … Unnnnn … nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn … K-k-k-k … nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn … nnnnnnnn nnnnnnnnnnnnnn … Ch-ch-ch … nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn—nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn …

He laughed. "So you see, I'm not a nut. Not a real one, anyway. I haven't been a real nut in a long time.

It's a beautiful universe... wondrous and the more exciting because no one has written plays and poems and built sculptures to indicate the structure of desire I negotiate every day as I move about in it.

This parched evening seasons the night with remembrances of rain.

When you learn another tongue, you learn the way another people see the world, the universe.

Presumptuous bastard,' Tak said. 'Sunset? He might at least wait and see if there's a tomorrow morning.

But the strange thing, the thing that you can never explain to anyone, except another nut, or, if you're lucky, a doctor who has an unusual amount of sense-stranger than the hallucinations, or the voices, or the anxiety-is the way you begin to experience the edges of the mind itself... in a way other people just can't.

An artist simply cannot trust any public emblem of merit.