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R. A. Lafferty

112 quotes

• “Tell me the truth, girl: how does the man next door ship out trailer-loads of material from a building ten times too small to hold the stuff?" "He cuts prices.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) first seen 1965 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: In Our Block" (1965); later in Nine Hundred Grandmothers (1970)

• “My brain reels," moaned Homer the man. "Reality melts away.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) first seen 1967 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The Hole in the Corner" (1967); later in Nine Hundred Grandmothers (1970)

• “There are two possibilities,” said sour John. “One is that I am slow of understanding. The other is that you are not making sense. On other evidence, I know the first possibility to be impossible.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) first seen 1968 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: One at a Time (1968), in Damon Knight (ed.), Orbit 4, p. 157

• “Then bury me again and leave me in peace. Nobody likes to be resurrected before he's had time to get comfortable in his grave.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) first seen 1968 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: One at a Time (1968), in Damon Knight (ed.), Orbit 4, p. 161

• “Have you never heard the most beautiful parable ever, about the boy who went around the world in search of the strangest thing of all, and came to his own home at the end, and it so transfigured that he hardly knew it?”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) first seen 1969 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Configuration of the North Shore (1969), in Damon Knight (ed.), Orbit 5, p. 126

• “To you who are scattered and broken, gather again and mend. Rebuild always, and again I say rebuild. Renew the face of the earth. It is a loved face, but now it is covered with the webs of tired spiders.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) first seen 1972 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Judy's letter to the dispersed members of the Church of Omaha, in "And Walk Now Gently Through the Fire" (1972)

• “When very young, Hannali would sit on the black ground and chuckle till it was feared he would injure himself. Whatever came over him, prenatal witticism or ancestral joke, he seldom was able to hold his glee. In all his life he never learned to hold it in.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) first seen 1972 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Okla Hannali (1972)

• “Happy people have no need to talk.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I write as clearly as I am able to. I sometimes tackle ideas and notions that are relatively complex, and it is very difficult to be sure that I am conveying them in the best way. Anyone who goes beyond cliche phrases and cliche ideas will have this trouble.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) first seen 1973 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Interview in Alien Critic (August 1973)

• “Though my short stories are the more readable, my novels do have more to say; and they will, if anyone has the patience for it, repay a rereading.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) first seen 1973 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Interview in Alien Critic (August 1973)

• “How quickly I could clean this desk,” she thought, “if only the wastebasket were larger.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) first seen 1977 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Brain Fever Season, in Universe 7 (1977), (ed. Terry Carr), p. 182

  Also quoted by: George Alec Effinger

• “For, without cruelty, only a limited success is ever possible in opera.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) first seen 1978 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Selenium Ghosts of the Eighteen Seventies (1978), in Terry Carr (ed.), The Year's Finest Fantasy: Volume 2, p. 233 (originally published in Universe 8)

• “In its flexibility and in its wide-open opportunities, this is the total Utopia. Anything that you can conceive of, you can do in this non-world. Nothing can stop you except a total bankruptcy of creativity. The seedbed is waiting. All the circumstances stand ready. The fructifying minerals are literally jumping out of the ground. And nothing grows. And nothing grows. And nothing grows. Well, why doesn't it?”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) first seen 1979 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: The Day After the World Ended, notes for a speech at DeepSouthCon'79, New Orleans (21 July 1979), later published in It's Down the Slippery Cellar Stairs (1995)

• “When you have shot and killed a man you have in some measure clarified your attitude toward him. You have given a definite answer to a definite problem. For better or worse you have acted decisively. In a way, the next move is up to him.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) first seen 1982 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: Golden Gate" in Golden Gate and Other Stories (1982)

• “I don't think I should be getting more attention from mainstream book reviewers. I've never written any mainstream books, and I'm always surprised when the mainstreamers notice me at all.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) first seen 1991 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: As quoted in "My interview with R.A. Lafferty", by Tom Jackson, originally published in Lan's Lantern #39 (1991); here in the Sandusky Register (16 January 2015)

• “The best time to write a story is yesterday. The next best time is today.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) first seen 1995 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: It's Down the Slippery Cellar Stairs (1995)

• “The good stories, of course, write themselves. And somebody wants to know who are the really good writers, and how many of them there are. There aren't any. Most of the writers are likeable frauds. Some are unlikable frauds.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) first seen 1995 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

  Recorded in: It's Down the Slippery Cellar Stairs (1995)

