Jack Vance Quotes

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Jack Vance

Profession : Author

Birth : August 28, 1916

But I'm so slow on it because I find it terribly hard writing blind on computers. The computer speaks to me, but it's just so slow, I'm so terribly slow using it.

Jack Vance

Then there was Clark Ashton Smith, who wrote for Weird Tales and who had a wild imagination. He wasn't a very talented writer, but his imagination was wonderful.

Jack Vance

A reader is not supposed to be aware that someone's written the story. He's supposed to be completely immersed, submerged in the environment.

Jack Vance

As I mentioned, I was a carpenter for a time.

Jack Vance

These are just the tip of the iceberg, because I read and read and read. I read everything.

Jack Vance

I was a carpenter for a time and everybody watches what you do.

Jack Vance

But I've sure worked at jobs where I have been under inspection.

Jack Vance

Right now I'm so old that if I had a big gush of money, I don't know what I'd do with it. I don't travel anymore. I don't need anything, don't want anything. I'd give it to my son, I guess, and let him enjoy it.

Jack Vance

I haven't been to a movie since somebody gave me free tickets to Star Wars, which I went to.

Jack Vance

It seems to limit you; when you're working in an office, you're a creature in a small cell under somebody's supervision and surveillance.

Jack Vance

Well, I think everything I've ever read contributes to the background from which I write.

Jack Vance

This flattery has been rather slow in coming. I think all of sudden late in life now I'm getting some credit for what I've done. Which is gratifying, but it's kind of a little late.

Jack Vance

There was a writer in the '20s called Christopher Morley, who I remember a little bit of, who had some influence on me, but I couldn't tell you what it was.

Jack Vance

The story was such that I couldn't make a graceful ending and then make a graceful new beginning. I could have, but I didn't want to. So, it isn't the most graceful way of writing a story. This new story is, I think, is pretty good stuff. I'm pleased with it anyway.

Jack Vance

Sometimes some of these little side excursions are useful and I manage to fit them in the book somewhere.

Jack Vance

So I'll write it, and then I'll find out that I actually wrote something that is utterly useless. You can't use it in the story and it doesn't fit. So I just throw it away. I've done that countless times.

Jack Vance

In fact, almost every job you get somebody watching you.

Jack Vance

I'd never been published when I was young.

Jack Vance

I worked for half a cent a word. I'm not a fast writer to begin with, so for the first few years I had do other things.

Jack Vance

I was an omnivore at reading, so that everything I ever read contributed.

Jack Vance