Connie Willis Quotes and Sayings - Page 1
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“I learned everything I know about plot from Dame Agatha (Christie).”
-- Connie Willis -
“And every place and time an author writes about is imaginary, from Oz to Raymond Chandler's L.A. to Dickens's London.”
-- Connie Willis -
“I have never written anything in one draft, not even a grocery list, although I have heard from friends that this is actually possible.”
-- Connie Willis -
“You'd help if you could, wouldn't you, boy?" I said. "It's no wonder they call you man's best friend. Faithful and loyal and true, you share in our sorrows and rejoice with us in our triumphs, the truest friend we ever have known, a better friend than we deserve. You have thrown in your lot with us, through thick and thin, on battlefield and hearthrug, refusing to leave your master even when death and destruction lie all around. Ah, noble dog, you are the furry mirror in which we see our better selves reflected, man as he could be, unstained by war or ambition, unspoilt by-”
-- Connie Willis -
“When you're a writer, the question people always ask you is, "Where do you get your ideas?" Writers hate this question. It's like asking Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen, "Where do you get your leeches?" You don't get ideas. Ideas get you.”
-- Connie Willis -
“There are moments when rather than reforming the human race I'd like to abandon it altogether and go become, say, one of Dr. O'Reilly's macaques, which have to have more sense.”
-- Connie Willis -
“Fred Astaire is my hero. I love him because he was willing to kill himself to make his art look effortless. And because he proved it's possible to be an artist and a good person.”
-- Connie Willis -
“I was never going to get any sleep. I was going to have Alice in Wonderland conversation after Alice in Wonderland conversation until I died of exhaustion. Here, in the restful, idyllic Victorian era.”
-- Connie Willis -
“If King Harold had had swans on his side, England would still be Saxon.”
-- Connie Willis -
“Don't they know science doesn't work like that? You can't just order scientific breakthroughs. They happen when you are looking at something you've been working on for years and suddenly see a connection you never noticed before, or when you're looking for something else altogether. Sometimes they even happen by accident. Don't they know you can't get a scientific breakthrough just because you want one?”
-- Connie Willis -
“Shakespeare put no children in his plays for a reason," Sir Godfrey muttered, glaring at Alf and Binnie. "You're forgetting the Little Prince," Polly reminded him. "Who he had the good sense to kill off in the second act," snapped Sir Godfrey.”
-- Connie Willis -
“Management cares about only one thing. Paperwork. They will forgive almost anything else - cost overruns, gross incompetence, criminal indictments - as long as the paperwork's filled out properly. And in on time.”
-- Connie Willis -
“I hate sequels. They're never as good as the first book.”
-- Connie Willis -
“I am a Colorado native, and, no, I did not vote for the anti-gay amendment or the same-sex marriage ban, and I am not a member of a militia.”
-- Connie Willis -
“I watched the entire O.J. Simpson trial, and he was guilty.”
-- Connie Willis -
“Barbie's one of those fads whose popularity makes you lose all faith in the human race.”
-- Connie Willis -
“Writers are too neurotic to ever be happy.”
-- Connie Willis -
“It is my belief that everything you need to know about the world can be learned in a church choir.”
-- Connie Willis -
“To do something for someone or something you loved-England or Shakespeare or a dog or the Hodbins or history-wasn't a sacrifice at all. Even if it cost you your freedom, your life, your youth.”
-- Connie Willis -
“Science fiction is an amazing literature: plot elements that you would think would be completely worn out by now keep changing into surprising new forms.”
-- Connie Willis -
“I have great faith in the future of books - no matter what form they may take - and of science fiction.”
-- Connie Willis -
“Everyone else had the look of tired patience people always got when listening to a sermon, no matter what the century.”
-- Connie Willis -
“You shouldn't be looking for the secret to making people follow fads, you should be looking for the secret to making them think for themselves. Because that's what science is all about.”
-- Connie Willis -
“It was about a girl who helps an ugly old woman who turns out to be a good fairy in disguise. Inner values versus shallow appearances.”
-- Connie Willis -
“That's what the movies do. They don't entertain us, they don't send the message: 'We care.' They give us lines to say, they assign us parts: John Wayne, Theda Bara, Shirley Temple, take your pick.”
-- Connie Willis -
“There are some things worth giving up anything for, even your freedom, and getting rid of your period is definitely one of them.”
-- Connie Willis -
“The amazing thing is that chaotic systems don't always stay chaotic," Ben said, leaning on the gate. "Sometimes they spontaneously reorganize themselves into an orderly structure." "They suddenly become less chaotic?" I said, wishing that would happen at HiTek. "No, that's the thing. They become more and more chaotic until they reach some sort of chaotic critical mass. When that happens, they spontaneously reorganize themselves at a higher equilibrium level. It's called self-organized criticality.”
-- Connie Willis -
“Why do only the awful things become fads? I thought. Eye-rolling and Barbie and bread pudding. Why never chocolate cheesecake or thinking for yourself?”
-- Connie Willis -
“Cats, as you know, are quite impervious to threats.”
-- Connie Willis -
“The entire range of human experience is present in a church choir, including, but not restricted to jealousy, revenge, horror, pride, incompetence (the tenors have never been on the right note in the entire history of church choirs, and the basses have never been on the right page), wrath, lust and existential despair.”
-- Connie Willis
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