Iain Banks quotes - page 6

And coincidence convinces the credulous. Two things happen at the same time, or one after another, and we assume there must be a link; well, we sacrificed a virgin last year, and there was a good harvest. Of course the ceremony to raise the sun works-it comes up every morning, doesn't it? I say my prayers each night and the world hasn't ended yet... Dung beetle thinking. Life is too complicated for there not to be continual coincidences, and we just have to come to terms with the fact that they merely happen and aren't ordained, that some things occur for no real reason whatsoever, and that this is not a punishment and that is not a reward. Good grief; the most copper-bottomed, platinum-card proof of divine intervention, of some holy masterplan, would be if there were no coincidences at all! That really would look suspicious. (Iain Banks)
I came out stunned. I was angry at them, then. Angry at them for surprising me, touching me like that. Of course I was angry at their stupidity, their manic barbarity, their unthinking, animal obedience, their appalling cruelty; everything that the memorial evoked... but what really hit me was that these people could create something that spoke so eloquently of their own ghastly actions; that they could fashion a work so humanly redolent of their own inhumanity. View quote
Iain Banks
The news team, and Hamin, seemed well pleased. "You should have been an actor, Jernau Gurgeh,” Hamin told him. Gurgeh assumed this was intended as a compliment. View quote
Iain Banks
"Let's waste a little time, hmm?” "A nice euphemism, sir,” she mused distantly. He smiled. "Come and help me think of better ones.” She smiled and they both looked at each other. There was a long pause. View quote
Iain Banks
It was just like some ancient electricity-powered computer; it didn't matter how fast, error-free, and tireless it was, it didn't matter how great a labor-saving boon it was, it didn't matter what it could do or how many different ways it could amaze; if you pulled its plug out, or just hit the off button, all it became was a lump of matter; all its programs became just settings, dead instructions, and all its computations vanished as quickly as they'd moved. It was, also, like the dependency of the human-basic brain on the human-basic body; no matter how intelligent, perceptive and gifted you were, no matter how entirely you lived for the ascetic rewards of the intellect and eschewed the material world and the ignobility of the flesh, if your heart just gave out... That was the Dependency Principle; that you could never forget where your off switches were located, even if it was somewhere tiresome. View quote
Iain Banks
Apparently I am what is known as an Unreliable Narrator, though of course if you believe everything you're told you deserve whatever you get. View quote
Iain Banks
As a writer, you get to play, you get alter time, you get to come up with the smart lines and the clever comebacks you wish you'd thought of. View quote
Iain Banks
I love writing and can't imagine not being able to do it. I want an easy life and if it had been difficult I wouldn't be doing it. I do admire writers who do it even though it costs them. View quote
Iain Banks
Looking at me, you'd never guess I'd killed three people. It isn't fair. View quote
Iain Banks
Tell me, suit, don't you wonder if it's all worth it?' "If what's all worth what?” it says, and I can hear that condescending tone in its voice again. "You know; living. Is it worth all the... bother?” "No.” "No?” "No, I don't ever wonder about it.” "Why not?” I'm keeping my questions short as we walk, conserving energy and breath. "I don't need to wonder about that. It's not important. View quote
Iain Banks
Sex was an infringement, an attack, an invasion; there was no other way he could see it; every act, however magical and intensely enjoyed, and however willingly conducted, seemed to carry a harmonic of rapacity. He took her, and however much she gained in provoked pleasure and in his own increasing love, she was still the one that suffered the act, had it played out upon her and inside her. He was aware of the absurdity of trying too hard to develop the comparison between sex and war; he had been laughed out of several embarrassing situations trying to do so ("Zakalwe,” she would say when he tried to explain some of this, and she would put her cool slim fingers behind his neck and stare out from the rambunctious black tangle of her hair. "You have serious problems.”. (Iain Banks)
It's a library, only the stupid or the evil are afraid of those. View quote
Iain Banks
Sometimes the thoughts and feelings I had didn't really agree with each other, so I decided I must be lots of different people inside my brain. View quote
Iain Banks
But even if all the other stuff seems a bit esoteric, just think of all those other avatars at all those other gatherings, concerts, dances, ceremonies, parties and meals; think of all that talk, all those ideas, all that sparkle and wit! View quote
Iain Banks
They spend time. That's just it. They spend time traveling. The time weighs heavily on them because they lack any context, any valid framework for their lives. They persist in hoping that something they think they'll find in the place they're heading for will somehow provide them with a fulfilment they feel certain they deserve and yet have never come close to experiencing. View quote
Iain Banks
Sorrow be damned and all your plans. Fuck the faithful, fuck the committed, the dedicated, the true believers; fuck all the sure and certain people prepared to maim and kill whoever got in their way; fuck every cause that ended in murder and a child screaming. View quote
Iain Banks
See if you can hold off this pack of blood-sucking scavengers. Here's my duelling sword. View quote
Iain Banks
Nothing is sacred to you, Mr. Munro. You base your beliefs on the products of human thought, so it could hardly be otherwise. You might believe in certain things, but you do not have faith. That comes with submission to the force of divine revelation. View quote
Iain Banks
Elated? Pleased? View quote
Iain Banks
It must be a burden, not even being able to say you were just obeying orders. View quote
Iain Banks
You serious? (Iain Banks)
Oh. I didn't realise. View quote
Iain Banks
But are we within likelihood? Are we even still within the realm of anything other than paranoid lunacy? View quote
Iain Banks
Fear lasted a week, anger a year and resentment a lifetime. View quote
Iain Banks
I still have some of my old University essays, and I do still have my drawing book from primary year seven. View quote
Iain Banks