It is a truism that when one is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. The glory of art is that it can show this proverbial hammer how everything looks to a screwdriver--and to a plowshare, and to an earthenware pot. If reality is the sum of our perceptions, to acquire more varying points of view is to acquire, literally, more reality.

Matthew Stover

There are some who say that Time is itself a hammer; that each slow second marks another tap that makes big rocks into little rocks, waterfalls into canyons, cliffs into beaches. There are some who say that Time is instead a blade. They see the dance of its razored tip, poised like a venomous snake, forever ready to slay faster than the eye can see. And there are some who say that Time is both hammer and blade. They say the hammer is a sculptor's mallet, and the blade is a sculptor's chisel: that each stroke is a refinement, a perfecting, a discovery of truth and beauty within what would otherwise be blank and lifeless stone. And I name this saying wisdom.

Before one can learn truth, one must unlearn lies. by Matthew Stover

Before one can learn truth, one must unlearn lies.

Being old enough to know better but still too young to resist mos... by Matthew Stover

Being old enough to know better but still too young to resist mostly sucks.

If you have to justify an action, you probably shouldn’t have don... by Matthew Stover

If you have to justify an action, you probably shouldn’t have done it in the first place

Jedi do not fight for peace. That's only a slogan, and is as misleading as slogans always are. Jedi fight for civilization, because only civilization creates peace. We fight for justice because justice is the fundamental bedrock of civilization: an unjust civilization is built upon sand. It does not long survive a storm.

Pain is itself a god: the taskmaster of life. Pain cracks the whip, and all that lives will move. To live is to be a slave to pain.

Scars are the key to power. Scars are the map of beauty... Each o... by Matthew Stover

Scars are the key to power. Scars are the map of beauty... Each of us is the sum of our scars.

Somehow Luke understood - in a way that Lando never had, that Hand and Leia and Chewbacca had simply never grasped - just how dark a place the universe really was. Lando guessed that was where Luke got his humility. His kindness. His gentle faith that people could change for the better. That must have been why he rarely smiled, and almost never made jokes. Because the goodness was all he really had. It was his lifeline. The rope to which he clung, dangling over the abyss.

The dark is generous and it is patient and it always wins – but in the heart of its strength lies its weakness: one lone candle is enough to hold it back. Love is more than a candle. Love can ignite the stars.”

The truth is always greater than the words we use to describe it. by Matthew Stover

The truth is always greater than the words we use to describe it.

The only way to understand the implications and viability of this business model (Lyft and Uber) is to become an investor.

GM and Ford earn terrific rates of return in North America, but they're getting killed in Europe and South America.

There's a reason why anger, fear, and hatred are paths to the dark side: they all spring from a single source - the same source as a certain flavor of love. A dangerously sweet, addictive flavor.

anger fear sweet love

It'd be impossible to capture the feel of 'All Quiet on the Western Front' in a novel starring Mace Windu; 'All Quiet' is a tragic coming-of-age story.

story feel impossible quiet

'The New Jedi Order' was a pure publishing project: a single massive story - virtually one huge novel spread across multiple volumes - told by a succession of authors.

project new story single

It would be misleading to say, 'I believe in the Force,' in the same sense that it would be misleading to say, 'I believe in the sun.' Give it whatever name you like - the Force, the Tao, the Holy Spirit, the Universal Mind - I see it in action everywhere I look, both in the world and in myself.

myself you mind sun

Perhaps the most significant thing George Lucas did in creating 'Star Wars' was to fictionalize the Tao - to spark a universe where we can talk about the Force in objective terms and show it in direct action.

spark talk universe action

I was never interested in writing novelizations. I'm still not. E... by Matthew Stover

I was never interested in writing novelizations. I'm still not. Especially not for 'Star Wars.'

still star never writing

You should remember that I started as a fanboy many years ago; I saw 'A New Hope' more than twenty times in the theater. I saw 'The Empire Strikes Back' nearly thirty times.

new you hope remember