Sergei Lukyanenko Quotes & Sayings

One day you will hear the sound of time rustling as it slips through your fingers like sand. Remember me then. I wish you luck. — Sergei Lukyanenko

In a war the most dangerous thing is to understand the enemy. To understand is to forgive. And we
have no right to do that - we never have had, not since the creation of the world. — Sergei Lukyanenko

You're on your own little quest, an there's a bit of Frodo Baggins in you, and a bit of Verne's Paganel, and just a tiny drop of Robinson Cursoe, and a smidgeon of Radishchev. — Sergei Lukyanenko

Many years ago someone told me something that I flatly refused to accept. And I still don't accept it now, despite all the times I've seen it proved right.
"The common good and the individual good rarely coincide ... "
Sure, I know, it's true.
But some truths are probably worse than lies. — Sergei Lukyanenko

He looked just perfect to play Dorian Gray in a film version of Oscar Wilde's novel. Young, graceful, and indecently fresh and handsome, he could easily have worn a badge that said READY FOR DEBAUCHERY! — Sergei Lukyanenko

The whole problem is that the regime is a reflection of society. Crooked and grotesque, but still a reflection. And as long as most of the citizens of a country - if they happened to gain power - would steal and regard themselves as better than other people, no remoralization of the ruling circles will change anything. Those politicians who acquire a conscience will leave. And new ones without consciences will take their places. It's people who have to change, society - — Sergei Lukyanenko

Every city has streets that were built under an unlucky star. And they don't have to be located in the outskirts, either. Sometimes they run along beside gloomy factory buildings, sometimes along the railway lines or main highways, sometimes even beside a park or ravine that has survived through some oversight by the municipal authorities. — Sergei Lukyanenko

Life consists of nothing but exceptions. — Sergei Lukyanenko

If they do anything to me, just skin them alive, sweetheart," I said.
"I'll do more than that
I'll make them eat their own skins. — Sergei Lukyanenko

I often use detective elements in my books. I love detective novels. But I also think science fiction and detective stories are very close and friendly genres, which shows in the books by Isaac Asimov, John Brunner, and Glen Cook. However, whilst even a tiny drop of science fiction may harm a detective story, a little detective element benefits science fiction. Such a strange puzzle. — Sergei Lukyanenko

Love is happiness, but only when you believe it will last forever. Even though every time it turns out to be a lie, it's only faith that gives love its strength and its joy. — Sergei Lukyanenko

Forgiving was the hardest thing. Sometimes forgiving was the hardest thing in the whole world. — Sergei Lukyanenko

Fuck your fucking mother!' Gesar howled, twisting the wheel round. In a moment of genuine terror only the Russian language could convey the true depths of his feelings. It made me feel proud of our great Russian culture! — Sergei Lukyanenko

Love was something different. Love was pure delight, a fountain of emotions, sensual delights, and enjoying spending time together. — Sergei Lukyanenko

Experience is primarily the ability to restrain our fleeting impulses. — Sergei Lukyanenko

Drink your coffee, it clears out the brain in the morning — Sergei Lukyanenko

at home the very walls lend you strength, — Sergei Lukyanenko

When people got old, why did they always develop a passion for scrabbling in the earth? Were they trying to get used to it? — Sergei Lukyanenko

Fairy tales lie just as much as statistics do, but sometimes you can find a grain of truth in them. — Sergei Lukyanenko

Life in death and death in life. Could — Sergei Lukyanenko

Evil has no need to bother with eliminating Good. It's far simpler to let Good fight against itself. — Sergei Lukyanenko

An assassin can be found for every president. And for every prophet there are a thousand interpreters to distort the essence of the religion, to replace the bright flame with the heat of the inquisitors' pyres. The time came when every book was cast into the fire, when every symphony was reduced to a popular tune and played in all the drinking dens. A sound philosophical basis could be set in place under any vile nonsense. — Sergei Lukyanenko

Love is a great power, and such a strange power... — Sergei Lukyanenko

When people love each other, when they find each other out of thousands and millions of people. It's always destiny. — Sergei Lukyanenko

We're not given the chance to choose absolute truth. Truth's always two-faced. The only thing we have is the right to reject the lie we find most repugnant. — Sergei Lukyanenko

The hardest thing of all is when pain is hidden behind a mask of calm. — Sergei Lukyanenko

That's how myths are born. Out of our carelessness, out of our tattered nerves, out of jokes that go wrong and flashy gestures. — Sergei Lukyanenko

Ill-considered but well-intentioned actions do more good that actions that are well-considered but cruel. — Sergei Lukyanenko

Loneliness, dejection, the contempt or pity of people around you
these are unpleasant feelings. But they are precisely the things that produce genuine Dark Ones. — Sergei Lukyanenko

