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Jack Vance Biography

John Holbrook "Jack" Vance (August 28, 1916 – May 26, 2013) was an American mystery, fantasy, and science fiction writer. Though most of his work has been published under the name Jack Vance, he also wrote 9 mystery novels using his full name John Holbrook Vance, three under the pseudonym Ellery Queen, and one each using the pseudonyms Alan Wade, Peter Held, John van See, and Jay Kavanse. Some editions of his published works give his year of birth as 1920.

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Jack Vance Quotes

Somebody else's ignorance is bliss.

Bliss, Ignorance, Ignorance Is Bliss, Somebody

Of all questions, why? is the least pertinent. It begs the question; it assumes the larger part of its own response; to wit, that a sensible response exists.

Assuming, Exists, Larger, Pertinent Questions, Response, Wit

If religions are diseases of the human psyche, as the philosopher Grintholde asserts, then religious wars must be reckoned the resultant sores and cankers infecting the aggregate corpus of the human race. Of all wars, these are the most detestable, since they are waged for no tangible gain, but only to impose a set of arbitrary credos upon another's mind.

Corpus, Diseases, Impose, Race, Religious, War

I don't read other science fiction. I don't read any at all.

Fiction, Read, Science, Science Fiction

I know that the history of man is not his technical triumphs, his kills, his victories. It is a composite, a mosaic of a trillion pieces, the account of each man's accommodation with his conscience. This is the true history of the race.

Conscience, History, Men, Race, Triumphs, Victory

This is no science, this is art, where equations fall away to elements like resolving chords, and where always prevails a symmetry either explicit or multiplex, but always of a crystalline serenity.

Art, Fall, Like, Science, Serenity

A man is like a rope: both break at a definite strain. . . . The solution is not splicing the rope; it's lessening the tension.

Break, Lessening, Man, Men, Rope, Solution

Law cannot reach where enforcement will not follow. —Popular aphorism.

Aphorism, Enforcement, Follow, Law, Popular

In fact, almost every job you get somebody watching you.

Fact, Facts, Job, Jobs, Somebody, Watching

The less a writer discusses his work and himself the better. The master chef slaughters no chickens in the dining room; the doctor writes prescriptions in Latin; the magician hides his hinges, mirrors, and trapdoors with the utmost care.

Doctors, Latin, Magician, Trapdoors, Writes, Writing

Freedom, privileges, options, must constantly be exercised, even at the risk of inconvenience.

Exercised, Freedom, Inconvenience, Inspirational, Motivational, Risk

Well, I think everything I've ever read contributes to the background from which I write.

Backgrounds, Contributes, Read, Thinking, Write, Writing

Conversation! Supple sentences, with first and second meanings and overtones beyond, outrageous challenges with cleverly planned slip-points, rebuttals of elegant brevity; deceptions and guiles, patient explanations of the obvious, fleeting allusions to the unthinkable. As a preliminary, the conversationalist must gauge the mood, the intelligence and the verbal facility of the company. To this end, a few words of pedantic exposition often prove invaluable.

Challenges, Deception, Firsts, Planned, Unthinkable, Words

If there were no such creatures as minstrel-maidens, it would be necessary to invent them.

Creatures, Invent, Maidens, Minstrels, Necessary, Would Be

But I'm so slow on it because I find it terribly hard writing blind on computers. The computer speaks to me, but it's just so slow, I'm so terribly slow using it.

Computer, Slow, Speak, Speaks, Writing

I never worked in an office in my life.

Life, Office, Worked

Beauty compelled admiration and erotic yearning; such was its organic function. But never by itself could it command love.

Admiration, Command, Erotic, Function, Love

Mischief moves somewhere near and I must blast it with my magic.

Blast, Magic, Moves, Moving

Nothing is more conspicuous than a farting princess.

Conspicuous, Farting, Nothing, Princess

It is useless, after all, to complain against inexorable reality.

Against, Complain, Complaining, Reality, Useless

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