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Charles Stross

Charles Stross Quotes

Writer

Charles Stross is a British science fiction writer born on October 18, 1964. His works are known for their profound philosophical thinking and unique science fiction settings, covering a range of topics from artificial intelligence to political intrigue and time travel.

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All Writing Ifs Thinking Book Years Novel Humans Stills Firsts Ideas

Famous Charles Stross Quotes

“I'm a fuzzy-headed warm-hearted liberal, and I think fuzzy-headed warm-hearted liberalism is an ideological stance that needs defending-if necessary, with a hob-nailed boot-kick to the bollocks of budding totalitarianism.”

Ifs Thinking Needs Warm Kicks Liberalism Boots Hearted Totalitarianism Ideological Stance Fuzzy Warm Hearted

Author:Charles Stross

“Life begets intelligence, intelligence begets smart matter and a singularity.”

Matter Smart Begets Singularity

Book:Accelerando

Source: Accelerando

“The Magician's Land is a triumphant climax to the best fantasy trilogy of the decade.”

Fantasy Land Decades Magician Triumphant Climax Trilogies

Author:Charles Stross

“I write exclusively using computers. Pens and typewriters can fsck right off - I wrote my first half million words in my teens on a manual typewriter (had to trade it for a new one due to keys snapping from metal fatigue) so I am not a pen or typewriter fetishist.”

Writing Firsts Half Millions Keys Computer Trade Dues Pens Metals Teens Fatigue Typewriters Manuals Snapping

Author:Charles Stross

“I write almost entlirely on Macs, because: Windows gives me hives.”

Giving Writing Window Give Me Macs Hives

Author:Charles Stross

“I drink tea pretty much continuously at a rate of around 1 imperial pint/hour, which sort of enforces screen/keyboard breaks.”

Hours Break Drink Rate Screens Tea Keyboards Pints

Author:Charles Stross

“I began my first novel when I was 15. It went through three drafts, of around 40,000 words each. If I find it, I'll burn it.”

Ifs Firsts Three Novel

Author:Charles Stross

“I was heavily into AD&D in my teens (late 1970s-early 1980s) but fell off the RPG habit in the mid-80s and have never gone back to it; my lifestyle today isn't very compatible with having a regular gaming group (too much travel).”

Today Gone Too Much Groups Habit Late Lifestyle Ads Teens 80s Compatible Gaming Rpgs

Author:Charles Stross

“There's a long-standing (50 year old) flame war within the field over whether it's "sci-fi" or "SF".SF has traditionally been looked down on by the literary establishment because, to be honest, much early SF was execrably badly written - but these days the significance of the pigeon hole is fading; we have serious mainstream authors writing stuff that is I-can't-believe-it's-not-SF, and SF authors breaking into the mainstream. If you view them as tags that point to shelves in bricks-and-mortar bookshops, how long are these genre categories going to survive in the age of the internet?”

“I'm not planning a kickstarter game. And I'm not really a game designer.”

Games Planning Designer Kickstarter

Author:Charles Stross

“Writing novels takes up about 100% of my available working time.”

Writing Novel Available

Author:Charles Stross

“I have a CS degree and a history that includes working as a software developer and being a computer magazine columnist back during the 1990s. I guess I simply paid attention to the social effects of the IT revolution as I lived through it.”

Social Attention Effects Revolution Degrees Computer Paid Magazines Software Developers Columnists

Author:Charles Stross

“An important factor to note is that it's rare for anyone to sell a first novel written before they turned 30-35; long-format fiction tends to require a bunch of experience of human life that takes time to acquire. So your average mid-career novelist is in their forties to fifties!”

Firsts Humans Long Important Fiction Careers Novel Written Sells Notes Average Bunch Factors Human Life Novelists Acquire Forty Take Time Format

Author:Charles Stross

“Most established novelists are writing books informed by experiences gained in their youth. Middle age is not the best time to be changing smartphones every six months or adopting new technology platforms - because we tend to get slower and less accommodating to change as we age.”

Writing Book Age Technology Middle Youth Months Six Novelists Platforms Six Months Middle Ages Writing A Book New Technology Best Times Adopting Smartphones

Author:Charles Stross

“We're currently living with a generation of established novelists who are embarrassingly out of date with respect to social networking, internet skills, and so on.”

