C. J. Cherryh quotes

C. J. Cherryh is an American science fiction and fantasy author, renowned for her complex world-building and richly drawn characters. Her work has earned numerous awards, including multiple Hugo Awards, and she is celebrated for influential series like the "Foreigner" universe. She continues to shape the genre with her thought-provoking stories and innovative ideas. Here are 34 of her quotes:

Inevitably the party trying to resolve a matter had to contend with the party most willing to exploit it.

C. J. Cherryh

Trade isn't about goods. Trade is about information. Goods sit in the warehouse until information moves them.

C. J. Cherryh

Average people didn't analyze what they thought: they thought they thought, and half of it was gut reaction.

C. J. Cherryh

Jane leaned back against the counter and stared at the ceiling. At the traditional location of God, no matter what the planet.

C. J. Cherryh

Poisoning rarely happens in a well-managed kitchen.

C. J. Cherryh

If you're up against a smart opponent, make him think himself to death.

C. J. Cherryh

Trade isn't about goods. Trade is about information.

C. J. Cherryh

When the legend is retold, it mirrors the reality of the time, and one can learn from studying how various authors have attempted to retell the story.

C. J. Cherryh

I've seen how other writers have approached the relationships in the Arthurian cycle in this century, and it does seem to me that while some of the characters get treated fairly, others do not. And the point is, it's one of those kinds of legends in which no one is totally wrong, not even Modred. It presents a collision of necessities, and Modred has his own political reality.

C. J. Cherryh

The warrior may fight for gold or for an immediate gain, or for something to take home for the winter to feed the family. The soldier is part of a more complex society. He's fighting for a group ethic of some sort.

C. J. Cherryh

A warrior is free to be a hero and pull off daring do and the soldier is irresponsible if he does it.

C. J. Cherryh

At this point I ceased argument with Lt. Goforth and shot him in the belly.

C. J. Cherryh

But they took the brightness too. It was inevitable, because that brightness was measured against that dark.

C. J. Cherryh

If you don't understand other people in their time and why they did what they did, then you don't understand your own past. And when you lose your past, you lose some potential for your own future.

C. J. Cherryh

You've behaved very highhandedly, Captain Mallory. Is that the custom out here?” "The custom is, sir, that those who know a situation handle it and those who don't watch and learn, or get out of the way.

C. J. Cherryh

What happened this far remote would have little political impact on Earth. What the visual media could not carry into living rooms, the general public could not long remain exercised about. Statistically, a majority of the electorate could not or did not read complicated issues; no pictures, no news; no news, no event.

C. J. Cherryh

Things whispered here, and the trees muttered with the wind and perhaps with other things. Men knew the place was old, old as the world, and they never made peace with it.

C. J. Cherryh

People ask where writers get ideas. Take my advice. Some cool, clear night, drive to a country place where city lights don't block your view. Turn off the car lights. Get out and look up. And see our real neighborhood.

C. J. Cherryh

Deal with the Devil if the Devil has a constituency - and don't complain about the heat.

C. J. Cherryh

I frankly doubt that.” "Ah. That is your privilege. But doubt doesn't alter fact, sir.

C. J. Cherryh

What the probe had found was a star with reasonable possibilities for encouraging life; a belt of debris, including particles, planetoids, irregular chunks somewhat under planet size with interesting implications for systemic formation, and a planetary companion with its own system of debris and moons...A planet desolate, baked, forbidding. It was no Eden, no second Earth, no better than what existed in the sun's own system, and it was a far journey to have gone to find that out. The press grappled with questions it could not easily grasp itself, sought after something to give the viewers, lost interest quickly. If anything, there were questions raised about cost, vague and desperate comparisons offered to Columbus, and the press hared off quickly onto a political crisis in the Mediterranean, much more comprehensible and far bloodier.

C. J. Cherryh

It is perfectly okay to write garbage – as long as you edit brilliantly.

C. J. Cherryh