Losing our ignorance can be dangerous because our ignorance is a shield. Dan Simmons More Quotes by Dan Simmons More Quotes From Dan Simmons Power: a currency that never went out of style. Dan Simmons currency style power Its hard to die. Harder to live Dan Simmons harder hard dies It's odd how violence and humor so often go together, isn't it? Dan Simmons violence humor together Love is nothing but lust misspelled. Dan Simmons lust love-is love ... all good things beyond sleep come precisely because we defy gravity while we live. Dan Simmons gravity good-things sleep Life doesn't retreat. Dan Simmons retreat life Life is brutal that way ... the loss of irrecoverable moments amid trivia and distraction. Dan Simmons loss life way No lifetime is long enough for those ... who simply wish to understand themselves and their lives. It is, perhaps, the curse of being human, but also a blessing. Dan Simmons blessing life long God is found in this Life ... to wait for another is folly. Dan Simmons found waiting life Every age fraught with discord and danger seems to spawn a leader meant only for that age, a political giant whose absence, in retrospect, seems inconceivable when the history of that age is written. Dan Simmons political leadership age You have to live to really know things, my love Dan Simmons knows The problem with being passionately in love ... is that it deprives you of too much sleep. Dan Simmons too-much sleep love The best advice that an accomplished writer could give a beginning writer is probably, "Find your slide and then grease it." Almost every writer that wants a rewarding career, in terms of money and status and number of readers, finally finds a certain genre or certain style that he or she sticks with until reaching a critical mass of readership. And I've violated this from the get-go. Dan Simmons grease advice giving The never-ending competition between writers hasn't changed between 1868 and 2000. I used to belong to writers' workshops with other professionals, but that becomes impossible after a while. Everyone's on a different step of the career ladder. Jealousy doesn't have to erupt into murder and burying someone in Wells Cathedral, but it is always there. Dan Simmons competition different impossible The Victorians, they were like the Germans in World War II. They could not stop recording details about their lives and their age. Dan Simmons age war world You've probably heard about the theory of steam-engine time - that even after the steam engine had been invented, it had to wait until people were ready to make use of it. The same thing happens in literary circles. The truth is, I'm not terribly interested in Victorian times; I'm interested in Victorian writers. I'm interested in most eras of history, but not the Victorian Era especially. I was interested in the John Franklin Expedition. I was interested in these last five weird years of Dickens' life. And I just have to take the age that comes with all that when I write about it. Dan Simmons waiting writing people I'm very interested in the evolution of technology, and it's really the idea of artificial life which intrigues me, more than just intelligence - a new, evolving life form arising within our datasphere and coming into living relation with humanity. Dan Simmons technology evolution humanity When I get about five readers I can rub together in one genre, I leave that genre and go somewhere else. And this is due to a vow that I made myself when I started writing - that if I had any success at all, I would not be bound to one form of writing. That I would write what moves me. The only way I can see me surviving and doing more than one book is to present the readers with a Dan Simmons novel, with whatever tropes and protocols from whatever genre I want to borrow them. If that builds a Dan Simmons readership, well then, okay. Otherwise, forget about it. I'd rather drive a truck. Dan Simmons writing book moving There are many other writers whose work I admire tremendously, but none whose work struck me at just the right young age. Jack Vance taught me that speculative fiction, science fiction, could be wonderfully and liberatingly stylistic. It didn't have to be pulp stuff. He really changed my writing and my view of science fiction, so if nothing else, my little homage to him in the novelette I wrote for that anthology is my thank-you to him. He helped me see that any genre can have excellent writing in it. Dan Simmons excellent age writing I think challenges are what any decent writer would be all about. If you actually do find your slide and grease it, shame on you. Me, I get bored very easily. As a writer I get bored even faster than I do in real life. I mean, I like fast cars; I've driven a lot of racecars. You need some stimulation. If I find something that seems too difficult to do, too difficult to research, or beyond your writing abilities, it's a perfect invitation to try it. Dan Simmons real writing mean