Quotes from Orson Scott Card

nobody ever wrote to me sayingyou know ender's game was a pretty good book, but you know what it really needs a n introduction!.....so be assured the novel stands on its own, and if you skip this intro and go straight to the story, i not only won't stand in your way i'll even agree with you!

In a way she actually preferred Peter to other people because of this. He always acted out of intelligent self-interest.

I stole their future from them; I can only being to repay by seeing what I can learn from their past.

Oh no, real life is escape. The great terrors, the horrors--we hope--of your life come from reading fiction.

I'm not a liar, sir,' she said. 'No, I'm sure you sincerely become whatever it is you're pretending to be.

Andrew said you were the best person he ever knew. He reached that conclusion before he saw me raise three barbarian children to adulthood. I understand your mother has six. Right. And you're the oldest. Yes. That's too bad. Parents always make their worst mistakes with the oldest children. That's when parents know the least and care the most, so they're more likely to be wrong and also more likely to insist that they're right.

Mom, said Peter, nobody thinks you're a lackwit, if that's what you're worried about. Lackwit? In what musty drawer of some dead English professor's dust-covered desk did you find that word? I assure you that never in my worst nightmares did I ever suppose that I was a lackwit.

Sometimes, what's right is not peaceful or passive. What matters is that you do not hide from the consequences. You bear what must be borne.

Do the gods of different nations talk to each other?...Is there some annual get-together where they compare each other's worshippers? Mine will bow their faces to the floor and trace woodgrain lines for me, says one. Mine will sacrifice animals, says another. Mine will kill anyone who insults me, says a third. Here is the question I think of most often: Are there any who can honestly boast, My worshippers obey my good laws, and treat each other kindly, and live simple generous lives?

So the whole war is beause we can't talk to each other.

The trouble with coins is, when one face is up, the other face is down.

Withholding a decision is a decision.

I don't give up and I don't wear down. I'm not just rock, I'm diamond .

Does it help if we're so strong-willed, stubborn, ambitious, and selfish that we always overcome everything in our way no matter what? asked Wang-mu. I think those are the pertinent virtues, yes, said Peter. Then let's do it. That's us in spades.

In philosophy class I think we finally decided that 'good' is an infinitely recursive term - it can't be defined except in terms of itself. Good is good because it's better than bad, though why it's better to be good than bad depends on how you define good, and on and on.

A duel is just two murders who agree to take turns trying to kill each other.

it was all your genes that made us geniuses, mom. said peter. we sure didn't get any from dad. i heard that. father said, not looking up from the news that was being displayed on the table while he ate it would've been wasted if you hadn't

we're all trying to decide wether your scores are up there are a miricule or a mistake. a habit

to understand who a person really was, what his or her life really meant, the speaker for the dead would have to explain their self-story–what they meant to do, what they actually did, what they regretted, what they rejoiced in. That's the story that we never know, the story that we never can know–and yet, at the time of death, it's the only story truly worth telling.

I once heard a tale of a man who split himself in two. The one part never changed at all; the other grew and grew. The changeless part was always true, The growing part was always new, And I wondered, when the tale was through, Which part was me, and which was you.

When the messenger won't tell you what the hell the message is, my trigger finger gets twitchy. Dismissed.

Asking a man if he could be trusted was like asking an unwed girl if she was a virgin. The question mattered, but the asking of it was gross insult.

Whoop-de-do, said Ram. What? I'm celebrating. Was that irony or loss of mental function? asked the expendable. Was that a rhetorical questions, a bit of humor, or a sign that you are losing confidence in me? I have no confidence in you, Ram, said the expendable. Well, thanks. You're welcome.

He had so much damn respect he wanted to scream.