I think noir is an immensely powerful - and elastic - lens through which to look at narrative and character. It seems to access something dark and true in us that other modes of fiction are often a bit prissy about touching. But the key to making it work as time and culture moves on is to use the elasticity, not just the power.

Richard K. Morgan

A preoccupation with the next world clearly shows an inability to cope credibly with this one.

Richard K. Morgan

atheism atheist philosophy

The way I see it, anyone who's proud of their country is either a thug or just hasn't read enough history yet.

Richard K. Morgan

thug proud country

Take what is offered and that must sometimes be enough.

Richard K. Morgan

enough sometimes

The human eye is a wonderful device. With a little effort, it can fail to see even the most glaring injustice.

Richard K. Morgan

effort eye littles

For all that we have done, as a civilization, as individuals, the universe is not stable, and nor is any single thing within it. Stars consume themselves, the universe itself rushes apart, and we ourselves are composed of matter in constant flux. Colonies of cells in temporary alliance, replicating and decaying and housed within, an incandescent cloud of electrical impulse and precariously stacked carbon code memory. This is reality, this is self knowledge, and the perception of it will, of course, make you dizzy.

Richard K. Morgan

stars memories reality

War is like any other bad relationship. Of course you want out, but at what price? And perhaps more importantly, once you get out, will you be any better off?" - Quellcrist Falconer

Richard K. Morgan

bad-relationship want war

In the future, maybe quantum mechanics will teach us something equally chilling about exactly how we exist from moment to moment of what we like to think of as time.

Richard K. Morgan

chill moments thinking

Evolutionary theory informs our understanding of some frankly inexcusable social behavior and renders it perfectly normal.

Richard K. Morgan

perfectly-normal social-behavior understanding

When a man you know to be of sound mind tells you his recently deceased mother has just tried to climb in his bedroom window and eat him, you only have two basic options. You can smell his breath, take his pulse and check his pupils to see if he's ingested anything nasty, or you can believe him.

Richard K. Morgan

mother men believe

Science casts a long black shadow back over who we think we are, and where it falls the temperature falls with it. Its touch is chilly and unforgiving.

Richard K. Morgan

long fall thinking

If you don’t know the men at your back by name, don’t be surprised if they won’t follow you into battle. On the other hand, don’t be surprised if they will, either, because there are countless other factors you must take into account. Leadership is a slippery commodity, not easily manufactured or understood.

Richard K. Morgan

names men hands

Culture is like a smog. To live

Richard K. Morgan

smog breathe culture

Pretty much anything you care to imagine can happen in a fantasy, which in turn means you can really crank up the intensity of the tale you're telling.

Richard K. Morgan

fantasy care mean

I think by definition you need to have lived a little bit to write anything that's humanly true.

Richard K. Morgan

writing needs thinking

We all get our dreams stamped on from time to time, right? And if it didn’t hurt, what kind of second-rate dreams would they be?

Richard K. Morgan

kind hurt dream

It was the single forgiving phrase in the syntax of weaponry I had strapped about me. The rest were unequivocal sentences of death.

Richard K. Morgan

forgiving syntax phrases

Syndicate is technically the first game I worked on.

Richard K. Morgan

syndicate games firsts

Hand over your responses to the man who triggers them, and you have already lost the battle for self. Look beyond, and find yourself there instead.

Richard K. Morgan

self men hands

I've been accused countless times of writing gloomy futures. But to me, the texture of my sci-fi just feels like an extrapolation of current trends.

Richard K. Morgan

texture trends writing

Certainly a decade and a half out in the real world, bashing my head against things, probably made me into a more textured writer. It gives you something to write about.

Richard K. Morgan

real writing giving