Jack Vance Quotes & Sayings

When the ships had lifted, they returned across the river to the silence of death. Then his grandfather told him, "Many fine things your father had planned for you: learning and useful work and a life of satisfaction and peace. Do you recall this?"
"Yes, Grandfather."
"The learning you shall have. You will learn patience and resource, the ability of your hands and your mind. You will have useful work: the destruction of evil men. What work could be more useful? This is Beyond; you will find that your work is never done - so therefore you may never know life of peace. However, I guarantee you ample satisfaction, for I will teach you to crave the blood of these men more than the flesh of woman."
The old man had been as good as his word. — Jack Vance

Star-watching: at night the stars of Alastor Cluster blaze in profusion. The atmosphere refracts their light; the sky quivers with beams, glitters, and errant flashes. The Trills go out into their gardens with jugs of wine; they name the stars and discusses localities. For the Trills, for almost anyone of Alastor, the night sky was no abstract empyrean, but rather a view across prodigious distances to known places: a vast luminous map. — Jack Vance

Since we are not permitted to act, we are obliged to know. — Jack Vance

I do not care to listen; obloquy injures my self-esteem and I am skeptical of praise. — Jack Vance

It is useless, after all, to complain against inexorable reality. — Jack Vance

I just wrote what I felt like writing since they seemed to sell. — Jack Vance

Living creatures, if nothing else, have the right to life. It is their only truly precious possession, and the stealing of life is a wicked theft — Jack Vance

The old Galactic Prime sat silent, mouth compressed, eyes burning like far volcanoes. At his feet the new Prime, Lord of Two Billion Suns, found a dead leaf, put it into his mouth, and began to chew. Afterword — Jack Vance

A voice issued from the mirror ... "The characters read thus: 'Suldrun, sweet Suldrun, leave this room before harm arrives upon you!'"
Suldrun looked about her. "What would harm me?"
"Let the bottled imps clamp your hair or your fingers and you will learn the meaning of harm."
The two heads spoke at the same time: "What a wicked remark! We are as faithful as doves." "Oh! It is bitter to be maligned, when we cannot seek redress for the wrong! — Jack Vance

It seems to limit you; when you're working in an office, you're a creature in a small cell under somebody's supervision and surveillance. — Jack Vance

My clever baton holds your unnatural sorcery in abeyance. — Jack Vance

You are evil like all existence ... If power were mine I would crush the universe to bloody gravel and stamp into the ultimate muck! — Jack Vance

Sometimes some of these little side excursions are useful and I manage to fit them in the book somewhere. — Jack Vance

But even in my life I saw the leaching of spirit. A surfeit of honey cloys the tongue; a surfeit of wine addles the brain; so a surfeit of ease guts a man of strength. Light, warmth, food, water, were free to all men, and gained by a minimum of effort. So the people of Ampridatvir, released from toil, gave increasing attention to faddishness, perversity, and the occult. — Jack Vance

Somebody else's ignorance is bliss. — Jack Vance

I must cite an intrinsic condition of the universe. We set forth in any direction which seems convenient; each leads to the same place: the end of the universe. — Jack Vance

Am I known as Cugel the Clever for nothing? — Jack Vance

The Brinktown jail is one of the most ingenious ever propounded by civic authorities. It must be remembered that Brinktown occupies the surface of a volcanic butte, overlooking a trackless jungle of quagmire, thorn, eel-vine skiver tussock. A single road leads from city down to jungle; the prisoner is merely locked out of the city. Escape is at his option; he may flee as far through the jungle as he sees fit: the entire continent is at his disposal. But no prisoner ever ventures far from the gate; and, when his presence is required, it is only necessary to unlock the gate and call his name. — Jack Vance

Bending, she kissed Glawen's cheek. "Thank you for a lovely day." "Wait!" cried Glawen. "Come back!" "I think not," said Wayness, and ran off up the path to Riverview House. — Jack Vance

