Zelazny Roger Quotes & Sayings

I like libraries. It makes me feel comfortable and secure to have walls of words, beautiful and wise, all around me. I always feel better when I can see that there is something to hold back the shadows. — Roger Zelazny

We fought.'
'A duel?'
'Nothing that formal. A simultaneous decision to murder one another is more like it. — Roger Zelazny

I guess you have to be a little arrogant to be a writer. I decided early on that just because a lot of other writers were bothered by getting bad reviews didn't really mean that the things were particularly important. By the same token, the good ones didn't mean all that much either. So I just forget about reviews and I wrote what I wanted. — Roger Zelazny

But I recall the springtime of the world as though it were yesterday - those days when we rode together to battle, and those nights when we shook the stars loose from the fresh-painted skies! — Roger Zelazny

Sleep is perhaps the only among life's great pleasures which need not be of short duration. — Roger Zelazny

I have no objection to the expression of political opinions in SF if they are an integral part of the story structure. I don't at all appreciate their intrusion for the purpose of converting a story into a political tract, because I consider that intellectually insulting. — Roger Zelazny

And again, damn. Of troubles I considered myself amply possessed. But those who do seem to get. Some spiritual form of compound interest, I suppose. — Roger Zelazny

That's life: trust and you're betrayed; don't trust and you betray yourself. — Roger Zelazny

They are doodlehums."
"Doodlehums?"
"Antisocial individuals, intentional circumventors of statutes."
"Oh, hoodlums. Yes I guessed that much on my own. What can you tell me about them?"
"Morton Zeemeister," he said, indulges in many such activities. He is the heavy one with the pale fur. Normally, he remains away far from the scene of his hoodling, employing agents to execute it for him. The other, Jamie Buckler, is one such. He has hoodled well for Zeemeister over the years and was recently promoted by him to guard his body. — Roger Zelazny

There is Shadow and there is Substance, and this is the root of all things. Of Substance, there is only Amber, the real city, upon the real Earth, which contains everything. Of Shadow, there is an infinitude of things. Every possibility exists somewhere as a Shadow of the real. — Roger Zelazny

Wishes, wishes.
Wish in one hand and do something else in the other, and squeeze them both and see which comes true — Roger Zelazny

Death is mighty, and is no one's friend. — Roger Zelazny

Grief and anger shrink my world, and I resent this. They seem to paralyze my memory of happier times, of friends, places, things; options. Squeezed by the grip of intense, unsettling emotion, I grow smaller in my single-mindedness. I suppose it is partly because I have discarded a range of choices, impairing in some measure my freedom of will. I don't like this, but after a point I have small control over it. It makes me feel that I have surrendered to a kind of determinism, which irritates me even more. Then, vicious cycle, this feeds back into the emotion that drives me and intensifies it. The simple way of ending this situation is the headlong rush to remove its object. The difficult way is more philosophical, a drawing back, the reestablishment of control. As usual, the difficult way is preferable. A headlong rush may also result in a broken neck. — Roger Zelazny

Two versions of the same face looking into blank screens, two very different minds thinking of things unsaid. Sometimes love is in silence. — Roger Zelazny

Of all the things a man may do, sleep probably contributes most to keeping him sane. It puts brackets about each day. If you do something foolish or painful today, you get irritated if somebody mentions it, today. If it happened yesterday, though, you can nod or chuckle, as the case may be. You've crossed through nothingness or dream to another island in Time. — Roger Zelazny

P.S. I still dunno if it's art. Go to Hell yourself. — Roger Zelazny

I have always found that hell is other people. — Roger Zelazny

In the mirrors of the many judgments, my hands are the color of blood. I sometimes fancy myself an evil which exists to oppose other evils; and on that great Day of which the prophets speak but in which they do not truly believe, on the day the world is utterly cleansed of evil, then I too will go down into darkness, swallowing curses. Until then, I will not wash my hands nor let them hang useless. — Roger Zelazny

There's really nothing quite like someone's wanting you dead to make you want to go on living. — Roger Zelazny

I took Jack his slippers this evening and lay at his feet before a roaring fire while he smoked his pipe, sipped sherry, and read the newspaper. He read aloud everything involving killings, arsons, mutilations, grave robberies, church desecrations, and unusual thefts. It is very pleasant just being domestic sometimes. — Roger Zelazny

Trouble can be purchased cheaply, though the refund may be more than you can bear. — Roger Zelazny

