Quotes from Dan Simmons

Strange," said Natalie. "What?" "Two gunshot wounds, pneumonia, a concussion, three broken ribs, and enough cuts and bruises to keep a football team happy for a full season." "Jews are hard to kill.

For some reason it's as difficult, perhaps more difficult, this time. Dying should become easier with practice.

If someone comes I go out to meet him but not for his sake

The Consul gripped the edges of the mat with fingers gone white. He had tied the strap of his duffel bag around his belt, otherwise the bag would have tumbled off to a glacier far below.

My God, whispered Meina Gladstone, looking down at the body of Admiral Singh. I'm doing all this on the strength of a dream. Sometimes, said General Morpurgo, taking her hand, dreams are all that separates us from the machines.

Human thought can be described as a standing wavefront. Sort of a superhologram. Or, maybe more precisely, a hologram containing a few million smaller holograms.

habría dicho Quirón

Scrotum lifting tension

That's precisely what messiahs do, Raul . . . bridge different worlds. Different eras. Provide the bond between two irreconcilable concepts.

El amor es solo lujuria mal escrita, habría dicho Quirón

Richard, said Dave, do you ever wonder how much of your life you've spent trying to please the dead?

Evet, efendim. Eski ve yeni polis ve müfettiÅŸlerin Yeralt? Åžehri'ndekilerle yapt?klar? eski bir anlaÅŸma. AÅŸa?? inip hayatlar?n? zorlaÅŸt?rmay?z; onlar da yukar? ç?k?p bizimkini zorlaÅŸt?rmaz. Canl?lar?n çoÄŸunun ölülerle yapmaya çal??t?klar? türden bir anlaÅŸmaya benziyor

The Consul dozed, snapping awake each time with a sense of falling, hands gripping the edge of the rigid hawking mat. He realized that he should have tied himself in with the single rope he had brought in his bag, but he didn't want to land—the

I think we underestimate how much of our own lives we devote to trying to meet the expectations of the dead, continued Dave. We don't even think about it, we just do.

As long as my sixth graders showed an average improvement of five years, the principal and district pretty much left me alone to create my own curriculum and teach whatever I wanted

If our god's work is to be done in our time, we must do it ourselves.

Seduction... was both a science and art - a blend of skill, discipline, proximity, and opportunity. Mostly proximity.

Artists recognize other artists as soon as the pencil begins to move.

It's odd how violence and humor so often go together, isn't it?

I loved almost everything about being a teacher, but I was an unusual teacher.

There's a unique bond of trust between readers and authors that I don't believe exists in any other art form as a reader, I trust a novelist to give me his or her best effort, however flawed.

Writing, I'm convinced, should be a subversive activity - frowned on by the authorities - and not one cooed over and praised beyond common sense by some teacher.

An artist on Esperance had once said to me, "Having sex or a domestic quarrel with the house monitors on is like undressing in front of a dog or cat ... it gives you pause the first time, and then you forget about it.

In the beginning was the Word. Then came the fucking word processor. Then came the thought processor. Then came the death of literature. And so it goes.