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Orson Scott Card Quotes - Page 19

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Writer’s block is my unconscious mind telling me that something I’ve just written is either unbelievable or unimportant to me, and I solve it by going back and reinventing some part of what I’ve already written so that

Writer’s block is my unconscious mind telling me that something I’ve just written is either unbelievable or unimportant to me, and I solve it by going back and reinventing some part of what I’ve already written so that when I write it again, it is believable and interesting to me. Then I can go on. Writer’s block is never solved by forcing oneself to “write through it,” because you haven’t solved the problem that caused your unconscious mind to rebel against the story, so it still won’t work – for you or for the reader.

Orson Scott Card
Block, Writing, Interesting

Death is not a tragedy to the one who dies; to have wasted the life before that death, that is the tragedy.

Orson Scott Card
Life, Tragedy, Dies
Orson Scott Card (2013). “The Shadow Quintet”, p.479, Macmillan

That was interesting, to find that it wasn't hunger that caused children to become bullies on the street. The bulliness was already in the child, and whatever the stakes were, they would find a way to act as they needed to act. … Intelligence and education, which all these children had, apparently didn't make any important difference in human nature.

Orson Scott Card
Children, Differences, Interesting
Orson Scott Card (2002). “Ender's Shadow”, p.109, Macmillan

That is the earth, he thought. Not a globe thousands of kilometers around, but a forest with a shining lake, a house hidden at the crest of a hill, high in the trees, a grassy slope leading upwards from the water, fish leaping and birds strafing to take the bugs that lived at the border between water and sky. Earth was the constant noise of crickets, and winds, and birds

Orson Scott Card
Lakes, Wind, Sky
Orson Scott Card (2011). “Ender's Game: Ender Series”, p.127, Hachette UK

He would always speak the language of the heart with an awkward foreign accent.

Orson Scott Card
Heart, Awkward, Language
Orson Scott Card (2009). “Shadow of the Hegemon”, p.60, Macmillan

In a way, being a Mormon prepares you to deal with science fiction, because we live simultaneously in two very different cultures. The result is that we all know what it's like to be strangers in a strange land. It's not just a coincidence that there are so many effective Mormon science fiction writers. We don't regard being an alien as an alien experience. But it also means that we're not surprised when people don't understand what we're saying or what we think.

Orson Scott Card
Mean, Science, Technology
"Orson Scott Card talks Ender's game in rare interview". Interview with Shane Snow, www.wired.com. October 31, 2013.

Human beings are free except when humanity needs them.

Orson Scott Card
Freedom, Men, Humanity
Orson Scott Card (2013). “The Ender Quintet”, p.50, Macmillan

The only people who ever prize purity of ignorance are those who profit from a monopoly on knowledge.

Orson Scott Card
Ignorance, People, Purity
Orson Scott Card (2013). “The Ender Quintet”, p.1126, Macmillan

Your dream is a good one. [. . .] The desire that is the very root of life itself: To grow until all the space you can see is part of you, under your control. It's the desire for greatness.

Orson Scott Card
Dream, Hope, Ambition
Orson Scott Card (2009). “Speaker for the Dead”, p.246, Macmillan

I have lived in the only decades I could have lived in, and hope to live through at least a few more.

Orson Scott Card
Hope To Live, Decades

The old tale of Sleeping Beauty might end happily in French or English, but he was in Russia, and only a fool would want to live through the Russian version of any fairy tale.

Orson Scott Card
Sleep, Russia, Want
Orson Scott Card (2005). “Enchantment”, p.77, Del Rey

Of course, I also hear from critics who detest what I do, and while sometimes I feel rather proud of having made various the loathsome people or groups angry, at other times I wonder why I put up with such grief.

Orson Scott Card
Grief, People, Groups

Americans love to pick up, move on, start over. But instead of being somebody fresh and new, they become somebody lonely and lost, or, far too often these days, they become nobody at all, a machine for satisfying hunger, without loyalty or honor or duty.

Orson Scott Card
Loyalty, Lonely, Moving
Orson Scott Card (2005). “Enchantment”, p.172, Del Rey

A library is the first step of a thousand journeys, portal to a thousand worlds.

Orson Scott Card
Journey, Library, World

I think Santa Claus is, by and large, quite beneficial, for when the child is finally allowed -- or forced -- to recognize the nonexistence of Santa Claus, then the child is able to go through the vital intellectual process of reconstructing reality in light of new evidence, complete with back-forming new stories to account for past events. This prepares the child for many other disillusionments and gives her vital and well-supported experience in maintaining her grip on reality independent of the stories told to her at any given time.

Orson Scott Card
Children, Independent, Past

If you lay a hand on me I'll ram your testicles so far up inside your abdomen it'll take a heart surgeon to get them out.

Orson Scott Card
Heart, Hands, Rams
Orson Scott Card (2009). “Children of the Mind”, p.86, Macmillan

It's the problem with age. You have all these rusty arguments, and no quarrel to use them in. My brain is a museum, but alas, I'm the only visitor, and even I am not terribly interested in the displays.

Orson Scott Card
Love, Fighting, Museums
Orson Scott Card (2010). “Heartfire: The Tales of Alvin Maker”, p.236, Macmillan

Do not shout at me, Mr. Quill," said John [Adams]. "Justice may be blind, but she is not deaf.

Orson Scott Card
Justice, May, Blind

Be proud, Bonito, pretty boy. You can go home and tell your father, Yes, I beat up Ender Wiggin, who was barely ten years old, and I was thirteen. And I had only six of my friends to help me, and somehow we managed to defeat him, even though he was naked and wet and alone--Ender Wiggin is so dangerous and terrifying it was all we could do not to bring two hundred.

Orson Scott Card
Father, Home, Boys
Orson Scott Card (2010). “Ender's Game”, p.136, Macmillan

A duel is just two murders who agree to take turns trying to kill each other.

Orson Scott Card
Two, Trying, Murder
Orson Scott Card (2016). “Seventh Son and Red Prophet”, p.102, Macmillan

In creating the strange milieu in which your story takes place, you must first understand as well as you possibly can the familiar milieu in which your own life is taking place. Until you have examined and comprehended the world around you, you can't possibly create a complex and believable imaginary world.

Orson Scott Card
Creating, Stories, World
Orson Scott Card (2001). “How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy”, p.61, Writer's Digest Books

When you have faith in something a lot of other people believe then you a member of the church" said Ceas, "When you have faith in something nobody believes, then you a complete wacko

Orson Scott Card
Believe, People, Church

As a species, we have evolved to survive. And the way we do it is by straining and straining and, at last, every few generaitons, giving brith to genius. The one who invents the wheel. And light. And flight. The one who builds a city, a nation, an empire...I'll put it bluntly. Human beings are free excpet when humanity needs them. Maybe humanity needs you. To do something. Maybe humanity needs me - to find out what you're good for.

Orson Scott Card
Light, Cities, Giving

The difference between science fiction and fantasy … is simply this: science fiction has rivets and fantasy has trees.

Orson Scott Card
Differences, Tree, Fiction

Maybe we're the fools, for thinking we know things. Maybe humans are the only ones who can deal with the fact that nothing can ever be known at all.

Orson Scott Card
Thinking, Fool, Facts
Orson Scott Card (2009). “Xenocide: Volume Three of the Ender Quintet”, p.211, Macmillan

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