Timothy Zahn Quotes & Sayings

Fear and anger, Yoda had often warned him, were slaves to the dark side. Vaguely, Luke wondered which side curiosity served. — Timothy Zahn

All opponents are not necessarily enemies. But both enemies and opponents carry certain characteristics in common. Both perceive their opposite as an obstacle, or an opportunity, or a threat. Sometimes the threat is personal; other times it is a perceived violation of standards or accepted norms of society. In — Timothy Zahn

The scene that made me furious was watching Padme, a woman who just gave birth to two beautiful children, just giving up the will to live. — Timothy Zahn

Good. "Has Leia talked to you about the wedding?" Luke asked, sipping from his own mug as he leaned against the viewport facing her. "Not yet," Mara said, making a face. "I suppose she's going to want some big blowout High Alderaanian ceremony." Luke grinned. "Wants, probably. Expects, no." "Good," Mara said. "I'd rather have something quiet and private and dignified. Mostly dignified, anyway," she amended. "With New Republic dignitaries on one side and Karrde's smugglers on the other, we'll probably need a weapons check at the door." Luke chuckled. — Timothy Zahn

You happened to me," she told him, her voice more fatigued than embittered. "You came out of a grubby sixth-rate farm on a tenth-rate planet, and destroyed my life." - Mara Jade — Timothy Zahn

one may need to undergo several regimens of training and sample several different professions before determining where one's strongest talents lie. This is the driving force behind many life-path alterations. There are few sets of skills that match only one specific job. More often they are adaptable to many different professions. Sometimes, one can plan such a change. Other times, the change appears without warning. In both instances, one must be alert and carefully consider all options. Not every change is a step forward. - — Timothy Zahn

If you don't want to be noticed, you don't use a Star Destroyer. — Timothy Zahn

No one is immune from failure. All have tasted the bitterness of defeat and disappointment. A warrior must not dwell on that failure, but must learn from it and continue on. But — Timothy Zahn

Still, even when false, legends can be most informative. — Timothy Zahn

Governments and entire planets are important, Threepio. But when you sift everything down, they're all just made of people. — Timothy Zahn

A writer absolutely has to make his villains clever and competent. It's no fun - and no challenge - for the heroes to get out of trouble without sweating about it first. — Timothy Zahn

I have no vision of any future, maitrakh. Not yours; not even mine. I was just thinking about children. Trying to imagine what it's like to try to raise them. Wondering how much of their character a family can mold, and how much is innate in the children themselves." She hesitated. "Wondering if the evil in a family's history can be erased, or whether it always passes itself on to each new generation. — Timothy Zahn

For if one is remembered by a friend, one is never truly gone. - — Timothy Zahn

If there was one thing she'd learned in this business, it was to never tell a client you couldn't do something. — Timothy Zahn

If the new movies do contradict my books in some way, I can probably come up with some hand-waving story that will explain the apparent discrepancy. If there's one thing we authors are good at, it's hand-waving. — Timothy Zahn

Luck is merely an illusion, trusted by the ignorant and chased by the foolish. — Timothy Zahn

But I would also warn against diverting too many of the Empire's resources from a flexible navy of capital ships and starfighters to massive projects that can bring the Imperial presence to only one system at a time. — Timothy Zahn

The way an Ugnaught gets to be an old Ugnaught is by being smart. — Timothy Zahn

The choices of one shape the futures of all. — Timothy Zahn

Where there's life, there's the hope of change. — Timothy Zahn

Multiple species, with multiple viewpoints and racial philosophies, simply cannot hold power together for long. The dominant voice must certainly be wise enough to adopt ideas and methods from its allies and member peoples. But there must be a dominant voice, or there is only chaos. In this part of the galaxy, that voice is the Empire.
-Thrawn — Timothy Zahn

Are you ready? I'm three blocks past ready. Pardon? Skip it. — Timothy Zahn

No, of course not,' he agreed in a tone that implied he'd heard both the words I'd said and the words I hadn't said and would be mulling them over later on his own. — Timothy Zahn

the need to create is a drive that lies deep within each of us. We all strive to build empires, whether of stone or people or words. Empires we hope will survive us. In the end, though, each of us must necessarily leave our creations behind. All we can hope for is to also leave behind a worthy successor to continue our work. Or who can at least maintain it for a season. — Timothy Zahn