I will be glad to go. There is no poetry here. It is as I have always set forth: joy comes of its own free will; it cannot be belabored. — Jack Vance

The banquet proceeded. The first course, a mince of olives, shrimp and onions baked in oyster shells with cheese and parsley was followed by a soup of tunny, cockles and winkles simmered in white wine with leeks and dill. Then, in order, came a service of broiled quail stuffed with morels, served on slices of good white bread, with side dishes of green peas; artichokes cooked in wine and butter, with a salad of garden greens; then tripes and sausages with pickled cabbage; then a noble saddle of venison glazed with cherry sauce and served with barley first simmered in broth, then fried with garlic and sage; then honey-cakes, nuts and oranges; and all the while the goblets flowed full with noble Voluspa and San Sue from Watershade, along with the tart green muscat wine of Dascinet. — Jack Vance

An enemy, perhaps. Ah, so simple. Liane will kill you ten men. Two steps forward, thrust - thus!" He lunged. "And souls go thrilling up like bubbles in a beaker of mead. — Jack Vance

The world is a place of marvels — Jack Vance

I was a carpenter for a time and everybody watches what you do. — Jack Vance

Jack Vance's Lyonesse books are the greatest fairy tale of the twentieth century. — Jack Vance

I was a precocious child, and I resolved to read everything I could get my hands on, in order to encapsulate the whole of human knowledge. At the time the project seemed less impractical than it does today. I did as best I could and by the time I was ten or elven had read what I suspect was equivalent to a college education. — Jack Vance

I never made lots of money at it, but I sold enough. — Jack Vance

The life we've been leading couldn't last forever. It's a wonder it lasted as long as it did. — Jack Vance

I become drunk as circumstances dictate. — Jack Vance

I haven't been to a movie since somebody gave me free tickets to Star Wars, which I went to. — Jack Vance

The symbologist made a cryptic sign. That remains to be seen, as the cat said who voided into the sugar bowl. — Jack Vance

The Silver Samarsanda stood above the Jardeen, behind a line of tall pencil cypress: an irregular bulk of masonry, plastered and whitewashed, with a wide, many-slanted roof of mossy tiles. Beside the entrance five colored lanterns hung in a vertical line: deep green, a dark, smoky scarlet, a gay light green, violet, and once more dark scarlet; and at the bottom, slightly to the side, a small, steady yellow lamp, the purport of all being: Never neglect the wonder of conscious existence, which too soon comes to an end! — Jack Vance

The police mentality cannot regard a human being in terms other than as an item or object to be processed as expeditiously as possible. — Jack Vance

Have been prisoner, slave, fugitive, and now king, which I prefer. — Jack Vance

Freedom, privileges, options, must constantly be exercised, even at the risk of inconvenience. Otherwise they fall into desuetude and become unfashionable, unorthodox - finally irregulationary. — Jack Vance

What great minds lie in the dust," said Guyal in a low voice. "What gorgeous souls have vanished into the buried ages; what marvellous creatures are lost past the remotest memory ... Nevermore will there be the like; now in the last fleeting moments, humanity festers rich as rotten fruit. Rather than master and overpower our world, our highest aim is to cheat it through sorcery. — Jack Vance

In fact, almost every job you get somebody watching you. — Jack Vance

There was a writer in the '20s called Christopher Morley, who I remember a little bit of, who had some influence on me, but I couldn't tell you what it was. — Jack Vance

I live in a constant flux; I am unable to make fixed plans. — Jack Vance

Right now I'm so old that if I had a big gush of money, I don't know what I'd do with it. I don't travel anymore. I don't need anything, don't want anything. I'd give it to my son, I guess, and let him enjoy it. — Jack Vance

I can resolve your perplexity,' said Fianosther. 'Your booth occupies the site of the old gibbet, and has absorbed unlucky essences. But I thought to notice you examining the manner in which the timbers of my booth are joined. You will obtain a better view from within, but first I must shorten the chain of the captive erb which roams the premises during the night.'