If I get enough letters saying you never explained this or that, I suppose I'll have to write another book. — Roger Zelazny

It is a pain in the ass waiting around for someone to try to kill you. — Roger Zelazny

First, a man may in some ways be superior to his fellows and still serve them, if together they serve a common cause which is greater than any one man. I believe that I serve such a cause, or I would not be doing it. — Roger Zelazny

Even the most heartening of philosophical vistas is no match for, say, a toothache, if it happens to be your own. — Roger Zelazny

Your woman is gone and your heart is heavy. Words will not lighten the weight, and what is written is written. But let it also be put down that I grieve with you. ~Hasan~ — Roger Zelazny

It is no shame to lose to me, mortal. Even among mythical creatures there are very few who can give a unicorn a good game. — Roger Zelazny

The function of criticism should not be confused with the function of reform. — Roger Zelazny

The death of an illusion tends to disconcert. — Roger Zelazny

While it shows the gods as no better than the rest of us," she said, "at least, it shows them as no worse. See here the sources of human morality. — Roger Zelazny

Siddhartha considered the ways of the demon, and in that moment he struck. — Roger Zelazny

The minutes dragged by, and a hush fell over the village. This was the time Azzie loved best, the minutes approaching midnight, when the complexition of the world changed, when the sanctities of evening are forgotten, and the saving grace of dawn was still far away. It was in these hours, between midnight and dawn, that evil always felt most at peace with itself, most experimental, most in need of strangeness and sin, most in need of producing the ever-pervading perversions which needed constant renewal, and the doing of which was a delight to the evil soul. — Roger Zelazny

I have a better idea,' said she. 'Know that under a mortal name am I mistress of the Palace of Kama in Khaipur.'
'The Fornicatorium, madam?'
She frowned. 'As such is it often known to the vulgar, and do not call me 'madam' in the same breath
it smacks of ancient jest. It is a place of rest, pleasure, holiness and much of my revenue. — Roger Zelazny

Life is full of doors that don't open when you knock, equally spaced amid those that open when don't want them to. — Roger Zelazny

Ill met by moonlight,' said Deirdre.
'You could still be tied to a stake,' said Random, and she did not reply. — Roger Zelazny

You are a fool to speak of last great battles, Sam, for the last great battle is always the next one. — Roger Zelazny

I walked among Shadows, and found a race of furry creatures, dark and clawed and fanged, reasonably manlike, and about as intelligent as a freshman in the high school of your choice-sorry, kids, but what I mean is they were loyal, devoted, honest, and too easily screwed by bastards like me and my brother. I felt like the dee-jay of your choice. — Roger Zelazny

While sex heads a great number of lists, we all have other things we like to do in between. — Roger Zelazny

Reality is approximately as dependable as a politician's promise ... the result is the same: Reality, of the capital "R" variety, has become as relative a thing as the dryness of our respective Martinis. Yet the struggle goes on, the fight continues. Against what? Ultimately, Powers, Principalities, Thrones, and Dominations, often contained in hosts who are themselves victims, prisoners, manipulated men and women. — Roger Zelazny

Don't wake me for the end of the world unless it has very good special effects. — Roger Zelazny

Many of my better short stories are just the last chapters of novels I did not write. — Roger Zelazny

It was said that Dworkin himself had penned the Book in his saner days, and that long passages had come direct from the Unicorn. I don't know. I wasn't there. It is also said that we are descended of Dworkin and the Unicorn, which gives rise to some unusual mental images. — Roger Zelazny

In a world of physical ease, brutal social equality, and reasonable economic equality, exclusiveness in frivolity becomes the most sought-after of all distinctions. — Roger Zelazny

Unlike the other darkside Lords, whose places of power were fixed geographical localities where they reigned supreme, Jack's was more a tenuous one, and liable to speedy cancellation, but it existed wherever light and objects met to make a lesser darkness. With — Roger Zelazny

There are stars, stars, scattered stars, blackness all between. They ripple and fold and bend, and they rush toward him, rush by him. Their colors are blazing and pure as angels' eyes. — Roger Zelazny

Beware the meek ... for we shall attempt to inherit the Earth. — Roger Zelazny

He spent the last second of his life screaming, as the force of Bortan's leap pulped him against the ground, before his head was snatched from his shoulders.
My hellhound had arrived. — Roger Zelazny

