Joan D. Vinge Quotes

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Joan D. Vinge

Profession : Author

Birth : April 2, 1948

We are all born with a unique genetic blueprint, which lays out the basic characteristics of our personality as well as our physical health and appearance... And yet, we all know that life experiences do change us.

Joan D. Vinge

For every path you choose, there is another you must abandon, usually forever.

Joan D. Vinge

The contradictions are what make human behavior so maddening and yet so fascinating, all at the same time.

Joan D. Vinge

Perhaps the thing that makes humans truly unique on Earth is that we are never satisfied with our situation; maybe that is what's taken us so far.

Joan D. Vinge

As for the historical inspirations I drew on in writing The Snow Queen, I suppose I would call them more cross-cultural inspirations, though they frequently involve past societies as well as present day ones.

Joan D. Vinge

What does immortality mean to me? That we all want more time; and we want it to be quality time.

Joan D. Vinge

Studying anthropology, I developed a kind of holistic view of human existence, in which the dichotomies you listed are all necessary and vital aspects of life.

Joan D. Vinge

There's no such thing as a free lunch, at least on the karmic level.

Joan D. Vinge

Here was a fragment of Goddess myth that, through all its permutations, had somehow escaped being turned on its head. It was the perfect springboard for the sort of novel I wanted to write.

Joan D. Vinge

I was thinking about what I wanted to write next, after my first novel, and had decided that I wanted to write a story with a lot of strong female characters in it.

Joan D. Vinge

Probably I chose immortality because mortality is a universal human obsession.

Joan D. Vinge

Humans may be the only creatures on Earth who spend significant time thinking about the fact that someday their lives will end.

Joan D. Vinge

Fear of the unknown is a terrible fear.

Joan D. Vinge

Besides, wouldn't it be wonderful if no one ever had to worry about the random cruelty of fatal illness or the woes of old age attacking them or their loved ones?

Joan D. Vinge

Everything born has to die, in order to make room for the future.

Joan D. Vinge

The mers were also designed to reproduce only at long intervals, in order to maintain the natural balance of the environment in which they were placed.

Joan D. Vinge

Humans are upsetting a fragile balance that their own human ancestors established.

Joan D. Vinge

Moon is also a naive native girl when she sets out for Carbuncle.

Joan D. Vinge

I wanted to show those characters discovering it is possible to find common ground, as they make their way through a plotline that I hope is engrossing enough to keep the reader a willing participant.

Joan D. Vinge

What I do not want to write is didactic political tracts.

Joan D. Vinge