Clute Quotes & Sayings

Genres do exist because frequent users of any large bookstore can instantly tell what any piece of fiction is supposed to be about by its title, its cover and its location in the shop. — John Clute

We cannot afford to exclude any vision - any way of looking at the world - that human beings have invented for ourselves. — John Clute

Australia is an outdoor country. People only go inside to use the toilet. And that's only a recent development. — Barry Humphries

Novels written by university professors and set in the groves of academe are far more rigidly predictable than anything but the most routine science fiction novel, but they have escaped the stigma of being labeled as genre. — John Clute

Mechanical watches partake of what my friend John Clute calls the Tamagotchi Gesture. They're pointless in a peculiarly needful way; they're comforting precisely because they require tending. — William Gibson

Advocating democracy has, by other people, often been taken as a form of imperialism, and not without some justification. So the important thing in a democracy is that it doesn't necessarily have to agree with what America's interests are, and it doesn't necessarily have to be serving American interests. — George Soros

Sense of Wonder ( ... ) may be defined as a shift in perspective so that the reader, having been made suddenly aware of the true scale of an event or venue, responds to the revelation with awe. — John Clute

Habits are first cobwebs, then cables. — Napoleon Hill

The subjunctive mood is in its death throes, and the best thing to do is to put it out of its misery as soon as possible. — W. Somerset Maugham

When I was a young boy, I preferred cats to dogs. From the age of seven or eight onwards I just felt more comfortable with cats. And I felt more comfortable with girls, I didn't really like hanging out with guys. When I was about ten or eleven, I was friendlier with the girls in my school than with the guys. — Ian Anderson

I inherited the old family turkey farm, and I'm turning it into a fun place to go for my kids. — Douglas Carter Beane

Each of them is a book through which other books dream. (referring to Nodier's SMARRA and TRILBY) — John Clute

People often overlook the profound intimacy which can be felt by performing the smallest acts for someone they love. Never underestimate the energy that can be felt by simply sharing the same space with your soulmate. It is that electricity between two people that causes time to cease to exist. — Leanne R. Clute

Science fiction offers an intensely bracing angle of view for writers to adopt, especially in a time of constant innovation and crisis, and it is a scandal that in 1999 so many writers have written it and continue to write it in obscurity. — John Clute