It is anticipation and recollection that fill the heart - never the sensation of the moment. — Roger Zelazny

Such
times are rare, such times are fleeting, but always bright when caught, measured, hung, and later regarded
in times of adversity, there in the kinder halls of memory, against the flapping of the flames. — Roger Zelazny

When your bow is broken and your last arrow spent, then shoot, shoot
with your whole heart. — Roger Zelazny

Most people who daydream of transforming themselves into some vicious beast and going about tearing people's throats out, dismembering them, disfiguring them and perhaps devouring them tend mainly to dwell upon how much fun it would be and generally neglect the practicalities of the situation. — Roger Zelazny

Nick swore he'd die with this boots on, on some exotic safari, but he found his Kilimanjaro in a hospital on Earth, where they'd cured everything that was bothering him, except for the galloping pneumonia he'd picked up in the hospital. That had been, roughly, two hundred and fifty years ago. I'd been a pallbearer. — Roger Zelazny

Of all my relations, I like sex the best and Eric the least. — Roger Zelazny

My favorite form is the short story. From an aesthetics stand point you really have to pare down to the bone. You can't write a throw-away scene. — Roger Zelazny

I see myself as a novelist, period. I mean, the material I work with is what is classified as science fiction and fantasy, and I really don't think about these things when I'm writing. I'm just thinking about telling a story and developing my characters. — Roger Zelazny

It was my turn to be silent while a small family of moments crossed my path, single file, from the left, sticking their tongues out at me. — Roger Zelazny

No word matters. But man forgets reality and remembers words. — Roger Zelazny

Any man would be forsworn to gain a kingdom. — Roger Zelazny

The absence of a monument can, in its own way, be something of a monument also. — Roger Zelazny

The day of battle dawned pink as the fresh-bitten thigh of a maiden. — Roger Zelazny

No airplane could make it. Not since the war. None could venture above a couple hundred feet, the place where the winds began. The winds: the mighty winds that circled the globe, tearing off the tops of mountains and sequoia trees, wrecked buildings, gathered up birds, bats, insects, and anything else that moved, up into the dead belt; the winds that swirled about the world, lacing the skies with dark lines of debris, occasionally meeting, merging, clashing, dropping tons of rubbish wherever they came together and formed too great a mass. Air transportation was definitely out, to anywhere in the world, for these winds circled, and they never ceased. Not in all the twenty-five years of Tanner's memory had they let up. Tanner — Roger Zelazny

Nothing is cheaper than past glories. — Roger Zelazny

And the man clad in black and silver with a silver rose upon him? He would like to think that he has learned something of trust, that he has washed his eyes in some clear spring, that he has polished an ideal or two. Never Mind. He may still be only a smart-mouthed meddler, skilled mainly in the minor art of survival, blind as ever the dungeons knew him to the finer shades of irony. Never mind, let it go, let it be. I may never be pleased with him. — Roger Zelazny

I've always been impulsive. My thinking is usually pretty good, but I always seem to do it after I do my talking - by which time I've generally destroyed all basis for further conversation. — Roger Zelazny

I'm very gullible when it comes to my own words. I believe everything I say, though I know I am a liar. — Roger Zelazny

Are you going to do it?" he asked. "Maybe," I said.
Don't 'maybe' me, baby. It's written all over you. I'd almost be willing to go along, you know. Of all my relations, I like sex the best and Eric the least."
I lit a cigarette, while I considered. — Roger Zelazny

Hell, we make our own ifs. I had better things to think about than what could have happened — Roger Zelazny

I decided that mankind could live better without gods. If I disposed of them all, people could start having can openers and cans to open again, and things like that, without fearing the wrath of Heaven. We've stepped on these poor fools enough. I wanted to give them a chance to be free, to build what they wanted. — Roger Zelazny

Now, in every city into which I venture, uniforms rush upon me, dust dandruff from my collar, press a brochure into my hand, recite the latest weather report, pray for my soul, throw walk-shields over nearby puddles, wipe off my windshield, hold an umbrella over my head on sunny or rainy days, or shine an ultra-infra flashlight before me on cloudy ones, pick lint from my belly-button, scrub my back, shave my neck, zip up my fly, shine my shoes and smile - all before I can protest - right hand held at waist-level. What a goddamn happy place the universe would be if everyone wore uniforms that glinted and crinkled. Then we'd all have to smile at each other. — Roger Zelazny

