Piers Anthony Quotes & Sayings
Enjoy the top 97 famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Piers Anthony.
Famous Quotes By Piers Anthony
Bink knew the dolphin only from old pictures; it was a kind of magic fish that breathed air instead of water. — Piers Anthony
But I've been dead much longer than I lived, and I have had the chance to educate myself in that that I lacked in life. I wasn't stupid when I lived, just ignorant. There's a lot to learn, simply by watching the follies of the living. — Piers Anthony
Never thought I'd see the day when Death was denied. That leaves taxes as the only certainty. — Piers Anthony
Come try my strength, you dogs who thought to attack helpless prey! But when you do, O beasts of night, know that you face the Lord of Night. I am Death! — Piers Anthony
Princess Rose should indeed be a TV movie, assuming something doesn't go wrong. I don't know how good a movie it will be, because the way movie folk think is different from the way writers think, and I distrust what isn't done my way. This is what I call a healthy paranoia. — Piers Anthony
Polishing: a useful lesson for the hopeful writer. You say your tormented prose doesn't read as well as mine? Neither does mine, at first! — Piers Anthony
When you steal from the library, you are preventing anyone else from reading that book, and the very notion makes me want to drop you in the Void. — Piers Anthony
I think it's a shame that something as creative and vital to the nature of the human species as story-telling is largely controlled by the soulless cretins known as publishers. — Piers Anthony
Normally I work out a general summary of what I mean to do, then start writing, and the details can be different from my anticipation. So there is considerable flow, but always within channels. — Piers Anthony
Wenda's chest and hips shrank, her shoulders and arms turned muscular and her body became lean and hard where it had been rounded and soft. The hair of her head shortened drastically, and a mustache sprouted on her upper lip. Her delicate human feet had become hard hooves. She was now not a nymph but a faun. Physically; she would never be male in spirit. — Piers Anthony
Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker series also shows the potential of lighter fantastic fiction. I read the first, and listened to a tape of a later one, and it's fun. — Piers Anthony
I do one Xanth novel a year, because at the moment that is all that publishers will accept; they don't want any other type of fiction from me, so Xanth pays my way. — Piers Anthony
I don't want ever to be guilty of what my critics claim: doing formula without original elements. — Piers Anthony
She would have to ride the nightmare in her sleep. Only that would keep it material, or enable her to dematerialize with it. — Piers Anthony
I have always admired the work of Phil Farmer and was glad for the chance to work with him. Readers today may be too young to remember his classics like The Lovers. — Piers Anthony
Here's a secret: fictive text doesn't necessarily flow easily. Most of the time it's more like cutting a highway through a mountain. You just have to keep working with your pick, chipping away at the rock, making slow progress. — Piers Anthony
Keep writing, because not only does practice improve skill, it gives you more chances to score on the market. I did that for eight years before making my first sale. — Piers Anthony
It would be easier to write a novel without reader input, but I feel the fiction is richer for it. — Piers Anthony
Robert Jordan ... is a lot of writer — Piers Anthony
Dor shook his head. Such mysteries were beyond his fathoming. All he could do was ... what he could do. — Piers Anthony
If the fiercest conglomerate monsters had souls, with all that implied, who could condemn them as evil? — Piers Anthony
Now it was done. He was free of Xanth forever. Free to make his own life, without being ridiculed or mothered or tempted. Free to be himself.
Bink put his face in his hands and cried. — Piers Anthony
I don't care how the sin ledger stands. There seem to be a number of artificial standards of good and evil that don't really relate to true merit or demerit. Maybe the official system of classification has failed to keep up with the changing nature of our society. — Piers Anthony
For an instant Stile was daunted by the improbability of it all: a man, a cyborg, a robot, an animalhead, and a wooden golem, all riding unicorns through a battlefield strewn with goblins and dragons, pursuing an invaluable ball of power-rock that rolled along a channel cleared by plastic explosive. What a mishmash! — Piers Anthony
Do you seek to bribe Death? Zane asked, half angry and two-thirds curious. — Piers Anthony
Writers pay a lot of attention to wordage, because some publishers seem to care more about length than about quality and will automatically reject novels that don't fit their narrow standards of length - or will chop out extra wordage to make a novel fit. — Piers Anthony
Every person professes to love good and hate evil, but in his actions his real preferences emerges. — Piers Anthony
In fact, I believe that we need better sex education in our own culture, here in America, so that young folk learn about things like venereal disease before they encounter it. — Piers Anthony
Brevity did not mean inconsequence... — Piers Anthony
I hope to read a Harry Potter novel soon, to see what it's all about. I admit to being annoyed that many good light fantasy writers have had trouble getting published, in England and elsewhere, when it is obvious the readers were waiting for us all along. — Piers Anthony
Have a working spouse, because you won't earn a living from writing - not at first, if ever. My wife worked for years to support us. — Piers Anthony
Referring to Jumper the spider, who needs to hide himself in human form, and he's learning to act like a human.