'No need,' said Cugel. 'My interest was cursory. — Jack Vance

Earth . . . A dim place, ancient beyond knowledge . . . Ages of rain and wind have beaten and rounded the granite, and the sun is red and feeble . . . A million cities have lifted towers, have fallen to dust. In place of the old peoples a few thousand strange souls live. There is evil on Earth . . . Earth is dying . . . — Jack Vance

An inch of foreknowledge is worth ten miles of after-thought. — Jack Vance

This flattery has been rather slow in coming. I think all of sudden late in life now I'm getting some credit for what I've done. Which is gratifying, but it's kind of a little late. — Jack Vance

You used the word "civilization", which means a set of abstractions, symbols, conventions. Experience tends to be vicarious; emotions are predigested and electrical; ideas become more real than things. — Jack Vance

How can we do this? We are told that our world is too small for men of eternal life. This is true. We must become pioneers again, we must break out into new territories! The men of old carved living space from the wilderness; we must do the same, and let this be the condition for eternal life! Is it not sufficient? When a man creates his living space and guarantees his sustenance, is he not entitled to life? — Jack Vance

The inscrutability [of economics] is perhaps not unintentional. It gives endless employment to dialecticians who otherwise might become public charges or, at very worst, swindlers and tricksters. — Jack Vance

You are sauntering along the back streets of Avallon; you step into a tavern for a cup of wine. A great lummox claims that you have molested his wife; he takes up his cutlass and comes at you. So now! With your knife! Draw and throw! All in a single movement! You advance, pull your knife from the villain's neck, wipe it on his sleeve. If in fact you have molested the dead churl's wife, bid her begone! The episode has quite dampened your spirit. But you are attacked from another side by another husband. Quick! — Jack Vance

When you demand the nature of my motives, you reveal the style of your thinking to be callow, captious, superficial, craven, uncertain and impudent. — Jack Vance

My talismans are not obviously useless. — Jack Vance

I know that the history of man is not his technical triumphs, his kills, his victories. It is a composite, a mosaic of a trillion pieces, the account of each man's accommodation with his conscience. This is the true history of the race. — Jack Vance

The pre-dawn air was quiet and cool; the sky showed the colors of citron, pearl, and apricot, which were reflected from the sea. Out from the Tumbling River estuary drifted the black ship Smaadra, propelled across the water by its sweeps. A mile offshore, the sweeps were shipped. The yards were raised, sails sheeted taut and back-stays set up. With the sunrise came breeze; the ship glided quickly and quietly into the east, and presently Troicinet had become a shadow along the horizon. — Jack Vance

These are just the tip of the iceberg, because I read and read and read. I read everything. — Jack Vance

Guyal of Sfere had been born one apart from his fellows and early proved a source of vexation for his sire. Normal in outward configuration, there existed within his mind a void that ached for nourishment. It was as if a spell had been cast upon his birth, a harassment visited on the child in a spirit of sardonic mockery, so that every occurrence, no matter how trifling, became a source of wonder and amazement. Even as young as four he was expounding such inquiries as:
'Why do squares have more sides than triangles?'
'How will we see when the sun goes dark?'
'Do flowers grow under the ocean?'
'Do stars hiss and sizzle when rain comes by night? — Jack Vance

I understand that in your youth you contrived a few outrages of your own."
"In my youth?" sputtered Navarth. "I have contrived outrages all my life! — Jack Vance

But I'm so slow on it because I find it terribly hard writing blind on computers. The computer speaks to me, but it's just so slow, I'm so terribly slow using it. — Jack Vance

I am not partial to folk who are grim and austere. I prefer fanciful folk who make me laugh. — Jack Vance

Someone who conceals his curiosity, is overwhelmed with information. — Jack Vance

Count me not your friend but the enemy of your enemies. — Jack Vance

How to know, oh how to know! All is relative ease and facility in orthodoxy, yet how can it be denied that good is in itself undeniable? Absolutes are the most uncertain of all formulations, while the uncertainties are the most real ... — Jack Vance

