“I mean, you could lie here day after day, if you wanted to, and think about nothing but waterbugs. Not chase waterbugs, mind you, just think about them. You could spend your whole day, every day, just wondering and pondering about waterbugs, and talking to others about waterbugs . . . and before you realized it, you'd be old. One day you'd realize that you'd never actually seen a waterbug . . . but by then you wouldn't want to, because it would spoil all your beautiful ideas.” IfsThinkingWantMindMeanIdeasWholeWantedBeautifulLyingRealizingTalkingWonderOne DaySpoilPonderingYour Beautiful Book:Tailchaser's Song Source: Tailchaser's Song
“After all, is it not the way we humans shape the universe, shape time itself? Do we not take the raw stuff of chaos and impose a beginning, middle, and end on it, like the simplest and most profound of folktales, to reflect the shapes of our own tiny lives? And if the physicists are right, that the physical world changes as it is observed, and we are its only known observers, then might we not be bending the entire chaotic universe, the eternal, ever-active Now, to fit that familiar form?” IfsWorldWayHumansEndsMightFormUniverseStuffKnownMiddleFitShapesEternalProfoundChaosActiveTinyFamiliarSimplestObserversPhysicistChaoticBendingBeginning Middle And EndFolktales Book:Otherland 4: Sea of Silver Light Source: Otherland 4: Sea of Silver Light
“If God is all-powerful, then the Devil must be nothing more than a darkness in the mind of God. But if the Devil is something real and separate, than perfection is impossible, and there can be no God... except for the aspirations of fallen angels.” IfsMindRealReligiousPowerfulDarknessImpossibleDevilAngelPerfectionFallenAspirationFallen AngelsSomething Real Book:Otherland 3: Mountain of Black Glass Source: Otherland 3: Mountain of Black Glass
“People in science fiction flicks always seemed to know useful things about the places time travel took them. But what if the time traveler had been only an average history student? What then?” PeopleIfsKnowsFictionStudentsScience FictionAverageWhat IfTime TravelTravelerUseful Things Book:Otherland 2: River of Blue Fire Source: Otherland 2: River of Blue Fire
“Learn a lot about the world and finish things, even if it is just a short story. Finish it before you start something else. Finish it before you start rewriting it. That's really important. It's to find out if you're going to be a writer or not, because that's one of the most important lessons. Most, maybe 90% of people, will start writing and never finish what they started. If you want to be a writer that's the hardest and most important lesson: Finish it. Then go back to fix it.” PeopleIfsWorldWantWritingImportantStoriesLessonsHardestShort StoryRewritingImportant Lessons Author:Tad Williams
