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Samuel R. Delany Quotes - Page 4

All Quotes Art Writing
Spending practically every minute of your day on pure survival is an absolutely boring life.

Spending practically every minute of your day on pure survival is an absolutely boring life.

Samuel R. Delany
Survival, Boring, Minutes
Samuel R. Delany (1993). “Tales of Nevèrÿon”, p.97, Wesleyan University Press

In the arts, people are always waiting for someone or some movement to "fulfill her/its/his promise." Then, half-a-dozen or a dozen years on, others begin to realize that, really, something extraordinary was actually happening.

Samuel R. Delany
Art, Years, People
Samuel R. Delany, Carl Howard Freedman (2009). “Conversations with Samuel R. Delany”, p.94, Univ. Press of Mississippi

A number of things in Dhalgren are just meant to function as mysteries. They're mysteries when the book begins, and they're mysteries when the book ends.

Samuel R. Delany
Book, Numbers, Mystery
Interview with Tasha Robinson, www.avclub.com. August 8, 2001.

I think of myself as a very lazy writer, though other people see it differently.

Samuel R. Delany
Thinking, People, Lazy

I think a 23-page ordinary comic is an investment for the artist, but if you're doing something 60 to 104 pages, that's a really big investment for an artist. So unless you've got someone who wants to pay you while you're doing it or up front, it's kind hard to get someone to do that with you, unless you're the artist yourself.

Samuel R. Delany
Artist, Thinking, Ordinary

The General Public is a statistical fiction created by a few exceptional men to make the loneliness of being exceptional a little easier to bear.

Samuel R. Delany
Loneliness, Men, Fiction

Human beings being what they are, order spreads, given half a chance, almost as fast as confusion.

Samuel R. Delany
Order, Confusion, Half
Samuel R. Delany (2004). “The Fall of the Towers”, Vintage

Now for me, you're the irreplaceable one: I've never see you up so close before, and I do not understand you at all. You say sometimes I act like I don't see you? I don't even know where to look! Living with you around is like is like living with a permanent dazzle. The fact that you even like me, or look at me, or brush by me, or hug me, or hold me, is so surprising that after it's over I have to go back through it a dozen times in my head to savor it and try and figure out what it was like because I was too busy being astounded while it was happening.

Samuel R. Delany
Hug, Trying, Looks

The rich are always enamored of the ancient.

Samuel R. Delany
Ancient, Rich, Enamored
Samuel R. Delany (1968). “Nova”

The pulp hero, though he may be a renegade, is a guy who doesn't feel. Anything. Ever. And for the adolescent male - pummeled by emotions left and right, whether arising from sexuality or resulting from his necessary encounters with authority - this hero is a blessing, a relief and a release. The world he lives in, where feelings are totally under control, looks to the adolescent boy like heaven! This hero's lack of feeling - like Star Trek's Spock - is what allows him to be a genius, or allows him to shoot the bad guys and/or aliens, without a quiver to his lip.

Samuel R. Delany
Stars, Hero, Boys
"Space Cowboy: An Interview with Samuel R. Delany". Interview with Scott Westerfeld, www.nerve.com. 2001.

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