Samuel R. Delany Quotes

What do you see, Captain?"
"Two boys with hands locked for a fight. You see how one is light and the other is dark? I see love against death, light against darkness, chaos against order. I see the clash of all opposites under...the sun. I see Prince and myself."
"Which is which?"
"I don't know, Mouse.

Bear in mind that the novel—no matter how intimate, psychological, or subjective—is always a historical projection of its own time.

Dull grown-ups and bright children form a particularly tolerant friendship.

You can be bored with anything if you try hard enough.

Oh, for the rebirth of an educational system where understanding was an essential part of knowledge.

“Gods are nothing but low blood sugar,” I said. “St. Augustine, Peyote Indians…you know how it works—

Sincerity is my favorite form of belligerence.

All right. I’m not opposed to reality imitating art if it doesn’t get in the way.

As morning branded the sea, darkness fell away at the far side of the beach. I turned to follow it.

Breathing is a fascinating thing to watch in a woman.

You're living in the real world now," Spider said sadly. "It's come from something. It's going to something. Myths always lie in the most difficult places to ignore.

Earth, the world, the fifth planet from the sun—the species that stands on two legs and roams this thin wet crust: it’s changing, Lobey. It’s not the same. Some people walk under the sun and accept that change, others close their eyes, clap their hands to their ears, and deny the world with their tongues.

I must remember my own origins. Once I was as ignorant as you; I swear, though, I can’t remember when.

Difference is the foundation of those buildings, the pilings beneath the docks, tangled in the roots of the trees. Half the place was built on it. The other half couldn’t live without it. But to talk about it in public reveals you to be ill-mannered and vulgar.

It is not that love sometimes makes mistakes, but that it is, essentially, a mistake. We fall in love when our imagination projects nonexistent perfections on to another person. One day the phantasmagoria vanishes, and with it love dies.