Quotes from Roger Zelazny

I was willing to die fighting, but it was senseless for all these men to go down with me. Perhaps my blood was tainted, despite my power over the Pattern. A true prince of Amber should have had no such qualms. I decided then that my centuries on the Shadow Earth had changed me, softened me perhaps, had done something to me which made me unlike my brothers.

I decided that mankind could live better without gods. If I disposed of them all, people could start having can openers and cans to open again, and things like that, without fearing the wrath of Heaven. We've stepped on these poor fools enough. I wanted to give them a chance to be free, to build what they wanted.

I wonder as to the value of consciousness," said Jack, "if it does not change the nature of a beast.

I tako, kad se ve? ?inilo da imam cijelu ku?u na raspolaganju, odlu?ih se vratiti u knjižnicu i vidjeti što mogu otkriti. Osim toga, volim knjižnice. Osje?am se ugodno i sigurno okružen sa svih strana zidovima od rije?i, predivnih i mudrih. Uvijek se osje?am bolje kad mogu vidjeti da postoji nešto što rastjeruje tamu.

The most difficult thing about Time, I have learned, is doing it.

It was my turn to be silent while a small family of moments crossed my path, single file, from the left, sticking their tongues out at me.

Reality is approximately as dependable as a politician's promise... the result is the same: Reality, of the capital "R" variety, has become as relative a thing as the dryness of our respective Martinis. Yet the struggle goes on, the fight continues. Against what? Ultimately, Powers, Principalities, Thrones, and Dominations, often contained in hosts who are themselves victims, prisoners, manipulated men and women.

Besides, I like libraries. It makes me feel comfortable and secure to have walls of words, beautiful and wise, all around me.

Your woman is gone and your heart is heavy. Words will not lighten the weight, and what is written is written. But let it also be put down that I grieve with you. ~Hasan~

You are one of the few successful persons I know. Me? Why? You know precisely what you are doing and you do it well. But I don't really do much of anything. And of course the quantity means nothing to you, nor the weight others place upon your actions. In my eyes, that makes you a success. By not giving a damn? But I do, you know. Of course you do, of course you do! But it is a matter of style, an awareness of choice—

If the liberal arts do nothing else, they provide engaging metaphors for the thinking they displace.

You are a deviant from the social norm! Is that an insult or a diagnosis?

One of the disadvantages of traveling alone is that when you fall there is none to assist you.

Time, too, is a function of Shadow, and even Dworkin did not know all of its ins and outs. Or perhaps he did. Maybe that is what drove him mad.

Many of my better short stories are just the last chapters of novels I did not write.

Vishnu Vishnu Vishnu regarded regarded regarded Brahma Brahma Brahma... They sat in the Hall of Mirrors.

Are you going to do it? he asked. Maybe, I said. Don't 'maybe' me, baby. It's written all over you. I'd almost be willing to go along, you know. Of all my relations, I like sex the best and Eric the least. I lit a cigarette, while I considered.

Blood! I called out. Give me blood and vengeance this day, my warriors, and you will be remembered in Amber forever! And as a man. they raised their weapons and cried out, Blood!

While sex heads a great number of lists, we all have other things we like to do in between.

I have always found that hell is other people.

People never pay attention to weather reports; this, I believe, is a constant factor in man's psychological makeup, stemming probably from an ancient distrust of the shaman. You want them to be wrong. If they're right, then they're somehow superior, and this is even more uncomfortable than getting wet. This Moment of the Storm

I was not always that way, but perhaps the shadow Earth, where I spent so many years, mellowed me a bit, and maybe my hitch in the dungeons of Amber reminded me somewhat of the quality of human suffering. I do not know. I only know that I could not pass by the hurt I saw on the form of someone much like someone who had once been a friend.

She finished her drink and put it down. It's getting chilly out here. Yes. Let us repair within. I'd like to repair. I put down my cigar and we stood and she kissed me. So I put my arm around her trim and sparkling, blue-kept waist and we moved away from the bar, toward the archway, through the archway and beyond, into the house we were leaving. Let's make it a triple-asterisk break: ***

And call me Conrad!