"I could try composing wonderful musical works, or day-long… - Iain Banks

"I could try composing wonderful musical works, or day-long entertainment epics, but what would that do? Give people pleasure? My wiping this table gives me pleasure. And people come to a clean table, which gives them pleasure. And anyway" - the man laughed - "people die; stars die; universes die. What is any achievement, however great it was, once time itself is dead? Of course, if all I did was wipe tables, then of course it would seem a mean and despicable waste of my huge intellectual potential. But because I choose to do it, it gives me pleasure. And," the man said with a smile, "it's a good way of meeting people. So where are you from, anyway?"

Iain Banks

Use of Weapons · 1992 Verified in 1 source Sign up to see the complete provenance

pleasure meeting-people death stars wiping-tables the-universe time achievement choice utopia people

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About Iain Banks

Iain Menzies Banks (February 16, 1954 – June 9, 2013), officially Iain Banks, was a Scottish writer. As Iain M. Banks he wrote science fiction; as Iain Banks he wrote literary fiction.

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Also Known As

Pen Names: Iain M. Banks

Alternative Names: Iain Menzies Banks

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What is any achievement, however great it was, once time itself is dead?

Originators like Iain Banks:

Alastair Reynolds Sheri S. Tepper James S. A. Corey Lois McMaster Bujold Michael Moorcock

Additional quotes by Iain Banks

That’s the trouble with people like them, I suppose; whenever you think you’re detecting the first signs of them starting to behave responsibly, it’s just them being even more devious and underhand than usual.

They had faith and so would do things that were plainly not in their own immediate (or, often, long-term) best interests, because they just believed what they had been told.

We all think we’re special, and in a way we are, but, at the same time, that feeling of being special is one of the things that’s common to us all, that unites us and makes us the same as each other. And when that feeling of…specialness is questioned, we feel threatened, naturally.

"I could try composing wonderful musical works, or day-long entertainment epics, but what would that do? Give people pleasure? My wiping this table g… - Iain Banks

About Iain Banks

Also Known As

Shorter versions of this quote

Additional quotes by Iain Banks