Top 100 Anne McCaffrey Quotes
#1. James Blish told me I had the worst case of "said bookism" (that is, using every word except said to indicate dialogue). He told me to limit the verbs to said, replied, asked, and answered and only when absolutely necessary.
Anne McCaffrey
#2. But she wouldn't have been a Cat Person if she had not.
Anne McCaffrey
#3. My nightly craft is winged in white, a dragon of night dark sea.
Swift born, dream bound and rudderless, her captain and crew are me.
We've sailed a hundred sleeping tides where no seaman's ever been
And only my white-winged craft and I know the wonders we have seen.
Anne McCaffrey
#4. teeth. It was her offering which Aivas was rejecting. 'Of course,' and she brightened, 'we could keep some around to study and learn from, couldn't we?' She saw the horror and disgust of some of her colleagues. 'No, I guess we couldn't. Ah, well, back to microscope. My 98th batch of trials today.
Anne McCaffrey
#5. I have a shelf of comfort books, which I read when the world closes in on me or something untoward happens.
Anne McCaffrey
#6. The blackest night must end in dawn, the light dispel the dreamer's fear.
Anne McCaffrey
#7. The horse, the noblest, bravest, proudest, most courageous and certainly the most perverse and infuriating animal that humans ever domesticated
Anne McCaffrey
#9. People have freaked out when I tell them that my dragons are scientifically based ... what else can you call a genetically engineered life form?
Anne McCaffrey
#10. A man ought not be afraid to say he didn't know. Nor a woman.
Anne McCaffrey
#11. I think writers need windows on a view to remind them that a whole world is out there, not the minutiae with which they might be dealing on a close scale.
Anne McCaffrey
#12. Complacency and ignorance," Zebara suggested, pouring more brandy. "A very good way to keep a large population so tractable the society lacks rebellion." "But
Anne McCaffrey
#13. It must be an amazing mind-set, Afra thought, to consider one's self the only being of worth in the galaxy. There had been Humans who had had such delusions. They had generally died because of them
Anne McCaffrey
#14. Empty the mind of all concerns, see the stone as it is . . . cleansed of associations, wishes, dreams, fantasies, fears.
Anne McCaffrey
#15. Mostly I'm telling people that they don't have to be victims.
Anne McCaffrey
#17. I didn't raise Todd to be a writer, but he happened to be one anyway.
Anne McCaffrey
#19. I don't often reread my own books, unless I am going into another in the series and need to refresh my mood when originating the concept.
Anne McCaffrey
#20. It does not matter what the media say, so long as they say something with one's name in it.
Anne McCaffrey
#21. Some folk, too, believe what the loudest talker says. And some folk because it frightens them not to.
Anne McCaffrey
#22. If Jana had been given to putting her thoughts into words, she might have told Laxmi that without someone to love,there was no reason to live.
Anne McCaffrey
#23. I do outlines when I'm writing with someone, but they also need to have a certain amount of freedom.
Anne McCaffrey
#24. You idiot! You misbegotten son of a jinn's meeting with a jackass, may the grave of your maternal grandmother be defiled by the dung of ten thousand syphilitic she-camels!
Anne McCaffrey
#25. What has to be done can scarcely be termed heroic! Master
Anne McCaffrey
#26. At age 77, I need the help of someone with more energy than I can now summon to finish a book.
Anne McCaffrey
#27. But Ship Who Sang remains my favorite story. I really rocked folks with that and still cannot read it aloud myself without weeping at the end.
Anne McCaffrey
#28. Lessa was Ramoth's and Ramoth was hers, mind and heart, irrevocably attuned. Only death could dissolve that incredible bond.
Anne McCaffrey
#29. Living was struggling to do something impossible - to succeed, or die, knowing you had tried!
Anne McCaffrey
#30. Each egg hatched a different way, but a crack at the right time speeded things up.
Anne McCaffrey
#31. Die happy-I will, F'nor cried, cutting more fruit.
Anne McCaffrey
#32. How much can a dragon carry?
