Neal Asher Quotes

#1. If Polity forces were to turn up here, then your king would have to respond, by which time the turd trajectory would be fanwards.

Neal Asher

#2. I've been an engineer, barman, skip lorry driver, coalman, boat window manufacturer, contract grass cutter and builder.

Neal Asher

#3. The end of the mid finger on my left hand is wider than normal, the nail distorted and a scar in the end. This was from when I managed to shove it in the path of a mower blade.

Neal Asher

#4. Coloron often pondered how a race, in which the stupid seemed more inclined to breed, had managed to come this far, and why human intelligence persisted - a discussion point in the nature vs nurture debate which had not died in half a millennium.

Neal Asher

#5. It seemed that, after contact with a few human generations, sand hogs would begin to understand human speech. The irony was that after coming to understand their riders fully, the beasts often ended up abandoning them and heading off into the wilderness.

Neal Asher

#6. Thus, in moments of catastrophe, when hard decisions needed to be made quickly, all AIs included in their calculations a human death toll governed by a factor called 'pigheadedness'.

Neal Asher

#7. Cormac was completely aware that he was being manipulated, but how he could not see. He reckoned that when he did find out, the surprise would be a nasty one. That was how it usually went.

Neal Asher

#8. It wasn't until I had been writing on and off for maybe ten years that I started to establish any kind of routine, thought I couldn't put a finger on an exact date, and this routine relates simply to the aphorism 'How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.'

Neal Asher

#9. For me, the writing process is the same as the reading process. I want to know what happens next.

Neal Asher

#10. Satisfaction, for us, is only a brief thing. The man who acquires wealth does not reach a point where he has enough. Success for us is more like acceleration than speed. Interest cannot be maintained at a constant level.

Neal Asher

#11. Gemmell's name guarantees a satisfying story and a thumping good read. I recommend all his heroic creations - 'Druss the axeman,' 'the Jerusalem man,' among others - but my favourite has to be 'Waylander': Clint Eastwood with a crossbow and the same 'Make my day, punk' attitude.

Neal Asher

#12. Try to think like a human,' said Gant, lolling in one of the club chairs.
'Why should I restrict myself so severely?

Neal Asher

#13. Blew up? How?' 'We dropped a shielded runcible gate into it while the gate at the other end was moved into position before a stream of near-light-speed asteroids flung out from a spinning black hole.

Neal Asher

#14. You are newborn from the furnace and about to enter Hell. And in time you will, for reasons will find obscure, name yourself Penny Royal ...

Neal Asher

#15. Mysticism is the function of a mind looking for alternatives to reality.

Neal Asher

#16. And, when the revolutionary cries that he is fighting for 'freedom', be sure to go running away from him just as fast as you can, for you can be damned certain he's fighting for the freedom to tell you what to do.

Neal Asher

#17. If I could time travel into the future, my first port of call would be the point where medical technology is at its best because, like most people on this planet, I have this aversion to dying.

Neal Asher

#18. I've been reading Tanith Lee since I was a teenager, beginning with 'The Birthgrave' and 'The Storm Lord.' Only recently did I discover, to my delight, how many more of her books I've yet to read.

Neal Asher

#19. You have to factor in the human propensity for simplification, Sverl, and for their inability to believe in their own demise and unimportance. It's the impulse behind the religions -

Neal Asher

#20. My favourite place to write is at my desk in my house in the mountains of Crete. I produce more there because one big distraction is missing: the Internet.

Neal Asher

#21. It is very difficult to motivate people to revolution when they are extremely comfortable and well off.

Neal Asher

#22. I have had periods when I've overused a word, 'candent' being one example, but I'm trying not to do that any more.

Neal Asher

#23. As he landed Wade said, was stepping through a wall of treacle The light, on your carbine,' and pointed with the torch he himself held.

Neal Asher

#24. They say time heals. No, it just wears away pain. It grinds everything to dust.

Neal Asher

#25. Why do I get the feeling, interjected Cheops, that shit and fan are moving into conjunction, and that we might be in the way?

Neal Asher

#26. However, let us not presume politicians are ineffectual, for whenever the bombs and napalm are falling, the mines taking off legs and the bullets punching holes in human flesh, they are always behind the firing line, deciding who should die.

Neal Asher

#27. It all came back to human time and utterly human impulses: in the end, gods did not appreciate godlike power, but humans did.

Neal Asher

#28. Moorcock's interlinked 'Eternal Champion' series is a constant source of enjoyment. Of its tragic hero incarnations, my favourite is 'Elric of Melnibone,' and the best book has to be 'Stormbringer.' And as for that other sword, Excalibur? Pah! Use it to spread your butter.

Neal Asher