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Orson Scott Card Quotes - Page 5

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Life is full of grief, to exactly the degree we allow ourselves to love other people.

Life is full of grief, to exactly the degree we allow ourselves to love other people.

Orson Scott Card
Grief, People, Degrees
Orson Scott Card (2009). “Shadow of the Giant”, p.161, Macmillan

I think that most of us, anyway, read these stories that we know are not "true" because we're hungry for another kind of truth: the mythic truth about human nature in general, the particular truth about those life-communities that define our own identity, and the most specific truth of all: our own self-story. Fiction, because it is not about someone who lived in the real world, always has the possibility of being about oneself. --From the Introduction

Orson Scott Card
Real, Thinking, Self
Orson Scott Card (2010). “Ender's Game”, p.15, Macmillan

How long before married people answer the dictators thus: Regardless of law, marriage has only one definition, and any government that attempts to change it is my mortal enemy. I will act to destroy that government and bring it down, so it can be replaced with a government that will respect and support marriage, and help me raise my children in a society where they will expect to marry in their turn.

Orson Scott Card
Children, Government, Law
"Orson Scott Card: State job is not to redefine marriage" by Orson Scott Card, www.deseretnews.com. July 24, 2008.

You frighten me, when you say there isn't time." "I don't see why. Christians have been expecting the imminent end of the world for millennia." "But it keeps not ending." "So far, so good.

Orson Scott Card
Christian, World, Expecting
Orson Scott Card (2013). “Ender's Game Boxed Set I: Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon”, p.371, Tor Science Fiction

the seed of doubt was there, and it stayed, and every now and then sent out a little root. It changed everything, to have that seed growing. It made Ender listen more carefully to what people meant, instead of what they said. It made him wise.

Orson Scott Card
Wise, Roots, People
Orson Scott Card (2010). “Ender's Game”, p.81, Macmillan

My father always said that government is like watching another man piss in your boot. Someone feels better but it certainly isn't you.

Orson Scott Card
Father, Feel Better, Men
Orson Scott Card (2010). “Heartfire: The Tales of Alvin Maker”, p.7, Macmillan

Everybody dies. What matters is what you do between now and when it happens to you.

Orson Scott Card
What Matters, Matter, Happens

it was all your genes that made us geniuses, mom. said peter. we sure didn't get any from dad. i heard that. father said, not looking up from the news that was being displayed on the table while he ate it would've been wasted if you hadn't

Orson Scott Card
Mom, Dad, Father
Orson Scott Card (2013). “Ender's Game Boxed Set II: Ender's Game, Ender in Exile, Speak for the Dead”, p.27, Macmillan

When I am drunk I am at my best. It is the national knack of the French.

Orson Scott Card
Drunk, Knack
Orson Scott Card (2010). “Heartfire: The Tales of Alvin Maker”, p.124, Macmillan

The story itself, the true story, is the one that the audience members create in their minds, guided and shaped by my text, but then transformed, elucidated, expanded, edited, and clarified by their own experience, their own desires, their own hopes and fears.

Orson Scott Card
Mind, Desire, Stories
Orson Scott Card (2010). “Ender's Game”, p.15, Macmillan

It's as if every conversation with a woman was a test, and men always failed it, because they always lacked the key to the code and so they never quite understood what the conversation was really about.

Orson Scott Card
Men, Keys, Tests
Orson Scott Card (2005). “Enchantment”, p.32, Del Rey

I learned to separate the story from the writing, probably the most important thing that any storyteller has to learn-that there are a thousand right ways to tell a story, and ten million wrong ones, and you're a lot more likely to find one of the latter than the former your first time through the tale.

Orson Scott Card
Writing, Important, Stories
Orson Scott Card (2013). “The Ender Quintet”, p.20, Macmillan

Early to bed and early to rise," Mazer intoned, "makes a man stupid and blind in the eyes.

Orson Scott Card
Stupid, Eye, Men
Orson Scott Card (2013). “The Ender Quintet”, p.206, Macmillan

The best thing about my job, though, is stopping at the end of the day and rejoining the human universe.

Orson Scott Card
Jobs, The End Of The Day, Stopping

I will never hurt you. I will always help you. If you are hungry Ill give you my food. If you are frightened I am your friend. I love you now. And love does not end.

Orson Scott Card
Hurt, Love You, Giving
Orson Scott Card (2002). “Songmaster”, p.9, Macmillan

Surely you're not saying that God had to choose between long life and intelligence for human beings! It's there in your own Bible, Carlotta. Two trees - knowledge and life. You eat of the tree of knowledge and you will surely die. You eat of the tree of life and you remain a child in the garden forever, undying.

Orson Scott Card
Children, Garden, Two
Orson Scott Card (2002). “Ender's Shadow”, p.145, Macmillan

Human beings may be miserable specimens, in the main, but we can learn, and, through learning, become decent people.

Orson Scott Card
People, May, Miserable
Orson Scott Card (2010). “Ender's Game”, p.8, Macmillan

Writing sessions can last an hour or sixteen hours, depending on how it's going.

Orson Scott Card
Writing, Sixteen, Lasts

Maybe she couldn't know who she was today. Maybe it was enough to know that she was no longer who she was before.

Orson Scott Card
Today, Enough, Knows
Orson Scott Card (2013). “The Ender Quintet”, p.400, Macmillan

If words can be lethal weapons, I must provide them with an arsenal.

Orson Scott Card
Weapons, Lethal Weapon, Arsenal
Orson Scott Card (2013). “The Ender Quintet”, p.535, Macmillan

I will remember this, thought Ender, when I am defeated. To keep dignity, and give honor where it's due, so that defeat is not disgrace. And I hope I don't have to do it often.

Orson Scott Card
Giving, Honor, Dignity
Orson Scott Card (2013). “The Ender Quintet”, p.143, Macmillan

If it isn't a wonderful story first, who cares how "important" it is?

Orson Scott Card
Important, Who Cares, Stories
"Future on Fire". Book by Orson Scott Card, 1991.

The funny thing was, you see, that Mike Fink didn't think of himself as a murderer. He thought of life as a contest, and dying was what happened to those who came out second best, but it wasn't the same as murder, it was a fair fight.

Orson Scott Card
Fighting, Thinking, Funny Things
Orson Scott Card (2009). “Red Prophet: The Tales of Alvin Maker”, p.235, Macmillan

It was just him and me. He fought with honor. If it weren't for his honor, he and the others would have beaten me together. They might have killed me, then. His sense of honor saved my life. I didn't fight with honor . . . I fought to win.

Orson Scott Card
Life, Fighting, Winning
Orson Scott Card (2010). “Ender's Game”, p.143, Macmillan

Everything possible to be believed is an image of truth." -Taleswapper

Orson Scott Card

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