"I'm sure I can learn to walk faster than that," he said desperately.
"But you'll also need to learn the nuances of human behavior. Such as not going around naked."
"What's wrong with being natural?" he demanded.
"Humans aren't natural. They are girt about by all manner of conventions. It will take time for you to catch up with them all. — Piers Anthony
A mortal person's mind is like a wilderness, with a tremendous volume of decaying constructs and half-understood experience forming natural harbors for wild animal effects. — Piers Anthony
What is life, except an ongoing instinct for survival? Nature uses that instinct to make us perform; otherwise we would all relax, and the species would disappear. Nature is a cruel green mother. The survival instinct is a goad, not a privilege. — Piers Anthony
Hell hath little fury like that of a critic who sees a writer make it big. — Piers Anthony
No novel is a clone of any preceding one, though with a background cast of characters and things that has grown to thousands, there are many familiar aspects. — Piers Anthony
One thing you who had secure or happy childhoods should understand about those of us who did not. We who control our feelings, who avoid conflicts at all costs, or seem to seek them. Who are hypersensitive, self-critical, compulsive, workaholic, and above all survivors. We are not that way from perversity, and we cannot just relax and let it go. We've learned to cope in ways you never had to. — Piers Anthony
Adults had the notion that juveniles needed to suffer. Only when they had suffered enough to wipe out most of their naturally joyous spirits and innocence were they staid enough to be considered mature. An adult was essentially a broken-down child. — Piers Anthony
Barbarian
A Code of Conduct honored by all true barbarian warriors, requiring excellent coordination with weapons, closeness to nature, awkwardness with women, common sense, and completion of the mission. — Piers Anthony
I have, as may be apparent, not much respect for editors as a class. — Piers Anthony
At present I answer about 100 letters a month, and read 300 emails. — Piers Anthony
Now you must excuse your Raja for he must suffer to give audience to the prince of Punt, a pompous old fool, who believes that his frequent flatulencies are the echoes of the Gods applauding his non sequiturs. — Piers Anthony
By all means. Swords have ever been the best servants of crazy men. — Piers Anthony
The man glanced up. "Hello. Tweeter tells me you're Kody, a fellow Mundanian, newly arrived, and you want to compare notes." "Uh, yes, in essence," Kody agreed, taken aback. All that from one tweet? Well, maybe it did fit within 140 characters. — Piers Anthony
A horse is wonderful by definition. — Piers Anthony
I did not know at first that it would be a series; I discovered after the first novel that I had more to say about it, so I did another. And another, and then the readers demanded yet more. — Piers Anthony
Yes, I'm always hungry after a fatal injury.
Jordan — Piers Anthony
What splendor nature proffered to the eye of any man who had half the wit to appreciate it! — Piers Anthony
Is it foolish to care for non-existent folk?