Sometimes a commander's decisions must be made without regard for how they will be perceived," Thrawn said. "What matters is that the commander does what is necessary for victory. — Timothy Zahn

Fine," Vanto said. The musculature of his throat relaxes partially, but not fully. "Personally, I'd be a lot more concerned about him, but that's up to you. But I'm still the bottom man on the roster. Why do you even care about me?" "You are my translator. You hold my words in your hand, and their meanings. A misjudged translation will confuse or anger. A deliberate error could lead to death. — Timothy Zahn

One of the first rules the Emperor had drummed into her [Mara Jade] so long ago was to blend in as best she could with her surroundings — Timothy Zahn

Leave it to the Alderaanians to slap a cheery end on a nice little grisly children's morality tale. — Timothy Zahn

One is born with a unique set of talents and abilities. One must choose which of those talents to nurture, which to set aside for a time, which to ignore completely. Sometimes — Timothy Zahn

But Lando was a gambler. A true gambler never folded when he still had cards left to play. — Timothy Zahn

Without trust, there can be no genuine peace. Neither in politics, nor in the quiet individuality of the heart and spirit. — Timothy Zahn

He risked a glance at the aft-vision display. The other fighter was coming up fast, with no more than a minute or two separating the two ships. Obviously, the pilot had far more experience with the craft than Luke had. That, or else such a fierce determination to recapture Luke that it completely overrode normal commonsense caution.

Either way, it meant Mara Jade. — Timothy Zahn

How many black holes have we been up close and personal with?" Kosta countered. "All sorts of odd things happen near the event horizon, from huge tidal forces to variations in time. Personally, I'm voting on it having to do with gravity, either a polarization of the fields themselves or else something related to the time differential."
I didn't know physics had become a democracy," Hanan murmered. — Timothy Zahn

I know something about a lot of things," she countered evenly. "That's why you're grooming me to be your lieutenant, remember?" - Mara Jade — Timothy Zahn

With none of Vader's backstory available at the time, and having just invented the Noghri species for this story, I came up with the idea that Vader might have designed his mask to look like a stylized version of a Noghri face, the better to facilitate his command of the death commando squads. — Timothy Zahn

For a change, lady luck seemed to be smiling on me. Then again, maybe the fickle wench was just lulling me into a false sense of security while she reached for a rock. — Timothy Zahn

This was one of those odd thoughts that came out of the blue and struck me as both clever and logical. Hot chocolate wouldn't be something desert people would naturally gravitate toward. (There are cold deserts, of course, but with two suns I always assumed Tatooine is mostly pretty warm. Now, of course, the Star Wars Essential Atlas and other official material backs up that assumption.) I also caught way more grief for this than I ever expected. Quite a few people took me to task for putting an Earth-based drink into the Star Wars universe. Of course, those same people apparently weren't bothered by the Millennium Falcon, or lightsabers. It was, though, a reminder that you never know what word or image might jolt someone out of their suspension of disbelief. Anyway, why would anyone want to live in that Galaxy Far, Far Away if they don't have chocolate? Inconceivable ... — Timothy Zahn

But she wasn't a serving girl in a Phorliss cantina this time, or a come-up flector for a swoop gang on Caprioril, or even a hyperdrive mechanic stuck in the backwater of the Ison Corridor. She was second in command to the most powerful smuggler in the galaxy, with the kind of resources and mobility she hadn't had since the death of the Emperor. [p] The kind of resources that would let her find Luke Skywalker again. And kill him — Timothy Zahn

I said no," Jimmy said. His voice quavered slightly under the blazing heat of her glare, but his words were as solid as a sealant weld. "Captain Smith says it's wrong."
"And I say it's right," Kulasawa snapped. "Why listen to him instead of me?"
"Because he's my boss." Jimmy looked at me. "And because I trust him."
He turned back to Kulasawa. "And because he's never needed a gun to tell me what to do. — Timothy Zahn

