Roger Zelazny quotes - page 3

Roger Zelazny was an American writer renowned for his contributions to science fiction and fantasy literature. His works, such as "The Chronicles of Amber," received many prestigious awards and are celebrated for their imaginative storytelling. He remains an influential figure whose visionary style continues to inspire readers and writers alike. Here are 123 of his quotes:

I had wanted to go after her, to explain my part in what had happened. But I knew it would do no good, so why lose face? When a fairy tale blows up and the dream dust settles and you find yourself standing there, knowing that the last line will never be written, why not omit any exercises in futility?

Roger Zelazny

I was born on the planet Earth, into the middle of the twentieth century, that period in the history of the race when man succeeded in casting off many of the inhibitions and taboos laid upon him by tradition, reveled for a brief time, and then discovered that it didn't make a bloody bit of difference that he had. He was still just as dead when he died, and he was still faced with every life-death problem that had confronted him before, compounded by the fact that Malthus was right.

Roger Zelazny

On the water, aboard the Proteus, the crowding, the activities, the tempo, of life in the cities, on the land, are muted, slowed-fictionalized-by the metaphysical distancing a few meters of water can provide. We alter the landscape with great facility, but the ocean has always seemed unchanged, and I suppose by extension we are infected with some feelings of timelessness whenever we set out upon her.

Roger Zelazny

You were both correct,” said Morningstar. "It is the same thing that you both describe, although neither of you sees it as it really is. Each of you colors reality in keeping with your means of controlling it. For if it is uncontrollable, you fear it. Sometimes then, you color it incomprehensible. In your case, a machine; in theirs, a demon.

Roger Zelazny

Even if they had been real gods, what did it matter? What was it to me? Here I was still, right where I was born a thousand or so years before, in the middle of the human condition-namely, rubbish and pain. If the gods were real, their only relationship with us was to use us to play their games. Screw them all.

Roger Zelazny

I was cruising along on Tokyo Bay, and suddenly this was the answer, looming, the heaped remains of everything that goes down and does not come again to shore, life's giant kitchen-midden, the rubbish heap that remains after all things pass, the place that stands in testament to the futility of all ideals and intentions, good or bad, the rock that smashes values, there, signalizing the ultimate uselessness of life itself, which must one day be broken upon it, not to rise, no, never, not ever, again.

Roger Zelazny

Symbols, by their very nature, conceal as well as indicate, damn them!

Roger Zelazny

I have noted, too, that when it comes to matters of security the laws are considerably relaxed.

Roger Zelazny

All of these things considered, it is not surprising that one can detect echoes, correspondences and even an eternal return or two within the work of a single author. The passage of time does bring changes, yea and alas; but still, I would recognize myself anywhere.

Roger Zelazny

I sank Atlantis," he said, "personally. It was about three years ago. And God! it was lovely! It was all ivory towers and golden minarets and silver balconies. There were bridges of opal, and crimson pennants and a milk-white river flowing between lemon-colored banks. There were jade steeples, and trees as old as the world tickling the bellies of clouds, and ships in the great sea-harbor of Xanadu, as delicately constructed as musical instruments, all swaying with the tides. The twelve princes of the realm held court in the dozen-pillared Coliseum of the Zodiac, to listen to a Greek tenor sax play at sunset.

Roger Zelazny

It is no shame to lose to me, mortal. Even among mythical creatures there are very few who can give a unicorn a good game." "I am pleased that you were not wholly bored," Martin said. "Now will you tell me what you were talking about concerning the destruction of my species?

Roger Zelazny

Could Yarl the Omnipotent create a stone so heavy he couldn't lift it?” Green Green asked him. ”No,” said Courtcour. ”Why not?” ”He would not.” ”That is no answer.” ”Yes, it is. Think about it. Would you?

Roger Zelazny

I'd lived far too long, and with every day that passed the odds kept growing against my lasting much longer. Although they didn't put it quite that way when giving the sales pitch, my insurance company's attitude is reflected in the size of the premiums involved.

Roger Zelazny

I wasn't disappointed, inasmuch as I expected nothing.

Roger Zelazny

Times have changed since the Good Book was written, and you can't hold with a purely Fundamentalist approach in complex times.

Roger Zelazny

Never trust a cat, anyway. All they're good for is stringing tennis racquets.

Roger Zelazny

Insofar as I may be heard by anything, which may or may not care what I say, I ask, if it matters, that you be forgiven for anything you may have done or failed to do which requires forgiveness. Conversely, if not forgiveness but something else may be required to insure any possible benefit for which you may be eligible after the destruction of your body, I ask that this, whatever it may be, be granted or withheld, as the case may be, in such a manner as to insure your receiving said benefit. I ask this in my capacity as your elected intermediary between yourself and that which may not be yourself, but which may have an interest in the matter of your receiving as much as it is possible for you to receive of this thing, and which may in some way be influenced by this ceremony. Amen.

Roger Zelazny

May the blind things at the bottom of the great sea, whose bellies are circles of light,” he said, "recall with pleasure the flavor of your marrow.

Roger Zelazny

Between the black of yesterday and the white of tomorrow is the great gray of today, filled with nostalgia and fear of the future.

Roger Zelazny

This added the element of mystery that made the comparison inevitable: life is a thing that reminds me quite a bit of the beaches around Tokyo Bay. Anything goes. Strange and unique things are being washed up all the time. I'm one of them and so are you. We spend some time on the beach, maybe side by side, and then that slopping, smelling, chilly thing rakes it with the liquid fingers of a crumbling hand and some of the things are gone again.

Roger Zelazny

There's no need for your pretty lies now. It makes no difference to an old woman the things a young girl believed.

Roger Zelazny

Then I could turn around and justify that, by saying that it isn't really paranoia if there really are people out to get you.

Roger Zelazny