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Orson Scott Card Quotes - Page 12

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In war, everyone has their chance to bleed.

In war, everyone has their chance to bleed.

Orson Scott Card
War, Chance
Orson Scott Card (2010). “Heartfire: The Tales of Alvin Maker”, p.325, Macmillan

You can’t answer what I said, so you’re going to talk about my saying it.

Orson Scott Card
Answers, Said
Orson Scott Card (2004). “The Crystal City: The Tales of Alvin Maker”, p.89, Macmillan

Working is hard and distracts from having fun.

Orson Scott Card
Fun, Having Fun, Madness

You can't write a novel all at once, any more than you can swallow a whale in one gulp. You do have to break it up into smaller chunks. But those smaller chunks aren't good old familiar short stories. Novels aren't built out of short stories. They are built out of scenes.

Orson Scott Card
Writing, Whales, Stories

Folks always seemed to think that as long as they didn't know about something bad, it wasn't happening, so whoever told them actually caused it to be true.

Orson Scott Card
Thinking, Long, Being True
Orson Scott Card (2004). “The Crystal City: The Tales of Alvin Maker”, p.46, Macmillan

'So if we can we'll kill every last of the buggers, and if they can they'll kill every last one of us. As for me,' said Ender, 'I'm in favor of surviving'.

Orson Scott Card
Lasts, Ruthlessness, Favors
Orson Scott Card (2010). “Ender's Game”, p.160, Macmillan

Human beings do metamorphose. They change their identity constantly. However, each new identity thrives on the delusion that it was always in possession of the body it has just conquered.

Orson Scott Card
Technology, Identity, Body
Orson Scott Card (2013). “The Ender Quintet”, p.552, Macmillan

The most evil creatures dont desire the destruction of everythingthey only desire to exploit it for themselves.

Orson Scott Card
Evil, Desire, Destruction
Orson Scott Card (2016). “Seventh Son and Red Prophet”, p.147, Macmillan

He jumped at the Giants face, clambered up his lip and nose, and began to dig in the Giant's eye.

Orson Scott Card
Eye, Lips, Giants
Orson Scott Card (2010). “Ender's Game”, p.56, Macmillan

'I could kill you like this,' Peter whispered. 'Just press and press until you're dead'.

Orson Scott Card
Ruthlessness, Enders Game, Peter
Orson Scott Card (2013). “The Ender Quintet”, p.35, Macmillan

Civilisation is only a pretense. In crisis we have become mere apes again, forgetting the rational biped of our pretensions and instead becoming the hairy primate at the mouth of the cave, screeching at the enemy wishing it would go away, fingering the heavy stone we will use the moment it comes close enough

Orson Scott Card
Enemy, Going Away, Wish

Truth, when we are fortunate enough to find it, is like bad-tasting medicine. It rarely comes as a pleasant surprise, because if it surprises us, it means we've been denying it for some time and have a lot of beliefs based on falsehood. It's hard to give up those beliefs.

Orson Scott Card
Giving Up, Mean, Medicine

There's always hope... even when there isn't faith. And sometimes, without hope or faith, there must be charity.

Orson Scott Card
Charity, Sometimes, Without Hope
Orson Scott Card (2001). “Saints”, p.229, Macmillan

People love to hear the brag of the local boy, because they want him to be great, but the foreigner must deny that he has any outstanding virtue - this is what will endear him to the locals.

Orson Scott Card
Boys, People, Want
Orson Scott Card (2009). “Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus”, p.133, Macmillan

Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day.

Orson Scott Card
Writing, Past, Ideas

In all my study of history, I have never found a time or place I would rather have lived than now.

Orson Scott Card
Study, Found

Isn't it possible, he wondered, for one person to love another without trying to own each other? Or is that buried so deep in our genes that we can never get it out? Territoriality. My wife. My friend. My lover. My outrageous and annoying computer personality who's about to be shut off at the behest of a half-crazy girl with OCD on a planet that I never heard of and how will I live without [her] when she's gone?

Orson Scott Card
Love, Girl, Crazy
Orson Scott Card (2011). “Xenocide: Book 3 of the Ender Saga”, p.228, Hachette UK

I wonder sometimes if the motivation for writers ought to be contempt, not admiration.

Orson Scott Card
Motivational, Admiration, Sometimes
"Future on Fire". Book by Orson Scott Card, 1991.

You accomplish exactly as much as the people who serve you decide you'll accomplish and nothing more.

Orson Scott Card
Leadership, People, Accomplish
Orson Scott Card (2003). “Shadow Puppets”, p.109, Macmillan

Don’t win loyalty, just obedience, and only while the lash is in the room.

Orson Scott Card
Loyalty, Winning, Rooms
Orson Scott Card (2004). “The Crystal City: The Tales of Alvin Maker”, p.89, Macmillan

Poke gave him life. Ender gave it meaning.

Orson Scott Card
Ender, Poke
Orson Scott Card (2013). “Ender's Game Boxed Set I: Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon”, p.331, Macmillan

And what? What's the other choice? To passively let things happen and then say: "Tut-tut, what at botch that was"? Don't we all manipulate people? Even if we openly ask them to make a choice, don't we try to frame it so they'll chose as we think they should?

Orson Scott Card
Thinking, People, Choices

But if you caught my informant,' said Achilles, 'why in the world would Chamrajnagar—or Graff, if it was him—launch the shuttle anyway? Was catching me doing something naughty so important they’d risk a shuttle and it’s crew just to catch me? I find that quite… flattering. Sort of like winning the Nobel Prize for scariest villain.

Orson Scott Card
Winning, Naughty, Risk
Orson Scott Card (2003). “Shadow Puppets”, p.333, Macmillan

So you love me," said Petra softly when the kiss ended. I'm a raging mass of hormones thet I'm too young to understand," said Bean. "You're a female of a closely related species. According to all the best primatologists, I really have no choice." That's nice," she said.

Orson Scott Card
Nice, Kissing, Choices

Where ideas are real and reality is shadow.

Orson Scott Card
Real, Reality, Ideas
"Shadow Puppets". Book by Orson Scott Card, August 9, 2002.

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