As much as it thinks it can
Anne McCaffrey
#33. But I will say that living in Ireland has changed the cadence and fullness of speech, since the Irish love words and use as many of them in a sentence as possible.
Anne McCaffrey
#34. Children's voices - even those who couldn't carry the tune - are always appealing.
Anne McCaffrey
#36. To cry was to release all sorts of ugly little pressures and tensions. Like waking out of a long, dark dream to a sun-filled day.
Anne McCaffrey
#37. Scuse me, lady, but I'm Wisp, 'cause that's all I am, a wisp of a thing, not much good for changing a thing in the world, said the boy for when he stepped inside, the light from the grimy window gave her a good view of his anxious, pointed little face.
Anne McCaffrey
#38. Living is struggling to do something impossible;
To succeed or die, knowing that you had tried.
Anne McCaffrey
#39. Tell the readers a story! Because without a story, you are merely using words to prove you can string them together in logical sentences.
Anne McCaffrey
#40. I also don't have organized religion on Pern. I figured - since there were four holy wars going on at the time of writing - that religion was one problem Pern didn't need.
Anne McCaffrey
#41. When bad fortune occurs, the unresourceful, unimaginative man looks about him to attach the blame to someone else; the resolute accepts misfortune and endeavors to survive, mature, and improve because of it.
Anne McCaffrey
#42. Dragon kind was no less cruel than mankind. The Dragon, at least, acted from bestial need rather than bestial greed."
~ A thought by Lessa ~
Anne McCaffrey
#43. all the time complaining at me that she could have had a career dancing topless at the Orbital Grill and Rendezvous Parlor. Her and her perky breasts. Yasmin, I told her, all the girls have perky breasts in zero-g, you were nothing special, you're lucky a good man took you away from all that.
Anne McCaffrey
#44. I have my good days and my bad days, but I don't have as much energy as I used to back when I was young and foolish and didn't count the cost - and it takes a lot - to write.
Anne McCaffrey
#45. I wouldn't encourage new writers to start off publishing through electronic media ... it still isn't wide enough for the readership they would need to get a good start.
Anne McCaffrey
#46. Above us, outlined against the brilliant sky, dragons crowded every available perching space on the Rim. And the sun made a gold of every one of them.
Anne McCaffrey
#47. Jubal threw his sign down in disgust and stalked away from the group. Sosi ran after him, the clipboard with the soggy petition
Anne McCaffrey
#48. I would recommend the short story form, which is a lot harder to write since you have to be so careful with words, until there is plenty of time to doodle through a novel.
Anne McCaffrey
#49. And so we must arm ourselves with tongues of flame.
Anne McCaffrey
#50. Harper, your song has a sorrowful sound,
Though the tune was written as gay.
Your voice is sad and your hands are slow
And your eye meeting mine turns away.
Anne McCaffrey
#51. Oh, Tongue, give sound to joy and sing
Of hope and promise on dragonwing
Anne McCaffrey
#52. Step by step
Moment by moment
We live through
Another day
Anne McCaffrey
#53. The bronze rider of Mnementh, Lord F'lar, will require quarters for himself. I, F'nor, brown rider, prefer to be lodged with the wingmen. We are, in number, twelve. F'lar liked that touch of F'nor's, totting up the wing strength, as if Fax were incapable of counting.
Anne McCaffrey
#54. I didn't mean to stay up all night to finish Windhaven, but I had to!
Anne McCaffrey
#55. It isn't often one gets the chance to entertain one's great-great-great-grandmother. Sassinak.
Anne McCaffrey
#57. There's nothing wrong in doubting. It sometimes leads to greater faith.
Anne McCaffrey
#58. There's something wrong in not appreciating one's own special abilities, my girl. Find your own limitations, yes, but don't limit yourself with false modesty.
Anne McCaffrey
#59. My eyes are green, my hair is silver and I freckly; the rest is subject to change without notice.
Anne McCaffrey
#60. Tell a story! Don't try to impress your reader with style or vocabulary or neatly turned phrases. Tell the story first!
