Courage is very important. Like a muscle, it is strengthened by use.
Whatever Kurt Vonnegut's ultimate status will be in the annals of literature, he was important to a lot of people right now. That's what most writers really care about.
Many readers simply can't stomach fantasy. They immediately picture elves with broadswords or mighty-thewed barbarians with battle axes, seeking the bejeweled Coronet of Obeisance. . . (But) the best fantasies pull aside the velvet curtain of mere appearance. . . . In most instances, fantasy ultimately returns us to our own now re-enchanted world, reminding us that it is neither prosaic nor meaningless, and that how we live and what we do truly matters.
Make sure your message is clear, yet that you are faithful to its complexity.
The world is a library of strange and wonderful books, and sometimes we just need to go prowling through the stacks.
I think the essence of [Kurt] Vonnegut's humanism lay in his emphasis on human kindness as, so to speak, our saving grace.
In PLATO AT THE GOOGLEPLEX, Rebecca Newberger Goldstein set out to showcase, in sometimes startling ways, the continuing relevance of a classic philosopher. But what's remarkable is that she actually brings off this tour de force with both madcap brilliance and commanding authority.
Death--a stopping of impressions through the senses, and of the pulling of the cords of motion, and of the ways of thought, and of service to the flesh.
Falsehood is never in words; it is in things.
The winter oak. . . is very useful in buildings but when in a moist place it takes in water to its centre. . . and so it rots. The Turkey oak and the beech both. . . take in moisture to their centre and soon decay. White and black poplar , as well as willow , linden , and the agnus castus. . . are of great service from their stiffness. . . . they are a convenient material to use in carving.
You, the actor, must be aware of when you're being funny, but the character you're playing should always be oblivious to the fact.