C. J. Cherryh Quotes

19 Sourced Quotes

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

C. J. Cherryh
For me the purest and truest art in the world is science fiction.

C. J. Cherryh
There are certain myths that have persisted throughout the ages, and this one has remained very potent in modern culture. The Arthurian cycle involves numerous kinds of relationships, not only between men but also between men and women. In our rather less structured society nowadays defining these relationships can sometimes be difficult.

C. J. Cherryh
I most fear stupid people. Stupid people will do anything. Truly smart people will do only what is logical for them to do.

C. J. Cherryh
Change happened and you thought it was forever, and immediately there were all the enemies of that change making common cause and meeting in the cloakrooms.

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

C. J. Cherryh
She was a student of history, valued the lessons of it. The worst atrocities began with half-measures, with apologies, compromising with the wrong side, shrinking from what had to be done.

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. I don't think we have an obligation to change it radically. I think that if we ever move too far from the basic story, we would lose something very precious. I don't, for instance, approve of fantasy that attempts to go back and rewrite the Middle Ages until it conforms to political correctness in the twentieth century. That removes all the benefit from reading the story. 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
Poisoning rarely happens in a well-managed kitchen.

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

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

C. J. Cherryh
I frankly doubt that.
Ah. That is your privilege. But doubt doesn't alter fact, sir.

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
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
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