Walter Jon Williams Quotes & Sayings

I can't speak for the other authors, but what I hoped to achieve was to illuminate certain corners of the Lucas universe that hadn't yet been explored. — Walter Jon Williams

if a person of authority talks only to those who agree with him he soon finds himself out of authority.

Luke — Walter Jon Williams

It's hard to generalize, because they're all different. When I started, I decided to take as much advantage as I could of the freedom offered by the SF field. — Walter Jon Williams

Even if you only want to write science fiction, you should also read mysteries, poetry, mainstream literature, history, biography, philosophy, and science. — Walter Jon Williams

I've experienced writer's block, but never for more than a few days. — Walter Jon Williams

I wanted to be an author for as long as I can remember. — Walter Jon Williams

For every SF reader of that period, Robert A. Heinlein was also a touchstone. — Walter Jon Williams

I went to college, though I didn't take many writing courses. — Walter Jon Williams

TV stars are cool. Even if their characters are less than admirable, they come across as somehow sympathetic, maybe even neighborly. They are, after all, people you invite into your home every week. If you don't like them, you won't watch them.

Movie stars, by contrast, are hot. They have to blaze so fiercely that they fill a screen forty feet high and demand the attention of a crowded theater.

That's why very few TV stars have graduated successfully to features. It requires not only different skills but a different personality. You have to go from amiable to commanding.

Likewise, some movie stars are simply too big for television. Jack Nicholson is riveting on-screen, but you wouldn't want him in your living room week after week. The television simply couldn't contain his personality. — Walter Jon Williams

Try to meet as many authors, agents, and editors as you can. — Walter Jon Williams

I'm willing to give my blessing to those Jedi who wish to act offensively against the Yuuzhan Vong provided that they confine their objectives to military ones.

You could have save us both a lot of grief if you'd told us that a couple of years ago For years you've been warning me about aggression leading to the dark side I didn't listen and over and over and over again reality whacked me on the side of the head Finally I decided you were right I watched someone else going to the dark and it was worse than I could have imagined You finally convinced me I've been a good little Jedi for for months now I've been telling everyone who would listen that Master Skywalker's been right all along And now you tell me that you've changed your mind

Luke Kyp — Walter Jon Williams

When state and religion are one, religion becomes a means for the powerful to remain in power. — Walter Jon Williams

How long it takes to write a book depends on its length. — Walter Jon Williams

Genre labels are useful only insofar as they help you find an audience. — Walter Jon Williams

If you can find collaborators whose strengths compliment your own, the result can be more than the sum of its authors. — Walter Jon Williams

Science fiction readers probably have the gene for novelty, and seem to enjoy a cascade of invention as much as a writer enjoys providing one. — Walter Jon Williams

Terror skittered around the fringes of his consciousness on fast rodent feet. — Walter Jon Williams

I'm not afraid of werewolves or vampires or haunted hotels, I'm afraid of what real human beings to do other real human beings. — Walter Jon Williams

It's a tough job to tell a story when the audience already knows the ending, and the ending is bleak. — Walter Jon Williams

I'm in favor of any technology that makes my work available to the reading public at a reasonable price. — Walter Jon Williams

Working within the limitations of the shared world generally made the writing easier, because I didn't have to invent any of the characters or background, which is usually the hardest part. — Walter Jon Williams

May I ask what role you envision for the Jedi in this war
Two words Skywalker. None whatsoever.

Luke Rodan — Walter Jon Williams

When you revealed that the Rani was in fact the Nagi," Charlie said, "the players collectively pissed their pants."
"I'd rather they creamed their jeans. — Walter Jon Williams

I have a Jedi Council to put together. I thought you might help me.
We get to spend the day gossiping about our colleagues and calling it work I'm willing.

Luke Mara — Walter Jon Williams

Right up till the 1980s, SF envisioned giant mainframe computers that ran everything remotely, that ingested huge amounts of information and regurgitated it in startling ways, and that behaved (or were programmed to behave) very much like human beings ... Now we have 14-year-olds with more computing power on their desktops than existed in the entire world in 1960. But computers in fiction are still behaving in much the same way as they did in the Sixties. That's because in fiction [artificial intelligence] has to follow the laws of dramatic logic, just like human characters. — Walter Jon Williams

Being a writer was never a choice, it was an irresistible compulsion. — Walter Jon Williams

I was pretty much grown-up by the time I attended school in Britain - or as grown-up as I'll ever get. — Walter Jon Williams

An SF author who reads only SF will have little new to contribute, but someone with a broader experience will bring more to the table. — Walter Jon Williams

Kyp has changed.
He hasn't blown up any planets in a few years that's true.
That wasn't precisely Kyp who did that. He was possessed by the spirit of a long-dead Sith Lord named Exar Kun.
That's exactly the sort of thing I hope never to have to explain to a Senatorial committee.

Luke Cal Omas — Walter Jon Williams

Some of my ideas were shot down by Lucasfilm because they stepped on territory that has been reserved for the movies. I didn't have a problem with that. — Walter Jon Williams

The mass-market paperback, for one, is too expensive. — Walter Jon Williams

Gabriel knew that he had let himself in for a certain amount of ridicule when he decided to allow himself to be worshiped. In the end he decided that the precedent of actually forbidding a religion was more distasteful than being plagued by the devout. — Walter Jon Williams

The evil god wants to force humanity into the path he's chosen. But if I was certain of the best path - " and here he smiled, " - I wouldn't force anyone. That would be a waste of energy. I'd merely try to make the thing inevitable. — Walter Jon Williams

What happens if you need a diplomat who can also practice philosophy fight with a lightsaber and levitate small objects Who else are you going to call but us

Mara — Walter Jon Williams

I want a platform that, like a book or a magazine, I can carry into the bath or leave at the beach. — Walter Jon Williams

Gabriel flashed him the one-fingered Mudra of Contempt. — Walter Jon Williams

When all else fails fall back on the truth.
No I'm a politician I can't tell the truth

Mara Cal Omas — Walter Jon Williams

Everything that you read is an influence on everything you write, and you want to draw as many elements into your work as you can. — Walter Jon Williams

Until you actually join this government you say that you defend and join it on the same basis as any other citizen then I have every intention of regarding you as I would any other lobbyist for any other interest group demanding special privileges for its members.

Fyor Rodan — Walter Jon Williams

If the Force is life and the Yuuzhan Vong are alive and you cannot see them in the Force then is the problem with the Yuuzhan Vong or is it with your perceptions

Vergere to Luke — Walter Jon Williams

I've learned that I get blocked when my subconscious mind is telling me that I've taken the work in a wrong direction, and that once I start listening to what my subconscious is trying to tell me, I can work out the problem and get moving again. — Walter Jon Williams

The big battle at the end of DW isn't drawn from history, but it's influenced by history, certainly. — Walter Jon Williams

I found college useful for a lot of other reasons. It exposed me to a great many influences I wouldn't otherwise have encountered, and gave me a lot of time with some very intelligent people whose thoughts are still with me. — Walter Jon Williams

I now have to find a reason to write, every single day. — Walter Jon Williams

Now I have to motivate myself much more than I had previously. — Walter Jon Williams

That's why editors and publishers will never be obsolete: a reader wants someone with taste and authority to point them in the direction of the good stuff, and to keep the awful stuff away from their door. — Walter Jon Williams

The Internet offers an interesting combination of advertising and community by participating in the community you can become an advertisement for yourself. — Walter Jon Williams

I hate it!" he said. "I don't want to be human anymore."
"Neither do I," she said. "It's not a good place to be. — Walter Jon Williams

The Rift, which was well over a thousand pages of manuscript, took two years. — Walter Jon Williams