C. J. Cherryh Quotes

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

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

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

Watch out for a man whose enemies keep disappearing.

Culture is how biology responds and makes its living conditions better.

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

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

Remember, constantly, that when you talk about 'tense of a subjunctive,' you're not talking about time. You're slipping through degrees of reality.

Ignorance killed the cat; curiosity was framed!

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

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

Poisoning rarely happens in a well-managed kitchen.

Nothing's hopeless except never trying.

Never start a war with something you can't talk to.

I do not think any SFWA communication should come anywhere NEAR the internet.

Writing day and night for months… that’s hard.

Rattle a lawyer's door and you get more lawyers.

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

My worlds are complex, and often suggest more than one story.

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

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.

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

The t'ca [ship] left them, rolled and slewed off in a maneuver that made sense to a multi-brained snake.--from The Kif Strike Back

If I can make you angry... I have passed your guard again. I have given you something to think about besides the Game

There was a certain wisdom in doing little, when one was obliged to act in ignorance.

Could there be a snare in too much beauty? Could there be too much expectation of good, and too much fiath? Could ever there be too much love?And could love require lies?

He was home, but he wasn't. He had gotten where he had to go, but he hadn't. He had found out who he was, but he didn't know why it had failed to satify his questions.

Belief... was its own magic-so long as it was carefully placed, often examined, like a bridge kept in careful repair.

Were the seeds of next things always there, in the circle of the year, and was that how the world worked its miracles?

Is that the end... of all the races and civilizations, and the dreams of the world, to be able to leave a few stones buried beneath the sands, to tell the Dark that we were here?