Candor is never indiscreet. Truth, which is to say, the reflection of life, is beautiful. — Jack Vance

Nothing is more conspicuous than a farting princess. — Jack Vance

But I've sure worked at jobs where I have been under inspection. — Jack Vance

On the heights above the river Xzan, at the site of certain ancient ruins, Iucounu the Laughing Magician had built a manse to his private taste: an eccentric structure of steep gables, balconies, sky-walks, cupolas, together with three spiral green glass towers through which the red sunlight shone in twisted glints and peculiar colors. — Jack Vance

Then there was Clark Ashton Smith, who wrote for Weird Tales and who had a wild imagination. He wasn't a very talented writer, but his imagination was wonderful. — Jack Vance

Public convenience or dignity means nothing; police prerogatives assume the status of divine law. Submissiveness is demanded. If a police officer kills a civilian, it is a regrettable circumstance: the officer was possibly over-zealous. If a civilian kills a police officer all hell breaks loose. The police foam at the mouth. All other business comes to a standstill until the perpetrator of this most dastardly act is found out. Inevitably, when apprehended, he is beaten or otherwise tortured for his intolerable presumption ... The police complain that they cannot function efficiently, that criminals escape them. Better a hundred unchecked criminals than the despotism of one unbridled police force. — Jack Vance

Light slanting down across Alode the Cliff illuminated a hundred forests; the irradiated foliage seemed to glow with internal light: bitter lime, intense gray-blue given pointillist fire by scarlet seed-pots, dark umber, black-blue, black-green — Jack Vance

Beauty compelled admiration and erotic yearning; such was its organic function. But never by itself could it command love. — Jack Vance

Alastor Cluster is thousands of years old; men by the trillions fill the galaxy. Great mentors here, there, everywhere, across the whole pageant of existence have propounded problems and solved them. Everything conceivable has been achieved and all goals attained: not once, but thousands of times over. It is well known that we live in the golden afternoon of the human race; hence, in the name of the Thirty Thousand Stars, where will you find a fresh area of knowledge which must urgently be advanced from Rabendary Meadow? — Jack Vance

Death is the heritage of life; a man's vitality is like air in a bladder. Poinct this bubble and away, away, away, flees life, like the color of fading dream. — Jack Vance

This is no science, this is art, where equations fall away to elements like resolving chords, and where always prevails a symmetry either explicit or multiplex, but always of a crystalline serenity. — Jack Vance

Lord Daldace looked about as if seeing the villa for the first time. "What are dreams? Ordinary experience is a dream. The eyes, the ears, the nose: they present pictures on the brain, and these pictures are called 'reality'. At night, when we dream, other pictures, of source unknown, are impinged. Sometimes the dream-images are more real than 'reality'. Which is solid, which illusion? Why trouble to make the distinction? — Jack Vance

In the end, death came uniformly to all, and all extracted as much satisfaction from their dying as this essentially graceless process could afford. — Jack Vance

What exists is real; therefore it is tragic, since whatever lives must die. Only fantasy, the vapors rising from sheer nonsense, can now excite my laughter. — Jack Vance

I suffer from a spiritual malaise which manifests itself in outbursts of vicious rage. — Jack Vance

I am not Cugel the Clever for nothing! — Jack Vance

How I hate you," he said softly. "If hate were stone I could build a tower into the clouds. — Jack Vance

We prostrate ourselves before the fish-god Yob, who seems as efficacious as any. — Jack Vance

Somewhere there is mystery. It impels one to theosophy: to the worship of a space-god, or a god of light." "Theory dissolves the mystery, though it lays bare a cryptic new stratum. Quite likely there is an endless set of these layers, mystery below mystery. — Jack Vance

Of all questions, why? is the least pertinent. It begs the question; it assumes the larger part of its own response; to wit, that a sensible response exists. — Jack Vance

