Teresa Nielsen Hayden Quotes

Teresa Nielsen Hayden provides sharp, candid reflections on politeness, conspiracy doubts, and loyalty.

16 quotes

  1. I continue to feel that if you're going to go on being this stupid, you should try to be more polite; or alternately, if you're going to go on being this rude, you should try not to say such dumb things.

  2. I deeply resent the way this administration makes me feel like a nutbar conspiracy theorist.

  3. Just because you're on their side doesn't mean they're on your side.

  4. Plot is a literary convention. Story is a force of nature.

  5. If you ask 20 different readers why they read, they will all be right.

  6. There's a rule for what makes good fantasy work, and it's as strange as any riddle ever posed in a fairy tale: In fantasy, you can do anything; and therefore, the one thing you must not do is 'just anything.' Why? Because in a story where anything can happen and anything can be true, nothing matters. You have no reason to care what happens. It's all arbitrary, and arbitrary isn't interesting.

  7. Writers say many true things about their own experiences with publicity and promotion.

  8. So many problems are solved simply by knowing enough verbs.

  9. If there is no willingness to use force to defend civil society, it's civil society that goes away, not force.

  10. I have to go make books. Sorry about that.

  11. Didn't need the user icon to know you're white and male.

  12. I believe God put that itchy spot on our backs just exactly where we can't reach it in order to encourage us be nice to each other.

  13. Don't use metaphors in fantasy; your readers will take them literally. Or they may take them figuratively - but if so, they'll also take your magics and transformations figuratively. Either way, you're in trouble.

  14. Sometimes writers say true things about the overall nature of publicity, promotion, and the publishing industry; but alas, not always.

  15. If this power could be used for good, it wouldn't be this power.

  16. That's the great thing about doing good: Anyone can do it, any time, no waiting periods or batteries required.