Harry Turtledove Quotes

#1. You count snouts," Straha said. "Whichever side can persuade most snouts to join it prevails. It does not have to be clever. It does not have to be wise. It only needs to be popular.

Harry Turtledove

#2. An empty belly makes a stern taskmaster.~Victor Radcliff

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#3. Plausible development, building from what we know about what really did go on, and a whacking good story ... Surrounded by Enemies delivers on both, big-time. So hold on to your hats, folks. You're in for quite a ride.

Harry Turtledove

#4. I first tried a novel when I was 14. First finished one when I was 16. First started working on stuff that had a chance of being salable in my early 20s, then didn't write much fiction at all because I was in grad school.

Harry Turtledove

#5. What does not corrupt a man's heart cannot corrupt his life, or do him any lasting harm.

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#6. when we awoke someone had stolen the sea.

Harry Turtledove

#7. He gathered enthusiasm when he thought of the goal, and not the means by which he had accomplished it.

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#8. Well, I might even get used to the idea that she had no tail.

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#9. A horsefly can't do a horse much real damage, but it can drive it wild anyhow.

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#10. That anyone would want to be famous still mystified Colin. As TV had trained him to do, he associated the word with divorces and court appearances and rehab and jail time. He knew more than he wanted about all of those except rehab, and that was the one famous people blew off anyway.

Harry Turtledove

#11. Fiction has to be plausible. All history has to do is happen.

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#12. The difference between bad and worse is a lot bigger than the difference between good and better.

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#13. He said, "You misunderstand. We did not kill the nuggies and the other folk hereabouts. They see us, and then they commonly die."
"Of what?" I asked.
"Of embarrassment.

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#14. I'm a social caterpillar. I am not a social butterfly

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#15. You know what I mean. Is it true the folk hereabouts" - he pointed to the land ahead - "are cripples? Missing half their hindquarters?"
"The fauns? Cripples?" I laughed. "By the gods who made them, no!

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#16. The Romans, spring and early

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#17. You can write better about a place you've seen for yourself. You don't have to have been there - I've sure written about places I've never seen - but it does help.

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#18. Somewhere near the Alamo, a bugle brayed: either that or McCulloch's men had found some reason to torture a poor, defenseless donkey.

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#19. People were as they were, not not as he wished them to be.

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#20. I do first draft in longhand, which saves a lot of rewriting. I try to get a certain amount done each day. Don't always, but I try. Then I clean up in the rewrites.

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#21. A horsefly can't do a horse much damage, but it can drive it wild anyway.

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#22. People you don't like are pigheaded. Your friends are stubborn, or hold to their purpose.~Victor Radcliff

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#23. Many things are possible. Few things are certain.

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#24. Do you see things in black and white, or are there shades of gray for you?"
"I hope there's gray ... Black and white make things easier, but only if you don't want to think.

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#25. For some idiot reason, the idea of going into the drink with a misspelled safety device weirded Bryce out.

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#26. I learned by reading an awful lot and by writing a half a million words of stuff nobody would do anything with except wrap old fish.

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#27. Holy Jesus God, it's the Gerps shootin' us up! the manager shouted. He hadn't known whether to say Germans or Japs, and came out with both at once.

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#28. When you thought of permanent oblivion, temporary oblivion was the only foxhole you had.

Harry Turtledove