Good music always defeats bad luck. — Jack Vance

I do read books. I suppose it's more or less the same thing, but at least I'm alone and I'm an individual. I can stop anytime I want, which I frequently do. — Jack Vance

I will say little more. Cugel, you have small acquaintance with the trade, but I take it as a good sign that you have come to me for training, since my nethods are not soft. You will learn or you will drown, or suffer a blow of the flukes, or worse, incur my displeasure. But you have started well and I will teach you well. Never think me harsh, or over-bearing; you will be in self-defeating error! I am stern, yes, even severe, but in the end, when I acknowledge you a worminger, you will thank me."
"Good news indeed," muttered Cugel — Jack Vance

Law cannot reach where enforcement will not follow. - Popular aphorism. — Jack Vance

A reader is not supposed to be aware that someone's written the story. He's supposed to be completely immersed, submerged in the environment. — Jack Vance

I worked for half a cent a word. I'm not a fast writer to begin with, so for the first few years I had do other things. — Jack Vance

Why make plans? The sun might well go out tomorrow. — Jack Vance

A man is like a rope: both break at a definite strain ... The solution is not splicing the rope; it's lessening the tension. — Jack Vance

There had been an attempt to humiliate him. It had not succeeded. He had paid, but pain, like pleasure, has no duration. Pride was an entity more persistent. — Jack Vance

Who are our basic enemies? This is a secret, unknown even to these basic enemies. - Xaviar Skolcamp, Over-Centennial Fellow of the Institute, indulgently, in response to a journalist's too-searching question — Jack Vance

T'sain shrugged. "I have lived little, and I am not wise. Yet I know that everyone is entitled to life. — Jack Vance

In any case, the time has come when I must start a new book. This is not a trivial matter. Characters parade before me; some I like and admire, others I find not useful. The ones I use become very real, and many stay with me always: Cugel, Madouc, Navarth the Mad Poet, Howard Alan Treesong and Wayness Tamm, for instance. Beside characters to be interviewed, there are a dozen concepts to be pieced together, a locale selected, perhaps a whole new way of life to be studied and evaluated; and every story has, or should have, a mood: the connective tissue which holds the story together. In this regard some writers are adroit, others don't have a clue. — Jack Vance

I haven't sold to the movies. In other words, I haven't gotten any enormous checks yet. — Jack Vance

Shimrod gave the boy a copper penny. 'Bring me now a goblet of good tawny wine.'
By a sleight of magic Shimrod augmented the acuity of his hearing, so that the whispers of two young lovers in a far corner were now clearly audible, as were the innkeeper's instructions to Fonsel in regard to the watering of Shimrod's wine. — Jack Vance

It occurs to me that the man and his religion are one and the same thing. The unknown exists. Each man projects on the blankness the shape of his own particular world-view. He endows his creation with his personal volitions and attitudes. The religious man stating his case is in essence explaining himself. When a fanatic is contradicted he feels a threat to his own existence; he reacts violently. — Jack Vance

The world now lacks a " Sir Pom-pom", with all his funny ways! I wonder where he is now? Or is he anywhere at all? Can someone be nowhere? — Jack Vance

When we shattered the Actuarian, we shattered the bar across the sky. Now, life, eternal life, is at anyone's demand. Man must move forward; this is the nature of his brain and blood. Today he is given the Earth; his destiny is the stars. The entire universe awaits him! And so, why should we quaver and hedge at life for all of us? — Jack Vance

I was an omnivore at reading, so that everything I ever read contributed. — Jack Vance

If religions are diseases of the human psyche, as the philosopher Grintholde asserts, then religious wars must be reckoned the resultant sores and cankers infecting the aggregate corpus of the human race. Of all wars, these are the most detestable, since they are waged for no tangible gain, but only to impose a set of arbitrary credos upon another's mind. — Jack Vance

It is thus because it has always been thus. Is not this reason enough? — Jack Vance