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5ccd084
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I like libraries. It makes me feel comfortable and secure to have walls of words, beautiful and wise, all around me. I always feel better when I can see that there is something to hold back the shadows.
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words
libraries
libraries-shadows
security
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Roger Zelazny |
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18c37a4
|
I know, too, that death is the only god who comes when you call.
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suicide
gods
mythology
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Roger Zelazny |
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8402dfd
|
Nobody steals books but your friends.
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irony
books
friendship
inspirational
stealing
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Roger Zelazny |
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860dda3
|
Don't wake me for the end of the world unless it has very good special effects.
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death
life
simulacra
post-modernism
end-of-the-world
cinema
armageddon
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Roger Zelazny |
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503f538
|
No word matters. But man forgets reality and remembers words.
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|
words
story
history
humanity
reality
semiotics
truthful
narrative
memory
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Roger Zelazny |
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ef426d9
|
There's no such thing as civilization. The word just means the art of living in cities.
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war
culture
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Roger Zelazny |
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ae158b9
|
I saw my earlier selves as different people, acquaintances I had outgrown. I wondered how I could ever have been some of them.
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moving-on
life
moving-forward
growing-up
growth
self
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Roger Zelazny |
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bd95f1f
|
To paraphrase Oedipus, Hamlet, Lear, and all those guys, "I wish I had known this some time ago."
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irony
shakespeare
humor
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Roger Zelazny |
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d0d5288
|
A totally nondenominational prayer: Insofar as I may be heard by anything, which may or may not care what I say, I ask, if it matters, that I be forgiven for anything I may have done or failed to do which requires forgiveness. Conversely, if not forgiveness but something else may be required to insure any possible benefit for which I may be eligible after the destruction of my body, I ask that this, whatever it may be, be granted or withhe..
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|
prayer
funny
religion
humor
agnosticism
bureaucracy
mythology
parody
|
Roger Zelazny |
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eb2bd63
|
Good-bye and hello, as always.
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|
greetings
parting
eternity
|
Roger Zelazny |
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5577880
|
I watched the spinning stars, grateful, sad and proud, as only a man who has outlived his destiny and realizes he might yet forge himself another, can be.
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|
stars
poetry
life
sense-of-wonder
pride
longing
|
Roger Zelazny |
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65447a4
|
even a mirror will not show you yourself, if you do not wish to see.
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|
|
Roger Zelazny |
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3d13f8e
|
When I said I wanted to die in my sleep, I meant I wanted to be stepped on by an elephant while making love.
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|
Roger Zelazny |
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2650662
|
Of all the things a man may do, sleep probably contributes most to keeping him sane. It puts brackets about each day. If you do something foolish or painful today, you get irritated if somebody mentions it, today. If it happened yesterday, though, you can nod or chuckle, as the case may be. You've crossed through nothingness or dream to another island in Time.
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|
sleep
sanity
time
inspirational
rest
memory
|
Roger Zelazny |
|
cb0c3bd
|
There's really nothing quite like someone's wanting you dead to make you want to go on living.
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|
|
Roger Zelazny |
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9765059
|
The day of battle dawned pink as the fresh-bitten thigh of a maiden.
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|
dawn
sf
|
Roger Zelazny |
|
d8a84a9
|
His followers called him Mahasamatman and said he was a god. He preferred to drop the Maha- and the -atman, however, and called himself Sam. He never claimed to be a god, but then he never claimed not to be a god.
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Roger Zelazny |
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00b856d
|
Sleep is perhaps the only among life's great pleasures which need not be of short duration.
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Roger Zelazny |
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1b4e2a4
|
the headwaters of Shit Creek are a cruel and treacherous expanse.
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|
|
Roger Zelazny |
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83af49b
|
In the mirrors of the many judgments, my hands are the color of blood. I sometimes fancy myself an evil which exists to oppose other evils; and on that great Day of which the prophets speak but in which they do not truly believe, on the day the world is utterly cleansed of evil, then I too will go down into darkness, swallowing curses. Until then, I will not wash my hands nor let them hang useless.
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|
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Roger Zelazny |
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1e5e535
|
Do you work for the government, any government?" "I pay taxes, which means I work for the government, part of the time. Yes."
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|
irony
political
|
Roger Zelazny |
|
fe140f8
|
Why could you not have left me as I was, in the sea of being?" "Because the world has need of your humility, your piety, your great teaching and your Machiavellian scheming."
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|
sf
|
Roger Zelazny |
|
64244f7
|
I have many names, and none of them matter. Names are not important. To speak is to name names, but to speak is not important. A thing happens once that has never happened before. Seeing it, a man looks upon reality. He cannot tell others what he has seen. Others wish to know, however, so the question him saying, 'What is it like, this thing you have seen?' So he tries to tell them. Perhaps he has seen the very first fire in the world. He t..
