More and more I'm aware that the permutations are not unlimited. Russell Hoban More Quotes by Russell Hoban More Quotes From Russell Hoban I'd always assumed I was the central character in my own story, but now it occured to me I might in fact be only a minor character in someone else's. Russell Hoban storiesmightcharacter A map is the dead body of where you've been. A map is the unborn baby of where you're going. There are no maps. Maps are pictures of what isn't. Russell Hoban babyphilosophyart Sometimes I think that the biggest difference between men and women is that more men need to seek out some terrible lurking thing in existence and hurl themselves upon it. Women know where it lives but they can let it alone. Russell Hoban differencesmenthinking The Zoo is a prison for animals who have been sentenced without trial and I feel guilty because I do nothing about it. But there it was, I wanted to see an oyster-catcher and I was no better than the people who'd caged oyster-catchers for me to see. Russell Hoban freedomanimalzoos An ordinary mirror is silvered at the back but the window of the night train has darkness behind the glass. My face and the faces of other travellers were now mirrored on this darkness in a succession of stillnesses. Consider this, said the darkness: any motion at any speed is a succession of stillnesses; any section through an action will show just such a plane of stillness as this dark window in which your seeking face is mirrored. And in each plane of stillness is the moment of clarity that makes you responsible for what you do. Russell Hoban reflectiondarknight When you suffer an attack of nerves you're being attacked by the nervous system. What chance has a man got against a system?. Russell Hoban sufferingworrymen It's almost as if we're put here on earth to show how silly they aren't. Russell Hoban earthsillyanimal If reality had a stage door I'd hang around there to see what comes out after the show. Russell Hoban stagedoorsreality I have no wisdom and nothing useful to tell you - I only mentioned this because it came into my head. Russell Hoban Fidelity is a matter of perception; nobody is unfaithful to the sea or to mountains or to death: once recognized they fill the heart. Russell Hoban perceptionseaheart Who is Alice?" asked mother. "Alice is somebody that nobody can see," said Frances. "And that is why she does not have a birthday. So I am singing Happy Thursday to her." - Frances the badger Russell Hoban singingmotherdoe Life is a process of one goneness after another. Russell Hoban processlife-is Time's arrow, we are told, is a one-way thing. . . Memory's arrow, like the needle of a compass too close to a lodestone, spins in all directions. Russell Hoban arrowsmemoriesway There is a tiger in my room,' said Frances. 'Did he bite you?' said Father. 'No,' said Frances. 'Did he scratch you?' said Mother. 'No,' said Frances. 'Then he is a friendly tiger,' said Father. 'He will not hurt you. Go back to sleep. Russell Hoban hurtmotherfather The sign said 'The Green Turtle, Chelonia myadas, is the source of turtle soup....' I am the source of William G. soup if it comes to that. Everyone is the source of his or her kind of soup. In a town as big as London, that's a lot of soup walking around. Russell Hoban turtlesgreensoup Them as counts counts moren them as dont count Russell Hoban mathematicsnumbers Sometimes there's nothing but Sundays for weeks on end. Why can't they move Sunday to the middle of the week so you could put it in the OUT tray on your desk? Russell Hoban sundaysometimesmoving Me, what's that after all? An arbitrary limitation of being bounded by the people before and after and on either side. Where they leave off I begin, and vice versa. Russell Hoban philosophypeopleart But when I don't smoke I scarcely feel as if I'm living. I don't feel as if I'm living unless I'm killing myself. Russell Hoban cigarette-smokehumorousfunny If the past cannot teach the present and the father cannot teach the son, then history need not have bothered to go on, and the world has wasted a great deal of time. Russell Hoban