Then, leave me to my foolishness. — Piers Anthony
For our stories are not yet finished, and perhaps will never be. — Piers Anthony
When I started writing this, I found that I simply couldn't take fantasy seriously, so it became humorous, and continued from there. — Piers Anthony
I wish my readers took less of my time - about a third of my working time goes to them - but I love and need them all. — Piers Anthony
Dor woke again as dawn came. The sun had somehow gotten around to the east, where the land was, and dried off so that it could shine again. — Piers Anthony
The sweetest temptation could be that which was known to be the most foolish. — Piers Anthony
I turned my home state of Florida into the Land of Xanth. — Piers Anthony
What I like least is dealing with publishers who simply don't want collaborations regardless of their merit. — Piers Anthony
Decent folk had to let indecent folk do their thing; that was the paradox of decency. — Piers Anthony
Not any more. Not according to Glory Goblin or Brontes the Cyclops. Imbri merely confirms that Hugo has perfected his talent, and is now a good deal smarter and handsomer than before. A woman has to be responsible. — Piers Anthony
At this slower pace the journey took a couple of days, and I fought off a few minor threats along the way
griffins, carnivorous plants, giant serpents, hostile centaurs, that sort of thing, purely routine
and I was beginning to get bored when at last the dusky towers of Castle Roogna hove into view. — Piers Anthony
The library is a place of mental diversion, learning, and comfort for anyone who has an intellect. I know of no librarian who when asked for food for the mind will offer a stone. What more could anyone ask? — Piers Anthony
The biggest fool is the one who thinks he knows it all. — Piers Anthony
Being terrified but going ahead and doing what must be done - that's courage. The one who feels no fear is a fool, and the one who lets fear rule him is a coward. — Piers Anthony
Terry Pratchett's right up my alley ... give him a try! — Piers Anthony
A good notion for a novel is far too precious to waste; it must be caught the moment it flashes into mental view, or it will escape to the brain of some other writer who really doesn't deserve it. — Piers Anthony
I think that man was half-right. He is better off out of the game - but the game may not be better off without him. A man should not exist for himself alone. Life made an investment in him, and that investment was not paid off. — Piers Anthony
Evil people relate more to the black pole. It's - this is not exact, of course, as the science of magic is as complex as the magic of electronics - it's like traveling past a mountain. The white pole is at the apex, and it is an exhilarating height, but it takes a lot of work and few missteps to ascend it. The black pole is at the nadir, and it is easy to walk downhill; sometimes you can just sit down and slide or roll and, if you fall, you can get there very fast indeed. If you don't pay attention to where you're going, you'll tend to go down, because it is the course of least resistance. Since the average person has only the vaguest notion where he is going and tends to shut out awareness of the consequence of evil, he inevitably drifts downward. There is much more space at the base of the mountain than at the peak! — Piers Anthony
Obviously it could be, because it was. — Piers Anthony
SF is the literature of the theoretically possible, and F is the literature of the impossible. — Piers Anthony
She looked around. "Oh, I've just got to hug somebody! You!" And she hugged Puck, the little ghost horse. "And you." She hugged Pook, and Peek, and even the nose of the moat monster. "But not you," she decided, encountering the zombie. — Piers Anthony
God created the earth but the Devil evolved it. — Piers Anthony
That most dangerous of opponents: the one who took pains to comprehend the position of his adversary. — Piers Anthony
How many people similarly spent their lives searching for their own spells - some gratuitous benefit such as a silver tree or political power or undeserved acclaim - when all they really needed was to be satisfied with what they already had? Sometimes what they had was better than what they thought they wanted. — Piers Anthony
You don't have to settle for what you are at this moment. You can work to make a difference.
Chex — Piers Anthony
Enough , you hens!" Niobe exploded. "It's tentative!"
Lachesis snorted "As tentative as a pregnancy,girl! — Piers Anthony
At first I was exhilarated by my freedom from the responsibility of the kingship. This lasted about seven minutes. I was also depressed by my freedom from marriage, for I had become accustomed to the attentions of a woman. This lasted about nine minutes. Then I was bored. — Piers Anthony
I never do a full outline, and if I did, I would not feel bound to it, because the view from inside a scene can be different from the view outside it. But neither do I just start writing and see what happens; I am far more disciplined than that. — Piers Anthony
If every editor turns you down, maybe you should take a second look at your text, however, just in case. — Piers Anthony
Evil can never touch the person who refuses to accept it. — Piers Anthony
Why did things have to be so complicated with human beings? ... Yet if we were not what we were, creatures with at least the awareness of purpose and honor, what would we be? Empty knights in armor, seeming so strong on the outside, yet hollow inside? — Piers Anthony
When one person makes an accusation, check to be sure he himself is not the guilty one. Sometimes it is those whose case is weak who make the most clamour. — Piers Anthony
But I don't read or listen for pleasure. I have too much else to do. — Piers Anthony
When you have something you would die to protect it ceases to be a matter of courage." Niobe explained, "You just know what you have to do and you can't afford fear. — Piers Anthony
It is the man who can't be trusted who does not trust others because he judges them by himself. — Piers Anthony
One reason I don't suffer Writer's Block is that I don't wait on the muse, I summon it at need. — Piers Anthony
Your teacher didn't lie to you. A centaur never lies. He merely edited his information, on orders from the King, so as not to force on the impressionable minds of children things their parents did not want them to hear. Education has ever been thus. — Piers Anthony
I maintain an ongoing survey of Internet Publishing and self publishing, so that it is now possible for any writer with a book to get it published at nominal cost or free, and to have it on sale at booksellers like Amazon. — Piers Anthony
Happy children do not seem to grow up to be writers. — Piers Anthony
As for collaboration - I have done a lot, 26 books, and found publishers increasingly resistive to them. It's not that the books are bad; editors won't even read them. — Piers Anthony