Best 39 quotes of Alan Dean Foster on MyQuotes

Advances have fallen, generally, for everything except the biggest potential bestsellers. Given all the changes, both economic and technological, SF hasn't done too badly.

Besides the mistakes that are pointed out, I love the way readers become involved with the characters. When readers start asking about character motivations instead of concentrating on the special effects, it means you're connecting with them on a personal level.

Dawn was written well before 9/11. People speak a lot today about the banality of evil, but not all evil is banal. Some of it is carefully structured and well-thought-out. That's where the real danger lies.

Don't try to write to the trend of the moment.

Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting.

Getting inside the mind of a terrorist wasn't difficult at all. Even as children, human beings fabricate elaborate revenge fantasies. We're not a particular species. Check out popular video games.

Growing up, I never gave a thought to being a writer. All I ever wanted to be was a traveler and explorer. Science-fiction allowed me to go places that were otherwise inaccessible, which is why I started reading it.

How much research I have to do depends on the nature of the story. For fantasy, none at all.

I enjoy listening to classical music and heavy metal. I play basketball and try to go diving at least once a year. I don't really have hobbies in the traditional sense... I engage in too many activities already through the actions of my characters.

If you're crazy, there's two things you can do to make yourself feel better: One is to get yourself cured. The other is to make everyone you have to deal with crazy.

I have a bad tendency to get rapidly bored with my own material, so rewriting is hard for me. I mean, I already know the story and would rather read something new.

I hear entire symphonies, oratorios, in my head, but I can't write a note.

In one book, CACHALOT, just for my own amusement, every character is based directly on someone I have known.

I see the Jedi mission as giving up a normal life in exchange for protecting the innocent. It's a life of sacrifice. There are rewards, but also a certain degree of sterility.

It is always hard when reality intrudes on belief.

I usually do one con a year as a GoH and try to make the World Fantasy Convention for business purposes. Last year I went to a worldcon for the first time in two decades. I may go again this year.

I write early in the morning, usually after reading portions of at least half a dozen newspapers on the web.

Keep writing. Try to do a little bit every day, even if the result looks like crap. Getting from page four to page five is more important than spending three weeks getting page four perfect.

Living gives you a better understanding of life. I would hope that my characters have become deeper and more rounded personalities. Wider travels have given me considerably greater insight into how cultural differences affect not only people, but politics and art.

Spontaneity is one of the joys of existence, especially if you prepare for it in advance.

The overwhelming triumph of the international multimedia conglomerate has resulted in less diversity within the field and has made it much harder for newer writers not only to break in, but to make any kind of a living while doing so.

There is nothing in art, in philosophy, or in politics to match the fervor of mutual cooperation among discordant bands of fanatics.

There's certainly more new SF available than when I started writing. That means there's also more bad SF available. Whether there is also more good is a matter for future historians of the field.

The storm hit with all the fury of a woman who’d been dieting for six months, only to discover she’d gained four pounds.

The universe is full of dead people who lived by assumption.

We're all nothing but unified arrangements of atoms and particles, drifting around, enjoying consciousness every now and then for a second or so before splitting up to become bits and pieces of trees and stars and french fries.

Where lies the line between sorcery and science? It is only a matter of terminology, my friend.

Writing allows me the time to travel and see the world, which is what I always wanted to do. I'd really like to have been Sir Richard Francis Burton, but it's the wrong century.

Crazy thing is, it’s all real. The Jedi, the Force – it’s true. All true.

He stood on the sand watching the double sunset as first one and then the other of Tatooine's twin suns sank slowly behind the distant range of dunes. In the fading light the sands turned gold, russet, and flaming red-orange before advancing night put the bright colors to sleep for another day.

Hux refused to pace, regarding it as a waste of energy.

It illuminated a vision Dante could not have imagined in his wildest nightmares, nor Poe in the grasp of an uncontrollable delirium.

Luke Skywalker? I thought he was just a myth.

Poe readied himself. "The Resistance will not be intimidated by you." "As you wish, then. There is no 'Resistance' in this room. Only the pilot Poe Dameron. And I.

SHE NEEDED HIM. AND HE WAS NOWHERE TO BE FOUND. (P:7)

that slimy sycophant Hux

There has been an awakening in the Force. Have you felt it?

There was a freshness about her that the surrounding harsh landscape had failed to eliminate

The thing all writers do best is find ways to avoid writing.