15 Joe Haldeman Quotes

Joe Haldeman quotes

1. 'Bad books on writing and thoughtless English professors solemnly tell beginners to 'Write What You Know', which explains why so many mediocre novels are about English professors contemplating adultery.'

2. 'If I can reach 50 without growing up then I don't have to.'

3. 'I had to stifle an impulse to laugh. Surely 'cowardice' had nothing to do with his decision. Surely he had nothing so primitive and unmilitary as a will to live.'

1. All experience is memory, and so everything you write about is from memory-unless you're writing about typing.

2. Relativity propped it up, at least gave it the illusion of being there…the way all reality becomes illusory and observer-oriented when you study general relativity. Or Buddhism. Or get drafted.

3. Big money seeks out the company of its own, for purposes of reproduction.

4. There's no such thing as writing about the future. The future hasn't happened yet.

5. I have always valued quiet, and the eternity of it that I face is no more dreadful than the eternity of quiet that preceded my birth.

6. A good sign that an army has been around too long is that it starts getting top-heavy with officers.

7. Bad books on writing tell you to "WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW", a solemn and totally false adage that is the reason there exist so many mediocre novels about English professors contemplating adultery.

8. Tonight we're going to show you eight silent ways to kill a man.

9. Doctors don’t seem to realize that most of us are perfectly content not having to visualize ourselves as animated bags of skin filled with obscene glop.

10. Writer's block? Don't worry about it. Either it goes away or you die.

11. Don't 'write what you know.' Make up something new!

12. The 1143-year-long war hand begun on false pretenses and only because the two races were unable to communicate. Once they could talk, the first question was 'Why did you start this thing?' and the answer was 'Me?