Anne McCaffrey
#61. I'm very fond of the Talent series, and also the Crystal Singer trio.
Anne McCaffrey
#62. I'm 78, I'm on my pension in Ireland, and all that good stuff.
Anne McCaffrey
#64. How could she have believed such an artificial life as the theatre was suitable?
Anne McCaffrey
#65. Ramoth's huge golden wedge-shaped head swiveled around as the sleepy dragon instinctively sought her Wyermate.
Anne McCaffrey
#66. I think the Internet, particularly the availability of information, is great. I do a lot of correspondence on-line and have a chat line to talk to my fans as well.
Anne McCaffrey
#68. Pick on our clients, will you, you parasitical, piratical, putrefied parcels of puking pus-filled perverts.
Anne McCaffrey
#69. Harper, treat your words with care
For they may cause joy or despair
Sing your songs of health and love
Of dragons flaming from above
Anne McCaffrey
#71. He is crooked enough to hide behind a spiral staircase.
Anne McCaffrey
#74. That's what writing is all about, after all, making others see what you have put down on the page and believing that it does, or could, exist and you want to go there.
Anne McCaffrey
#75. Fire-lizard dance on wing
To the raucous song I sing.
Fire-lizrad wheel and turn,
Show me how the dragons learn.
Anne McCaffrey
#76. I have written my own screen version of Pern, but had no buyers yet.
Anne McCaffrey
#77. Writing has been so much a part of my life that I'm really quite annoyed that I can't do as much as I used to.
Anne McCaffrey
#78. Rider to your mate be true
Follow heart in deed and do
All the best your strength can find
So you will rest in heart and mind
Anne McCaffrey
#79. Harper to your word be true
Holder, crafter you also hew
To honesty, integrity, and respect
All others without regard to intellect
Anne McCaffrey
#80. Time, time, time. It's always the wrong time. When is now the time?
Anne McCaffrey
#81. Given the infinite variety of human personalities, it was impossible to like everyone.
Anne McCaffrey
#83. Don't leave me alone!
A cry in the night,
OF anguish heart-stiking,
Of soul-killing fright.
Live for my living
Or else I must die
Don't leave me alone.
A world heard that cry.
Anne McCaffrey
#84. Chuckled, referring to the time Markel had used up sixty percent of the system's resources to simulate a series of space battles in real time for one of his war games. Markel flushed.
Anne McCaffrey
#85. I did not have a chance to write novels until my youngest child started school fulltime.
Anne McCaffrey
#86. That's such a thrill - a story I wrote at the beginning of my career, and it's still packin' the house.
Anne McCaffrey
#87. I have always used emotion as a writing tool. That goes back to me being on the stage.
Anne McCaffrey
#88. A good story is a good story no matter who wrote it.
Anne McCaffrey
#90. What I used to do between writing fits was feed my kids, ride my horse and go shopping for cat and dog food.
Anne McCaffrey
#92. Drummer, beat, and piper, blow
Harper, strike, and soldier, go
Free the flame and sear the grasses
Til the dawning Red Star passes
Anne McCaffrey
#93. It is time to end a story that began in sorrow and ordeal and has ended in a deep and lasting happiness. May it be so for others.
Anne McCaffrey
#94. A real scientist solves problems, not wails that they are unsolvable.
Anne McCaffrey
#96. Man is wise to fear: it sharpens the sense of self-preservation.
Anne McCaffrey
#97. Because we build the worlds we wouldn't mind living in. They contain scary things, problems, but also a sense of rightness that makes them alive and makes us want to live there.
Anne McCaffrey
#98. The thing is, emotion - if it's visibly felt by the writer - will go through all the processes it takes to publish a story and still hit the reader right in the gut. But you have to really mean it.
Anne McCaffrey
#99. There were two bronzes, three browns, a blue and two greens.
Anne McCaffrey
#100. People don't change, love. React first, think later, regret at leisure. He
Anne McCaffrey
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