Social Generations Internet Skills Novelists Networking Social Networking Social Network

Author:Charles Stross

“I was an early adopter: have been on the internet continuously since late 1989, barring a six-month loss of access in the early 90s.”

Has Beens Loss Months Internet Six Late Access Six Months

Author:Charles Stross

“My agent is based in New York. And due to a historic accident, my publishing track is primarily American - I'm sold into the UK almost as a foreign import! So I'm quite out of touch with what's going on in UK publishing.”

New York Track Dues Accidents Agents Publishing Historic Imports

Author:Charles Stross

“I have time to write 1-2 novels per year, and get roughly novel-sized ideas every month. I have to perform triage on my own writing impulses.”

Writing Years Ideas My Own Novel Months Impulse Triage

Author:Charles Stross

“It's usually quite easy to shrug and write something else instead.”

Author:Charles Stross

“What I read: while I'm writing, I tend to go off reading fiction for relaxation - especially the challenging stuff. It's too much like the day job.”

Writing Jobs Reading Stuff Challenges Fiction Too Much Relaxation Day Jobs Reading Fiction

Author:Charles Stross

“When I do get to chow down on a book, I try to read ones that are nothing like what I'm writing. So, as I'm currently working on a space opera (of sorts) I'm mostly indulging in urban fantasy.”

Writing Trying Book Space Fantasy Opera Urban

Author:Charles Stross

“I'm an atheist .I was raised in British reform Judaism, which is not like American reform Judaism, much less any other strain of organised religion. So: no cults here.”

Raised Atheist British Reform Cult Judaism Strain Organised Organised Religion

Author:Charles Stross

“For a sampler, you could try my short story collection "Wireless". Which contains one novella that scooped a Locus award, and one that won a Hugo, and covers a range of different styles.”

Trying Different Stories Style Range Collections Awards Short Story Wireless Different Styles

Author:Charles Stross

“My favourite movie is: "Dr Strangelove". (I haven't seen any films released in the past 2-5 years, I'm afraid: I don't do TV/cinema).”

Years Past Film Havens Tvs Cinema Favourite Drs

Author:Charles Stross

“I wanted an agent who would actually sell stuff. After two British agents failed comprehensively, I was reading Locus (the SF field's trade journal) and noticed a press release about an experienced editor leaving her job to join an agent in setting up a new agency. And I went "aha!" - because what you need is an agent who knows the industry but who doesn't have a huge list of famous clients whose needs will inevitably be put ahead of you. So I emailed her, and ... well, 11 years later I am the client listed at the top of her masthead!”

“I reckon I can count on 30 more writing years, averaging a book a year (I can't keep up the 2-2.5 a year I used to do these days). And these days I've gotten round to wondering, for each new idea, "do I want to be remembered for this?" before I get to the point of spending a year on it.”

Want Writing Years I Can Book Ideas Used Wonder Rounds Spending These Days Remembered New Ideas

Author:Charles Stross

“I don't keep anything on paper (except within an actual novel in progress, at which point I need a file to keep track of plot threads, characters, and so on).”

Needs Character Novel Progress Paper Track Plot Thread Files

Author:Charles Stross

“If an idea is compelling enough it'll stick in my head until I am forced to write it. If it's forgettable, who cares?”

Ifs Writing Ideas Enough Care Sticks Compelling Who Cares Forgettable

Author:Charles Stross

“What I've learned during my life is that the near future is 90% identical to the present - if you buy a new car today, it'll probably still be on the road in 2022.”

Ifs Stills Today Life Is Car I've Learned Identical New Car

Author:Charles Stross

“Biggest influence: my mother.”

Mother Influence

Author:Charles Stross

“I don't do flash fiction.”

Author:Charles Stross

“If I write too much of anything for too long, I burn out on it. So it helps to vary my output from year to year.”

Ifs Writing Years Long Helping Too Much Vary Output Burn Out

Author:Charles Stross

“Speech recognition is utterly crap for writing fiction. If you try reading a novel aloud you'll soon figure out why - written prose style is utterly unlike the spoken word.”