Death and Light are everywhere, always, and they begin, end, strive, attend, into and upon the Dream of the Nameless that is the world, burning words within Samsara, perhaps to create a thing of beauty. — Roger Zelazny

I don't know that I ever wanted greatness on its own. It seems rather like wanting to be an engineer, rather than wanting to design something - or wanting to be a writer, rather than wanting to write. It should be a by-product, not a thing in itself. Otherwise, it's just an ego trip. — Roger Zelazny

I would never rest until I held vengeance and the throne within my hand, and good night sweet prince to anybody who stood between me and these things. — Roger Zelazny

At the end of the season of sorrows comes the time of rejoicing. Spring, like a well-oiled clock, noiselessly indicates this time. — Roger Zelazny

The columns of mounted men moved forward, passed out through the gates of the Palace of Karma, turned off the roadway and headed up the slope that lay to the southeast of the city of Mahartha, comrades blazing like the dawn at their back. — Roger Zelazny

Besides, I like libraries. It makes me feel comfortable and secure to have walls of words, beautiful and wise, all around me. — Roger Zelazny

All roads lead to Amber, he said, as though it were an axiom. — Roger Zelazny

Of course it does not apply to me. I am the soul of honor, kindness, mercy and goodness. Trust me in all things. — Roger Zelazny

Let there be an end to thought. Thus do I refute Descartes.' I sprawled, not a cogito or a sum to my name. — Roger Zelazny

I believe everything I say, though I know I'm a liar. — Roger Zelazny

I enjoy slaughtering beasts, and I think of my relatives constantly. — Roger Zelazny

Death is the only limit to the road you travel. — Roger Zelazny

A powerful flight of the imagination ... an entirely enjoyable reading experience, wrought by a pair of writers noted for excellence. — Roger Zelazny

Go and copulate with yon purple lizard. — Roger Zelazny

Even a mirror will not show you yourself, if you do not wish to see. — Roger Zelazny

I fail to see what difference it makes whether it be supernatural or not
so long as it is malefic, possesses great powers and life span and has the ability to change its shape at will. — Roger Zelazny

Only friends steal books. — Roger Zelazny

Personal feelings don't make for good politics, legal decisions, or business deals. — Roger Zelazny

You are one of the few successful persons I know."
"Me? Why?"
"You know precisely what you are doing and you do it well."
"But I don't really do much of anything."
"And of course the quantity means nothing to you, nor the weight others place upon your actions. In my eyes, that makes you a success."
"By not giving a damn? But I do, you know."
"Of course you do, of course you do! But it is a matter of style, an awareness of choice - — Roger Zelazny

Good-bye and hello, as always. — Roger Zelazny

What should I do?' Coyote yelled.
'Cultivate philosophy and run like hell,' said Bear ... — Roger Zelazny

Then the fit hit the Shan. — Roger Zelazny

The headwaters of Shit Creek are a cruel and treacherous expanse. — Roger Zelazny

Dwelling beside a body of water is tonic for the weary psyche. Sea smells, sea birds, seawrack, sands - alternately cool, warm, moist and dry - a taste of brine and the presence of the rocking, slopping bluegraygreen spit-flecked waters, has the effect of rinsing the emotions, bathing the outlook, bleaching the conscience. — Roger Zelazny

When inspiration is silent reason tires quickly. — Roger Zelazny

...And call me Conrad! — Roger Zelazny

The Keeper of Clouds has unpenned his charges.
The Keeper of Winds has unlocked his gates.
The Keeper of Waters has opened the sky.
The Keeper of Lightnings waves his lances.
The Keeper of satellites has observed,
'One hundred percent of probability of precipitation. — Roger Zelazny

Love is a negative form of hatred. — Roger Zelazny

People never pay attention to weather reports; this, I believe, is a constant factor in man's psychological makeup, stemming probably from an ancient distrust of the shaman. You want them to be wrong. If they're right, then they're somehow superior, and this is even more uncomfortable than getting wet.
This Moment of the Storm — Roger Zelazny

You leap too quickly to his defense. It reveals his true attitude, of which he has doubtless made you aware. — Roger Zelazny

Then every man would be as a god, you see. The result of this, of course, would be that there would no longer be any gods, only men. We would give them knowledge of the sciences and the arts, which we possess, and in so doing we would destroy their simple faith and remove all basis for their hoping that things will be better - for the best way to destroy faith or hope is to let it be realized. — Roger Zelazny