Doctors don’t seem to realize that most of us are perfectly content not having to visualize ourselves as animated bags of skin filled with obscene glop. Joe Haldeman More Quotes by Joe Haldeman More Quotes From Joe Haldeman Hemingway was a jerk. I mean he was really a great jerk. He was a good writer, and he did all sorts of things that I would never have the courage to do, but I don't think I'd enjoy being in the same room with him. He's not my kind of person. Joe Haldeman great good enjoy courage Traveling anywhere in the world involves some risk. You could always opt to spend your life cowering under your bed. Joe Haldeman your you life world No person can escape Einsteinian relativity, and no soldier or veteran can escape the trauma of war's dislocation. Joe Haldeman escape person soldier war I met Heinlein after 'The Forever War' had won the Hugo and Nebula Awards. He shook my hand and said he loved the book so much, he'd read it three times. Joe Haldeman loved three war book I think any writer keeps going back to some basic theme. Sometimes it's autobiographical. I guess it usually is. Joe Haldeman some back think sometimes I think I would have been a writer, anyhow, in the sense of having written a story every now and then, or continued writing poetry. But it was the war experience and the two novels I wrote about Vietnam that really got me started as a professional writer. Joe Haldeman me experience poetry war You'd have to put yourself back in the 1960s to understand how separate from the mainstream of American life soldiers felt themselves to be, because we knew that students and others were demonstrating pretty violently against what we were doing. Joe Haldeman yourself understand you life I don't think I would have written a combat novel if I had just had peacetime military training. I think, in fact, I probably would have remained a poet and just written a short story every now and then. Joe Haldeman short story think training I like the physical action of writing down by hand, and I don't just use it for writing my fiction. Joe Haldeman down like action writing I carry a notebook and write down things to do, and I write out thoughts and stuff like that. Joe Haldeman thoughts down things like If I had had a thing like an iPad when I was a kid, then I never would have gotten into the habit of writing things down by hand. Joe Haldeman down never habit writing No good deed goes unpunished. I missed the moon landing by being nice to a stranger. Joe Haldeman being good nice moon It's fair to say that white America wouldn't have elected an African-American president without the integrating effect of black music - from Louis Armstrong to hip-hop - and black drama and fiction, commercial as much as 'serious.' Joe Haldeman black music serious white When I first started working at MIT, back in the '80s, our writing department had a joint cocktail party with the Harvard writing department. It was kind of oil-and-water. Joe Haldeman cocktail back party writing Political art - not always a contradiction in terms - can destroy institutions, or eat away at them. Joe Haldeman eat always political art Most science fiction is about white men who are 25 to 30, who are very smart, who face a physical problem and solve it. Joe Haldeman face smart men science