Ifs Writing Trying Reading Fiction Novel Written Style Figures Speech Recognition Prose Crap Writing Fiction Spoken Word

Author:Charles Stross

“I do not click on random youtube videos.”

Video Youtube Clicks

Author:Charles Stross

“No two books come out the same way. Some I write by the seat of my pants; others are planned in minute detail.”

Way Writing Two Book Minutes Details Seats Pants

Author:Charles Stross

“The one thing that does happen, every time, though, is that I never get to write a book until I've already been thinking about it for a period of months to years.”

Thinking Writing Years Doe Book Happens One Thing Months Periods

Author:Charles Stross

“If I was a Marxist I'd call it the crisis of capitalism. Even though I'm not a Marxist, that seems like a not unreasonable term for the widening gap between the rich and poor that we're seeing.”

Ifs Seems Term Poor Rich Seeing Capitalism Crisis Gaps Rich And Poor Unreasonable Marxist

Author:Charles Stross

“I have no policy, for or against: only a personal style. Which is to say, I use them when I think it's appropriate to; for example, an internal monologue by a locquacious and verbose narrator is more likely to be larded with adverbs than an exchange of instant messages between cops at a crime scene.”

Thinking Use Style Crime Policy Example Scene Messages Instant Appropriate Internals Cop Monologues Narrators Personal Style Adverbs

Author:Charles Stross

“Publishing is the final step in making a book; if I was afraid to publish one, I wouldn't write it in the first place.”

Ifs Writing Firsts Book Steps Finals Publishing Publish

Author:Charles Stross

“In general, a little controversy isn't harmful: if anything, it gets people interested.”

People Ifs Littles Controversy

Author:Charles Stross

“I don't think most of my opinions, political or social, are so far outside of the mainstream that they'd cause massive outrage on a scale liable to provoke death threats or referrals to prosecutors for outraging public decency, so why worry?”

Thinking Political Social Causes Opinion Worry Threat Scales Massive Mainstream Provoking Decency Outrage Liable Prosecutor Referrals

Author:Charles Stross

“Writers block: when I get it, it's because my subconscious spotted that I'd make a huge structural mistake in constructing a novel before my conscious mind became aware of it, and threw on the brakes. So I've learned not to sweat it: take two days off, then back up a chapter, read through, and try to work out why I'm suddenly uneasy about continuing.”

Trying Mind Two Mistake Novel Huge Conscious Work Out Block I've Learned Sweat Chapters Continuing Subconscious Two Days Uneasy Writer's Block Days Off Brake Conscious Mind

Author:Charles Stross

“While writing a novel I almost completely stop reading books in the same sub-genre for the duration.”

Writing Book Reading Novel Genre Reading Books Duration

Author:Charles Stross

“If I wanted to be in movies, I'd have gone into scriptwriting: the fact that I write novels should be a big hint about what I prefer to do!”

Ifs Should Writing Facts Bigs Wanted Novel Gone Hints

Author:Charles Stross

“I don't want to permanently damage myself! On the other hand, a couple of days off the keyboard tends to make things somewhat better.”

Want Hands Couple Damage Keyboards Days Off

Author:Charles Stross

“The trouble is, if you go too far towards being polite, the label that applies is "doormat".”

Ifs Trouble Labels Polite Doormat Being Polite

Author:Charles Stross

“Book depository is nothing new; there've been outlets selling books internationally via mail order for many decades - the only change is that it's now easier to find and use such services.”

Book Use Order Easier Decades Selling Mail Outlets Nothing New Selling Books

Author:Charles Stross

“Writing your own story around the same ideas is not plagiarism; at worst, it's being unoriginal.”

Writing Ideas Stories Worst Plagiarism

Author:Charles Stross

“The dirty little secret of publishing is that, all along, each book sold has had an average of 5 readers. That's an 80% "piracy" rate if you insist on looking at it in those terms.”

Ifs Littles Book Term Secret Reader Rate Average Dirty Publishing Piracy

Author:Charles Stross

“The problem with ebook filesharing is simply one of scale. But I think the "piracy" problem is massively over-rated.”

Thinking Problem Scales Piracy

Author:Charles Stross

About the Author

Born: October 18, 1964
Known for: Writer
Quotes: 152

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