As she conceived it, tea had to be as black as tar and as strong as a sinner's conscience. Or the other way around. As black as that conscience and as strong as tar. And sweet. — Sergei Lukyanenko

After all, inside every woman, no matter how grown up she is, there is still a frightened little girl. — Sergei Lukyanenko

I'm sorry," I said. I felt unbearably ashamed. "I'm sorry." "What for?" "For being a blind, self-satisfied ass. For not seeing . . . — Sergei Lukyanenko

A car's not the right place for showing off to a girl - the bed's the place for that. The consequences of a mistake there are more upsetting, but less tragic. — Sergei Lukyanenko

Maybe it was cold and miserable in the forest, but man can bring his own warmth and comfort anywhere he goes. — Sergei Lukyanenko

There are far more reasons for death than there are for life. — Sergei Lukyanenko

This was how you wound up in the Inquisition. When you stopped being able to see any difference between Light Ones and Dark Ones. When for you, people weren't even a flock of sheep, but just a handful of spiders in a glass jar. When you stopped believing in the future, and all you wanted to do was preserve the status quo. For yourself. For those few individuals who were still dear to you. — Sergei Lukyanenko

How wonderful it would be if everything could always be as clear and simple as it used to be when you were twelve years old, or twenty years old. If there really were only two colors in the world: black and white. But even the most honest and ingenuous cop, raised on the resounding ideal of the stars and stripes, has to understand sooner or later that there's more than just Darkness and Light out on the streets. There are understandings, concessions, agreements. Informers, traps, provocations. Sooner or later the time comes when you have to betray your own side, plant bags of heroin in pockets, and beat people on the kidneys - carefully, so there are no marks. — Sergei Lukyanenko

He enjoyed life for its own sake, not for material possessions. Life was the exact opposite of money, which in itself meant nothing. — Sergei Lukyanenko

The only thing that restrains you is fear, Anton Gorodetsky. For yourself, or for people - that's not important. But we are restrained by horror. And that is why we observe the Treaty. — Sergei Lukyanenko

Until you become wiser, you won't become more powerful. Until you become more powerful you won't master higher magic. Until you master higher magic, you won't go into places that are dangerous. Your situation is unique. You were affected by" - he frowned - "the — Sergei Lukyanenko

But usually the attempt to defeat evil engenders more evil. I advise you to do good; that is the only way to win the victory!" Alisher — Sergei Lukyanenko

The hiding place is believed to contain the Crown of All Things," said Lermont. "Sounds tempting, doesn't it? But somehow I think that the Crown of All Things is really the End of All Things." Semyon — Sergei Lukyanenko

An introverted, bookish child, with a mass of complexes and her head full of crazy ideals and a childish faith in the beautiful prince who was searching for and would surely find her. — Sergei Lukyanenko

We are our own gods and our own demons — Sergei Lukyanenko

If age teaches you anything, then one of its lessons is certainly not to hurry if you're already late ... — Sergei Lukyanenko

What kind of monster are you anyway? You should be more humane, Gennady!"
"I was humane when I was alive," said the vampire. — Sergei Lukyanenko

When leaders betray their people and the people don't overthrow them, it's not just the leaders who should be blamed. — Sergei Lukyanenko

The Crown of All Things is here concealed. Only one step is left. But this is a legacy for the strong or the wise - Foma — Sergei Lukyanenko

It's great to be excited by your profession, whether you are a doctor or a writer. I started writing books when I was in medical school and, by the time I graduated, I realized that writing was more exciting to me than being a doctor. And if I tried to be a doctor and a writer, then both would suffer. — Sergei Lukyanenko

How easily the truth is lost, and how persistent lies are. — Sergei Lukyanenko

Where there's black, even grey looks white, — Sergei Lukyanenko

That's the way it goes sometimes: in order to help your friends, first you have to help your enemy. Better get used to it. — Sergei Lukyanenko

But I'm quite sure of one thing: If it's possible to do something, sooner or later someone's going to do it. — Sergei Lukyanenko

Do you remember the fairy tale about the mermaid? A witch gave her legs, she could walk, but she felt like there were red hot knives stabbing into her feet all the time. That story's about us, Maxim! We always walk over sharp knives, and that's something you can never get used to. But Hans Christian Anderson didn't tell the whole story. The witch could have done things differently: the mermaid walks, and the knives stab other people. That's the way of the Dark. — Sergei Lukyanenko

When we acknowledge that human beings have the right to choose, we deprive ourselves of it, — Sergei Lukyanenko

The number of people who will be horrified by what happens, who will spill tears of sympathy with others' grief, will be very great. But there will be more, infinitely more, who will sit with their eyes glued greedily to their TV screens, who will take pleasure in other people's suffering, feel glad that it passed their city by, and make jokes about the retribution meted out to the Third Rome . . . retribution from on high. You know that, my enemy. — Sergei Lukyanenko

