Timothy Zahn Quotes

#1. Are you ready? I'm three blocks past ready. Pardon? Skip it.

Timothy Zahn

#2. For if one is remembered by a friend, one is never truly gone. -

Timothy Zahn

#3. I know something about a lot of things," she countered evenly. "That's why you're grooming me to be your lieutenant, remember?" - Mara Jade

Timothy Zahn

#4. Failure to act always brings consequences. But sometimes, those consequences can be turned to one's advantage.

Timothy Zahn

#5. But I would also warn against diverting too many of the Empire's resources from a flexible navy of capital ships and starfighters to massive projects that can bring the Imperial presence to only one system at a time.

Timothy Zahn

#6. One of the first rules the Emperor had drummed into her [Mara Jade] so long ago was to blend in as best she could with her surroundings

Timothy Zahn

#7. She was here, and it was now; and as the emperor's instructors had so often drummed into her, the first item of business was to fit into her surroundings. And that meant not looking like an escapee from the medical ward

Timothy Zahn

#8. My point is that true leaders ... understand the possible consequences of their decisions, and are willing to bear that weight. The question is whether that's a step you're willing to take.
-Carlist Rieekan

Timothy Zahn

#9. Fear and anger, Yoda had often warned him, were slaves to the dark side. Vaguely, Luke wondered which side curiosity served.

Timothy Zahn

#10. Sometimes a commander's decisions must be made without regard for how they will be perceived," Thrawn said. "What matters is that the commander does what is necessary for victory.

Timothy Zahn

#11. The choices of one shape the futures of all.

Timothy Zahn

#12. Of his. The same earnestness that had stopped her from killing that insane Joruus C'baoth back on Jomark.

Timothy Zahn

#13. When you understand a species' art, you understand that species.

Timothy Zahn

#14. For the Jedi, there is no emotion; there is peace.

Timothy Zahn

#15. Firmly, Luke put the thought out of his mind. Mourning the loss of a friend and teacher was both fitting and honorable, but to dwell unnecessarily on that loss was to give the past too much power over the present. The

Timothy Zahn

#16. No, of course not,' he agreed in a tone that implied he'd heard both the words I'd said and the words I hadn't said and would be mulling them over later on his own.

Timothy Zahn

#17. You happened to me," she told him, her voice more fatigued than embittered. "You came out of a grubby sixth-rate farm on a tenth-rate planet, and destroyed my life." - Mara Jade

Timothy Zahn

#18. If the new movies do contradict my books in some way, I can probably come up with some hand-waving story that will explain the apparent discrepancy. If there's one thing we authors are good at, it's hand-waving.

Timothy Zahn

#19. Still, even when false, legends can be most informative.

Timothy Zahn

#20. If you don't want to be noticed, you don't use a Star Destroyer.

Timothy Zahn

#21. I've found that what most people call luck is often little more than raw talent combined with the ability to make the most of opportunities. (Talon Karrde)

Timothy Zahn

#22. Governments and entire planets are important, Threepio. But when you sift everything down, they're all just made of people.

Timothy Zahn

#23. Alliances are useful in some situations. In others, they are absolutely vital. But

Timothy Zahn

#24. Where there's life, there's the hope of change.

Timothy Zahn

#25. No one is immune from failure. All have tasted the bitterness of defeat and disappointment. A warrior must not dwell on that failure, but must learn from it and continue on. But

Timothy Zahn

#26. Hesitated; swooped again; hesitated again; swooped once more

Timothy Zahn

#27. The fear of the violent and the lawless is no less a tyranny than the edicts that come from the Emperor's throne.

Timothy Zahn

#28. History is on the move, Captain. Those who cannot keep up will be left behind, to watch from a distance.

Timothy Zahn

#29. If you accept the position of governor, part of your job is to make sure all your people have a decent shot at making something good out of their lives.

Timothy Zahn

#30. Chiss eyes were a bit better than those of humans, their visible spectrum edging a bit into the infrared. Apparently, their ears were better, too.

Timothy Zahn

#31. But there's a school of thought that says if you're going to go down in flames anyway, you might as well be the one lighting the matches.

Timothy Zahn

#32. The way an Ugnaught gets to be an old Ugnaught is by being smart.

Timothy Zahn

#33. A writer absolutely has to make his villains clever and competent. It's no fun - and no challenge - for the heroes to get out of trouble without sweating about it first.

Timothy Zahn

#34. For a change, lady luck seemed to be smiling on me. Then again, maybe the fickle wench was just lulling me into a false sense of security while she reached for a rock.

Timothy Zahn

#35. The scene that made me furious was watching Padme, a woman who just gave birth to two beautiful children, just giving up the will to live.

Timothy Zahn

#36. You're not the last of the old Jedi, Luke, you're the first of the new

Timothy Zahn

#37. Some people will not respond to reason. Others refuse to consider alternatives to their normal pattern of behavior. In such cases, an unexpected breaking of one's own patterns can be an effective tool.

Timothy Zahn

#38. Courage wasn't a matter of taking the whole mountain in a single massive leap. Courage was taking it one step at a time, doing what was necessary now, preparing for the next step, and refusing to worry about whether some step in the future would be the one that would break him.

Timothy Zahn

#39. With none of Vader's backstory available at the time, and having just invented the Noghri species for this story, I came up with the idea that Vader might have designed his mask to look like a stylized version of a Noghri face, the better to facilitate his command of the death commando squads.

Timothy Zahn

#40. A Jedi can't get so caught up in matters of galactic importance that it interferes with his concern for individual people.

Timothy Zahn

#41. A friend need not be kept either within sight or within reach. A friend must be allowed the freedom to find and follow his own path. If

Timothy Zahn

#42. A more accurate statement would be that I was the first person since Jedi who was permitted to stick a fork into the piecrust to see if there was still any steam underneath.

Timothy Zahn

#43. One spoke to him in person, or one did not speak to him at all.

Timothy Zahn

#44. Leave it to the Alderaanians to slap a cheery end on a nice little grisly children's morality tale.

Timothy Zahn

#45. But Lando was a gambler. A true gambler never folded when he still had cards left to play.

Timothy Zahn

#46. One is born with a unique set of talents and abilities. One must choose which of those talents to nurture, which to set aside for a time, which to ignore completely. Sometimes

Timothy Zahn

#47. And those who stand in our way," he added softly, "will not watch at all.

Timothy Zahn

#48. If there was one thing she'd learned in this business, it was to never tell a client you couldn't do something.

Timothy Zahn

#49. Once you make a decision, you can never go back and change it. Sometimes, farther down the line, you have a chance to alter its effects. But the original decision is there forever.

Timothy Zahn

#50. Which meant he was alone here. Even more alone than he'd realized. He took a deep breath. He wasn't alone. The Force was with him.

Timothy Zahn

#51. Luck is merely an illusion, trusted by the ignorant and chased by the foolish.

Timothy Zahn

#52. Then I am alone, he told himself. I am the last of the Jedi.

Timothy Zahn

#53. There is satisfaction in defeating an enemy. But one must never allow oneself to become complacent. There are always more enemies to be identified, faced, and vanquished.

Timothy Zahn

#54. Without trust, there can be no genuine peace. Neither in politics, nor in the quiet individuality of the heart and spirit.

Timothy Zahn