Quotes from Iain Banks

Whatever; if there's one thing I can't stand it's machines that talk back: SILENCE!

La nostra vita è tutta fatta di simboli. Ogni cosa che facciamo è parte di un disegno dove abbiamo comunque voce in capitolo. I forti stabiliscono i propri percorsi e influenzano quelli degli altri, i deboli ce li hanno già segnati. I deboli e gli sfortunati. E gli stupidi. La Fabbrica della Vespa è parte del disegno perché è parte della vita e – a maggior ragione – della morte.»

I thought that maybe what had happened had been for the best. The part of me which made the mistake with the buck, letting it get the better of me for a moment, might still be around if that acid test hadn't found it out. The incompetent or misguided general had been dismissed.

La nostra vita è tutta fatta di simboli. Ogni cosa che facciamo è parte di un disegno dove abbiamo comunque voce in capitolo. I forti stabiliscono i propri percorsi e influenzano quelli degli altri, i deboli ce li hanno già segnati. I deboli e gli sfortunati. E gli stupidi. La Fabbrica della Vespa è parte del disegno perché è parte della vita e – a maggior ragione – della morte.

Sometimes, when I have to make precious substances such as toenail cheese or belly-button fluff, I have to go without a shower or bath for days and days; I hate doing this because I soon feel dirty and itchy, and the only bright thing about such abstinence is how good it feels to have a shower at the end of it.

Well, we're all young once, Prentice, and those that are lucky get to be old.

All our lives are symbols. Everything we do is part of a pattern we have at least some say in. The strong make their own patterns and influence other people's, the weak have their courses mapped out for them. The weak and the unlucky, and the stupid.

Death was change; it led to new chances, new vacancies, new niches and opportunities; it was not all loss.

In a 2002 interview with Science Fiction Weekly magazine, when asked: Excession is particularly popular because of its copious detail concerning the Ships and Minds of the Culture, its great AIs: their outrageous names, their dangerous senses of humour. Is this what gods would actually be like? Banks replied: If we're lucky.

He walked through the white corridors, past the notice-boards with their offers of small rooms and old cars, past the coffee bar where people sat at tables, past a hole in the white floor where an old chair stood sentry over an opened conduit in which a torch shone and a man crawled, and as he left he looked at his watch:

but the death of somebody close gives you a good excuse to go a bit crazy for a while and do things that would otherwise be inexcusable. What delight to behave really badly and still get loads of sympathy!

My greatest enemies are Women and the Sea.

our long-lost paradise with all the aching, poison-sweet memories it holds

As long as a film stays unmade, the book is entirely yours, it belongs to the writer. As soon as you make it into a film, suddenly more people see it than have ever read the book.

Most mainstream male fiction is littered with heroines, and female characters are basically so great, you want to fall in love with them.

I think we need politicians; we need people who want to serve.

I love writing and can't imagine not being able to do it. I want an easy life and if it had been difficult I wouldn't be doing it. I do admire writers who do it even though it costs them.

You get so caught up in what you're writing - action sequences tend to do that more than anything else because you're living it, and feeling for your characters.

What is all your studying worth, all your learning, all your knowledge, if it doesn't lead to wisdom? And what's wisdom but knowing what is right, and what is the right thing to do?

I think a lot of people are frightened of technology and frightened of change, and the way to deal with something you're frightened of is to make fun of it. That's why science fiction fans are dismissed as geeks and nerds.

I still have some of my old University essays, and I do still have my drawing book from primary year seven.

In theory, I work an eight-hour day and a five-day week which means I can socialise with my pals who mostly have normal jobs like teaching and computer programming.

I think the future stopped looking American when you think back to Blade Runner and Neuromancer, when it started to look more Japanese.

I'm an only child so am happy with my own company and I don't really get lonely.