All we can do is try not to fall. — Sergei Lukyanenko

I suppose that literature as it is won't die, science fiction included. But games are becoming an extremely important part of the science fiction world, including games that are adapted from books (or vice versa: books that are adapted from games). It's wonderful to have the opportunity to play and see your favorite characters on the screen, but the opportunity to read a book does not become less attractive. — Sergei Lukyanenko

There is very much in the world that is bad. But usually the attempt to defeat evil engenders more evil. I advise you to do good; that is the only way to win the victory! — Sergei Lukyanenko

Do you have a truth of your own, Anton? Tell me, do you? Are you certain of it? Then believe it, not in my truth, not in Geser's. Believe in it and fight for it. If you have enough courage. If the idea doesn't make you shudder. What's bad about Dark freedom is not just that it's freedom from others. That's another explanation for little children. Dark freedom is first and foremost freedom from yourself, from your own conscience and your own soul. The moment you can't feel any pain in your chest - call for help. Only by then it'll be too late — Sergei Lukyanenko

Haggis is a brand of nappies.' I said. 'They're good, we used them for our daughter.'
'Haggis is a kind of food too,' said Semyon, shaking his head. 'Although as far as taste goes, there's probably not much difference. — Sergei Lukyanenko

It's about waking up in the morning with everything around you looking gray. Gray sky, gray sun, gray city, gray people, gray thoughts. And the only way out is to have another drink. Then you feel better. Then the colors come back. — Sergei Lukyanenko

Drinking beer in a children's playground is an old Soviet tradition. — Sergei Lukyanenko

Why was is that the Light acted through lies, and the Darkness acted though the truth? Why was is that our truth proved powerless, but lies were effective? And why was the Darkness able to manage perfectly well with truth in order to do Evil? — Sergei Lukyanenko

That's the hardest thing of all
never to become cynical, never to lose faith, never to become indifferent. — Sergei Lukyanenko

She had never liked people who spoke too familiarly upon first meeting. There ought to be a little bit more formality. — Sergei Lukyanenko

Others are not born bad or good ... and neither are people, by the way. — Sergei Lukyanenko

I get the same buzz cleaning up the yard as Leo Tolstoy did from scything hay. — Sergei Lukyanenko

Generally speaking, we can and should say everything. We just have to choose the right time, otherwise the truth can be worse than a lie. — Sergei Lukyanenko

To kill the enemy is valorous. To condemn him to torment is infamous. To condemn him to eternal torment is eternal infamy. — Sergei Lukyanenko

[after guard dogs frozen mid-attack] 'How long are the dogs going to stay hanging there like that?' ask Yulia. 'I want to make friends with them. Otherwise, i'll be left with a latent psychological complex that's bound to affect my personality and sexual preferences. — Sergei Lukyanenko

We'll get into the plane and you'll have a cup of coffee, even a sip of brandy is permissible. And you'll think. Think hard. So hard I can hear your brains creaking. And it will be very good if by the time we reach Edinburgh you already know how to get the Crown of All Things. Because we don't have any time to spare. Only twelve hours until the bomb goes off."
"You bastard," I said.
"No, I'm a highly effective personnel manager," Edgar said, with a smile. — Sergei Lukyanenko

Because love is also a power. A great power, and it should not be disdained. — Sergei Lukyanenko

It is boring to haunt a writer, and even more so to haunt a celebrity. I would haunt a literary figure! Possibly some superhero, maybe even James Bond. Constant adventures, fights, beautiful women
much more interesting that watching a writer who taps on computer all day long, or a celebrity posing in front of cameras. — Sergei Lukyanenko

There is no abstract Evil; you have to understand that! Its roots are here, all around us, in this herd that goes on chewing and having a good time only an hour after a murder! That's what you have to fight for. For people. Evil is a hydra with many heads, and the more of them you cut off, the more it grows! Hydras have to be starved to death, do you understand that? Kill a hundred Dark Ones, and a thousand more will take their place. — Sergei Lukyanenko

Indeed, being a beginner is very difficult right now. Book publishers are in a crisis, sales are dwindling, and publishing houses are losing money, doing their best to survive. It's a sign of the times, the emergence of new kinds of entertainment
there's nothing we can do about it. I don't think books will perish for good. They could become less widespread, though, falling even further behind movies and computer games. But we shouldn't be afraid of this, because books will always remain the entertainment of choice for intelligent people, of whom there are still many in this world. — Sergei Lukyanenko

Of course we got drunk!" Semyon said. "It's okay to get drunk, Anton. If you need to real bad. Only you have to get drunk on vodka. Cognac and wine - that's all for the heart."
"So what's vodka for?"
"For the soul. If it's hurting real bad — Sergei Lukyanenko

