Larry Niven Quotes - Page 3

Consider the true picture. Think of myriads of tiny bubbles, very sparsely scattered, rising through a vast black sea. We rule some of the bubbles. Of the waters we know nothing.

Stupidity is always a capital crime.

The Product of Freedom and Security is a constant (F X S = k). Giving up freedom for security is beginning to look naive.

I don't have a strong interest in history.

My problem with new writers is that it takes me five or six years to memorise the right names.

In general, I don't know when inspiration will pop up.

Building one space station for everyone was and is insane: we should have built a dozen.

I've got five or six unpublished stories kicking around looking for somebody to buy them.

Never tell a computer to forget it.

I'd repair our education system or replace it with something that works.

I'd visit the near future, close enough that someone might want to talk to Larry Niven and can figure out the language; distant enough to get me decent medical techniques and a ticket to the Moon.

We should not have assumed that a political space station could be built.

Anything beats an expensive stack of paper.

But... watching Steven Barnes taught me to treat my life like an art form.

I'm not predicting; I just love playing with superconductors.

And every friend I've got has been writing Mars stories. It was pretty clear I'd never catch up.

Spray a book with insect spray, drop it in a bag, add some mothballs and seal it. Put it in another bag and seal it. Another. The packages piled up on the floor, each a book sealed in four plastic envelopes.

I love superconductors.

Jesus Pietro wasn't used to dealing with ghosts. It would require brand new techniques. Grimly he set out to evolve them.

I have a kind of psychic invisibility. As long as I can stay scared, I can keep people from seeing me. That's what we have to count on.

The majority is always sane.

In a collaboration, each author will do 75% of the work.

It is a cardinal sin to bore the reader.

Bruce Sterling is one terrific writer and he's relatively new, but I don't know how long he's been doing it; he probably doesn't need the publicity anymore!

If one must explain a magic trick, one should do so after the show is over.