• “Paul, there is something very slack about a future that will take a biting satire for a vapid dream.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The shapes they take are both objective and subjective. One can shape them a little with one's own mind.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Now then, I have given you a short fair hearing as the law requires. I do not solicit the support of your party, though, in all honesty, if it had more than one member I might.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Lend ear while things incredible we bring about And Spacemen dead and deathless yet we sing about:— And some were weak and wan, and some were strong enough, And some got home, but damn it took them long enough!”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “This myth filter was necessary. The ship logs could not tell it rightly nor could any flatfooted prose. And the deeds were too bright to be viewed direct. They could only be sung by a bard gone blind from viewing suns that were suns.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The war was finished. It had lasted ten equivalent years and taken ten million lives. Thus it was neither of long duration nor of serious attrition. It hadn't any great significance; it was not intended to have. It did not prove a point, since all points had long ago been proven. What it did, perhaps, was to emphasize an aspect, sharpen a concept, underline a trend. On the whole it was a successful operation. Economically and ecologically it was of healthy effect, and who should grumble? And after wars, men go home. No, no, men start for home. It's not the same.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “These men were the salt of the skies, the one out of ten who had determinedly stayed alive through the whole war, very often hurt, absolutely refusing to be killed.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “When we travel we find how greatly our boyhood dreams are outstripped by reality.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I do not understand your custom in this, but we do not intend to fight until all of us are dead. We desire very much that none of us be dead. And we will fight till all of you are dead only if it is absolutely necessary.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “There are no rules. We do whatever seems the most fun.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Death is for a long time. Those of shallow thought say that it is forever. There is, at least, a long night of it. There is the forgetfulness and the loss of identity. The spirit, even as the body, is unstrung and burst and scattered. One goes down to death, and it leaves a mark on one forever.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I've had enough of this place where they stuff you full of bull and then hunt you down and kill you every day.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “There are skies we have not seen yet! There are whole realms still unvisited by us. We will not be penned in even a giant's pen. We fly!”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I will never tell anyone how much fun it is in this place.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The Dong button was just that, a big green button with the word Dong engraved on it. You pushed it, and it went dong. Well, that was almost too simple. Should there not be a deeper reason for it? And the small instruction plate over it didn’t add much. It read: “Wrong prong, bong gong.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “They were down on Kentron-Kosmon, an insignificant world. And yet, in the middle of Space-Port there (a cow pasture rather; it wasn't much of a spaceport) there was a nice plaque of electrum and on it was lettered: This is the Exact Center of the Universe.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I'm the guy who keeps it all going. If I weren't here, you wouldn't be here either. I know it all, I'm a smart-aleck. Loan-sharking and fencing. Any time I can't see you, you've had it.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “It isn't my profundity that makes me a mental marvel, it's the amazing detail of my perception. There's nobody else who can keep so many things on his mind at once.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “As regards very small celestial bodies of a light-minded nature, the law of levity is allowed to supersede the law of gravity.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “An excess of science will leave none of us alive.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “'Monday and Tuesday and Monday and Tuesday and Monday and Tuesday,' so the poor slaves had to sing in their labor for the puca. And finally a great savior broke the charm. 'And Wednesday too' he said, and then it was all over with." "Roadstrum is the great savior who breaks the charm," Roadstrum announced. "I will set a Wednesday-term to the monster. But there are other elements in this…”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Roadstrum had a way of putting it on a little thick himself. "Be there a man among you who doubts my demesne or destiny, then I have fared in vain," he said. "I bare my throat to the treacherous steel —" "All right, all right," the three tough crewmen capitulated. We're with you all the way and in everything. Only spare us the 'act.'”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Strangers may not lodge complaints till they have been in residence here for ninety days," the Cacique said, "and no stranger has ever remained with us that long." "My complaint won't hold for ninety days. I accuse you people of eating men.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Here there are warlocks and mandragoras and witches," the navigation data log issued. "When your machines start to go droll on you you're in trouble," Roadstrum growled. "I can get wise answers from my men. I don't need a machine for that.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “'We are strangers, lost and bemused," Roadstrum said to the lady. "We have landed here by accident. We are looking for a lady who was singing, the lady who (according to silly myth) is identical with the planet and who sang the planet into being.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I am Aeaea. To my notion there is no other lady anywhere. And I resent your calling this a silly myth. I made the myth and it is not silly; charming rather. Well, come along, come along! You are my things now, and you will come when I call you.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I am mistress of all the sciences. I go so far beyond all else that my work is called magic. I manipulate noumena, regarding monads as points of entry tangential to hylomorphism. As to the paradox of Primary Essence being contained in Quiddity, the larger in the smaller, I have my own solution. The difficulty is always in not confusing Contingency with Accidence. Do you understand me?" "Sure. You're a witch.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Do you not know that the underground lands are shared by many worlds? It is all one underground, a vast place, and it is but a trick on which globe one will surface on coming out. This is the reason that the inside of every world is so much vaster than the outside. You are fooled by the shape of these little balls on which things live and crawl; you see the universe inside out; you see the orbs as containing and not contained. I will teach you to see it right if you please me.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I am the consummate scientist, Road-Storm. Science has suffered in having her name applied to mechanics, an ugly step-child of hers. Matter herself is a humiliation to the serious. We cannot make it vanish forever, but can make it seem to. For my purpose that is even better. All matter can be modified as long as it is kept subjective. Let us keep it so. … Those who fail to understand my science may call it magic or hypnotism or deception. But it is only my projection of total subjectivity.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “I'll break the spell or the science of her singing yet. As the only man left it devolves on me to do it.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “Something was working in Roadstrum's little ape head. When he had been a man he had always known when it was time for action; particularly he had always known the last moment when action was still possible. He knew now that that moment was come very near. … Then a blinding light burst upon Roadstrum, and he saw the truth of the situation. Many things Roadstrum was not, and it was sometimes wondered why he was the natural leader of all the men. He was their leader because he was a man on whom the blinding light sometimes descended.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “The witch has been playing a semantic trick on us. We were already pretty salty animals when we came here! It is toy animals she has turned us into. We have been working against ourselves, trying to be men again, but to be her idea of men, since we live in her context. But she does not know real animals, or men. … Be you not toys any longer! Stir up the wild business in you. You have to be real animals before you can be men.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

• “It was the most exclusive club in the world, in all the worlds, and this is a mighty pale statement to make about it. Let us emphasize that it was hard to get into.”

  R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source

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