The common good and the individual good rarely coincide. — Sergei Lukyanenko

A writer who wants to be translated and published abroad faces a very difficult challenge: first of all, he must make sure that his book is cosmopolitan in the best sense of the word, that it is interesting to a global audience. Nobody is going to read about problems that they don't care about. — Sergei Lukyanenko

I'd stopped giving a damn about the human world a long time ago. It's our basis. Our cradle. But we are Others. We walk through closed doors and we maintain the balance of Good and Evil. There are pitifully few of us, and we can't reproduce - it — Sergei Lukyanenko

Isn't that always the way! Just when you really want to know if you did the right thing or not. But no one will ever answer that question for you. — Sergei Lukyanenko

Because love stands above Darkness and Light.
Because love is not sex or a shared faith, or "the joint maintenance of a household and the upbringing of children."
Because love is also Power.
And Light and Darkness, people and Others, morality and law, the Ten Commandments and the Great Treaty have damn all to do with it. — Sergei Lukyanenko

What an unfortunate instrument the guitar is! An instrument of such great nobility, a genuine monarch of music
reduced to a pitiful lump of wood with six strings, constantly abused by people with no ear and no voice. — Sergei Lukyanenko

And that, Pavel, is why you shouldn't use magic for every tiny little thing. Where you can put your trust in science, that's what you should do. — Sergei Lukyanenko

And the simple people are trash. A herd of sheep that are good for shearing, but sometimes it's more profitable to slaughter them. — Sergei Lukyanenko

For every prophet there are a thousand interpreters to distort the essence of the religion, to replace the bright flame with the heat of the inquisitors' pyres. — Sergei Lukyanenko

This one swears like a trooper-- he's a bad boy. — Sergei Lukyanenko

If there's no ethically correct solution, act irrationally. — Sergei Lukyanenko

If you have love in you, it's a strength. But if you are in love, it's a weakness. — Sergei Lukyanenko

The way people behave depends on the basic moral tests and norms in a society. Naturally, the Khmer Rouge, Al-Qaeda terrorists, respectable middle-class Europeans, and, say, members of the Komosol in the 1930's, would behave quite differently in identical situations. But that wouldn't change the essential point. The ration of altruists and egoists, even among Benedictine monks and members of the Gestapo, is the same. It's just that their altruism and egotism are expressed differently. — Sergei Lukyanenko

If we do any deed that is unconditionally good, it gives the Dark Magicians the right to do an evil deed. — Sergei Lukyanenko

You're a big boy, you ought to understand that punctual transport, public order and safe streets, polite people and good medical services are all the achievements of dictatorship. — Sergei Lukyanenko

This is the inevitable consequence of a popular movie: you become the guy who wrote "the book that inspired the movie." Frankly speaking, I find it a bit insulting. — Sergei Lukyanenko

I am fat, lazy and kind. — Sergei Lukyanenko

Nobody can be forced to commit an act of villainy. You can't push anybody into the mud; people always step into it themselves. — Sergei Lukyanenko

I had never felt such happiness, not with one man or two or three, never felt this feeling before ... this feeling of ... completeness? Yes, that was it, completeness! I simply didn't need anyone else. — Sergei Lukyanenko

Above all, translators must be native speakers. It's not because they speak the language better
I understand that sometimes a foreigner can learn a language better than native speakers. It has more to do with having an intimate knowledge of the society for which the book is being translated. — Sergei Lukyanenko

-"Do you know what it's like to be condemned to love?"
-"But isn't it always like that?" Svetlana asked, trembling with indignation. "When people love each other, when they find each other out of thousands and millions of people. It's always destiny!"
Once again I sensed that infinitely naive girl in her, the girl who couldn't hate anything except herself. The girl who was already beginning to disappear.
-"No, Sveta, haven't you ever heard love compared to a flower?"
-"Yes."
-"A flower can be grown, Sveta. But it can be bought too, or given as a gift."
-"Did Anton buy it?"
-"No," I said, a bit too sharply. "It was a gift. From destiny."
-"What difference does that make? If it is love?"
-"Sveta, cut flowers are beautiful, but they don't live for long. They're already dying, even the ones that are carefully placed in a crystal vase and given fresh water. — Sergei Lukyanenko

That said, a fireball like the one hurtling towards us was worthy of the utmost respect. To adopt the jargon of commercial managers, this was a Premium-Class Fireball. Speaking in poetic terms, it was a Tsar-Fireball. A biologist would have said it was an Alpha-Fireball. As a cool, calculating mathematician might have remarked, it was a fireball with a diameter of about three metres.
It was a fireball fearsome enough to make you shit yourself! — Sergei Lukyanenko

I believe it, she's a very good person, kind. There's weariness there, but no bitterness or spite. When you're with a girl like that you feel like a different person. You try to be better, and that's a strain. Men prefer to be friends with her kind, flirt a bit, share confidences. They don't often fall in love with girls like that, but everybody loves them. — Sergei Lukyanenko