But Imperial stormtroopers were something else entirely. He and the others had survived a couple of brief encounters with them aboard the Death Star, but even at the time he'd had the feeling the Imperials had been taken by surprise and weren't operating at full efficiency. Now, of course, he knew that Tarkin and Vader had deliberately allowed the Falcon and its crew to escape so they could track it to Yavin 4. — Timothy Zahn

Which meant he was alone here. Even more alone than he'd realized. He took a deep breath. He wasn't alone. The Force was with him. — Timothy Zahn

A friend need not be kept either within sight or within reach. A friend must be allowed the freedom to find and follow his own path. If — Timothy Zahn

A more accurate statement would be that I was the first person since Jedi who was permitted to stick a fork into the piecrust to see if there was still any steam underneath. — Timothy Zahn

Hesitated; swooped again; hesitated again; swooped once more — Timothy Zahn

Failure to act always brings consequences. But sometimes, those consequences can be turned to one's advantage. — Timothy Zahn

A Jedi can't get so caught up in matters of galactic importance that it interferes with his concern for individual people. — Timothy Zahn

Then I am alone, he told himself. I am the last of the Jedi. — Timothy Zahn

My point is that true leaders ... understand the possible consequences of their decisions, and are willing to bear that weight. The question is whether that's a step you're willing to take.
-Carlist Rieekan — Timothy Zahn

Chiss eyes were a bit better than those of humans, their visible spectrum edging a bit into the infrared. Apparently, their ears were better, too. — Timothy Zahn

There is satisfaction in defeating an enemy. But one must never allow oneself to become complacent. There are always more enemies to be identified, faced, and vanquished. — Timothy Zahn

Of his. The same earnestness that had stopped her from killing that insane Joruus C'baoth back on Jomark. — Timothy Zahn

The fear of the violent and the lawless is no less a tyranny than the edicts that come from the Emperor's throne. — Timothy Zahn

Some people will not respond to reason. Others refuse to consider alternatives to their normal pattern of behavior. In such cases, an unexpected breaking of one's own patterns can be an effective tool. — Timothy Zahn

Once you make a decision, you can never go back and change it. Sometimes, farther down the line, you have a chance to alter its effects. But the original decision is there forever. — Timothy Zahn

One spoke to him in person, or one did not speak to him at all. — Timothy Zahn

A life path may change because of important decisions or events. Those were what drove my current path.
But sometimes the smallest event can also drive a turn. In the case of Eli Vanto, that force was a single, overheard word.
Chiss. Where had Cadet Vanto heard that name? What did it mean to him? He had already spoken one reason, but there might well be others. Indeed, the full truth might have several layers. But what were they?
On a ship as large as this, there was only one practical way to find out.
Thus did my path take yet another turn. As, certainly, did his. — Timothy Zahn

But there's a school of thought that says if you're going to go down in flames anyway, you might as well be the one lighting the matches. — Timothy Zahn

For the Jedi, there is no emotion; there is peace. — Timothy Zahn

When you understand a species' art, you understand that species. — Timothy Zahn

She was here, and it was now; and as the emperor's instructors had so often drummed into her, the first item of business was to fit into her surroundings. And that meant not looking like an escapee from the medical ward — Timothy Zahn

Alliances are useful in some situations. In others, they are absolutely vital. But — Timothy Zahn

You're not the last of the old Jedi, Luke, you're the first of the new — Timothy Zahn

Firmly, Luke put the thought out of his mind. Mourning the loss of a friend and teacher was both fitting and honorable, but to dwell unnecessarily on that loss was to give the past too much power over the present. The — Timothy Zahn

And those who stand in our way," he added softly, "will not watch at all. — Timothy Zahn

Courage wasn't a matter of taking the whole mountain in a single massive leap. Courage was taking it one step at a time, doing what was necessary now, preparing for the next step, and refusing to worry about whether some step in the future would be the one that would break him. — Timothy Zahn

If you accept the position of governor, part of your job is to make sure all your people have a decent shot at making something good out of their lives. — Timothy Zahn

History is on the move, Captain. Those who cannot keep up will be left behind, to watch from a distance. — Timothy Zahn

I've found that what most people call luck is often little more than raw talent combined with the ability to make the most of opportunities. (Talon Karrde) — Timothy Zahn