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|
|
Roger Zelazny |
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aa046c5
|
Then the one called Raltariki is really a demon?" asked Tak. "Yes--and no," said Yama, "If by 'demon' you mean a malefic, supernatural creature, possessed of great powers, life span and the ability to temporarily assume virtually any shape--then the answer is no. This is the generally accepted definition, but it is untrue in one respect." "Oh? And what may that be?" "It is not a supernatural creature." "But it is all those other things?" "Y..
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|
wisdon
supernatural
unknown
|
Roger Zelazny |
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8234f60
|
Love is a negative form of hatred.
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|
|
Roger Zelazny |
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e292378
|
Then you must reconcile yourself to the fact that something is always hurt by any change. If you do this, you will not be hurt yourself.
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|
time
pain
free-will
the-keys-to-december
reconciliation
maturity
melancholy
eternity
|
Roger Zelazny |
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bf96a30
|
Strygalldwir is my name. Conjure with it and I will eat your heart and liver." "Conjure with it? I can't even pronounce it, and my cirrhosis would give you indigestion."
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|
|
Roger Zelazny |
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2730f9b
|
The universe did not invent justice. Man did. Unfortunately, man must reside in the universe.
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|
universe
humanism
justice
|
Roger Zelazny |
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c8d1a03
|
I'm a lost soul. We wail.
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|
|
Roger Zelazny |
|
bd4edca
|
An army, great in space, may offer opposition in a brief span of time. One man, brief in space, must spread his opposition across a period of many years if he is to have a chance of succeeding.
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|
opposition
timing
planning
|
Roger Zelazny |
|
e07b952
|
It would be nice if there were some one thing constant and unchanging in the universe. If there is such a thing, then it is a thing which would have to be stronger than love, and it is a thing which I do not know.
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|
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Roger Zelazny |
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508a647
|
It is anticipation and recollection that fill the heart--never the sensation of the moment.
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|
memory
|
Roger Zelazny |
|
1a0814d
|
I've always been impulsive. My thinking is usually pretty good, but I always seem to do it after I do my talking -- by which time I've generally destroyed all basis for further conversation.
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|
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Roger Zelazny |
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d474850
|
Call themselves?" asked Yama. "You are wrong, Sam, Godhood is more than a name. It is a condition of being. One does not achieve it merely by being immortal, for even the lowliest laborer in the fields may achieve continuity of existence. Is it then the conditioning of an Aspect? No. Any competent hypnotist can play games with the self-image. Is it the raising up of an Attribute? Of course not. I can design machines more powerful and more a..
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|
godhood
yama
|
Roger Zelazny |
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6eb2e75
|
Such times are rare, such times are fleeting, but always bright when caught, measured, hung, and later regarded in times of adversity, there in the kinder halls of memory, against the flapping of the flames.
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Roger Zelazny |
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46e0a4b
|
Of course it does not apply to me. I am the soul of honor, kindness, mercy and goodness. Trust me in all things.
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|
|
Roger Zelazny |
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0d3f9bf
|
Good evening, Lord Corwin,' said the lean, cadaverous figure who rested against a storage rack, smoking his pipe, grinning around it. Good evening, Roger. How are things in the nether world?' A rat, a bat, a spider. Nothing much else astir. Peaceful.' You enjoy this duty?' He nodded. I am writing a philosophical romance shot through with elements of horror and morbidity. I work on those parts down here.
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|
writing
humor
metafiction
|
Roger Zelazny |
|
2cf1b7f
|
Thus did I bear Sir Lancelot de Lac to the Keep of Ganleon, whom I trusted like a brother. That is to say, not at all.
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|
|
Roger Zelazny |
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f2d9562
|
Did you ever look back at some moment in your past and have it suddenly grow so vivid that all the intervening years seemed brief, dreamlike, impersonal--the motions of a May afternoon surrendered to routine?
|
|
past
years
remembering
|
Roger Zelazny |
|
041c939
|
We fought.' 'A duel?' 'Nothing that formal. A simultaneous decision to murder one another is more like it.
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|
|
Roger Zelazny |
|
9249492
|
I walked among Shadows, and found a race of furry creatures, dark and clawed and fanged, reasonably manlike, and about as intelligent as a freshman in the high school of your choice-sorry, kids, but what I mean is they were loyal, devoted, honest, and too easily screwed by bastards like me and my brother. I felt like the dee-jay of your choice.
|
|
|
Roger Zelazny |
|
dcbc7dc
|
Time passed slowly, like and old man climbing a hill.
|
|
|
Roger Zelazny |
|
89fcc84
|
It is a pain in the ass waiting around for someone to try to kill you.
|
|
|
Roger Zelazny |
|
3b9e28f
|
You are a fool to speak of last great battles, Sam, for the last great battle is always the next one.
|
|
kali
perspective
battle
|
Roger Zelazny |