Truth, I have learned, differs for everybody. Just as no two people ever see a rainbow in exactly the same place - and yet both most certainly see it, while the person seemingly standing right underneath it does not see it at all - so truth is a question of where one stands, and the direction one is looking in at the time.

Iain Banks

Categorized in : People Two Truth

Empathize with stupidity and you're halfway to thinking like an i... by Iain Banks

Empathize with stupidity and you're halfway to thinking like an idiot.

idiot stupidity thinking

People were always sorry. Sorry they had done what they had done, sorry they were doing what they were doing, sorry they were going to do what they were going to do; but they still did whatever it is. The sorrow never stopped them; it just made them feel better. And so the sorrow never stopped.

feel-better sorry people

The point is, there is no feasible excuse for what are, for what we have made of ourselves. We have chosen to put profits before people, money before morality, dividends before decency, fanaticism before fairness, and our own trivial comforts before the unspeakable agonies of others

agony comfort people

People can be teachers and idiots; they can be philosophers and idiots; they can be politicians and idiots... in fact I think they have to be... a genius can be an idiot. The world is largely run for and by idiots; it is no great handicap in life and in certain areas is actually a distinct advantage and even a prerequisite for advancement.

running teacher thinking

One should never mistake pattern for meaning. by Iain Banks

One should never mistake pattern for meaning.

patterns should mistake

There's an old Sysan saying that the soup of life is salty enough... by Iain Banks

There's an old Sysan saying that the soup of life is salty enough without adding tears to it.

soup tears life-is

Science fiction is trying to find alternative ways of looking at... by Iain Banks

Science fiction is trying to find alternative ways of looking at realities.

alternatives trying reality

Perdition awaits at the end of a road constructed entirely from good intentions, the devil emerges from the details and hell abides in the small print.

good-intentions details devil

An Outside Context Problem was the sort of thing most civilisations encountered just once, and which they tended to encounter rather in the same way a sentence encountered a full stop.

encounters problem way

Political correctness is what right-wing bigots call what everybo... by Iain Banks

Political correctness is what right-wing bigots call what everybody else calls being polite

polite political wings

A guilty system recognizes no innocents. by Iain Banks

A guilty system recognizes no innocents.

guilty guilt

The trouble with writing fiction is that it has to make sense, wh... by Iain Banks

The trouble with writing fiction is that it has to make sense, whereas real life doesn't.

real writing fiction

One of your American professors said that to study religion was merely to know the mind of man, but if one truly wanted to know the mind of God, you must study physics.

study mind men

You need to read more science fiction. Nobody who reads science fiction comes out with this crap about the end of history

ends fiction needs

If you have any helpful suggestions I'd be pleased to hear them. If all you can do is make snide insinuations then it would probably benefit all concerned if you bestowed the fruits of your prodigious wit on someone with the spare time to give them the consideration they doubtless deserve.

suggestions benefits giving

Half the fun of writing a novel is finding out from other people... by Iain Banks

Half the fun of writing a novel is finding out from other people later on what you actually meant.

writing fun people

By the usual reckoning, the worst books make the best films. by Iain Banks

By the usual reckoning, the worst books make the best films.

film usual book

All our lives are symbols. Everything we do is part of a pattern we have at least some say in. The strong make their own patterns and influence other people's, the weak have their courses mapped out for them. The weak and the unlucky, and the stupid.

strong stupid people

My point has always been that, ever since the Industrial Revolution, science fiction has been the most important genre there is.

revolution important fiction

I enjoy it too much - even if I knew I'd never get a book published, I would still write. I enjoy the experience of getting thoughts and ideas and plots and characters organised into this narrative framework.

writing character book