Tanith Lee Quotes

Writing is writing, and stories are stories. Perhaps the only true genres are fiction and nonfiction. And even there, who can be sure?

The bitterness of joy lies in the knowledge that is cannot last. Nor should joy last beyond a certain season, for, after that season, even joy would become merely habit.

She looked, and a scarlet butterfly flew away from her, away down the length of the tower, and then another, another, an unraveling scarf of butterflies like winged blood.

Archetypes are universal, and, in subtle or extravagant ways, interchangeable.

We need the expressive arts, the ancient scribes, the storytellers, the priests.

The soul is a magician. Only living flesh hampers it.

I submitted manuscripts to publishers. This was not so much a feeling that I should be published as a wish to escape the feared and hated drudgery of normal work.

When I am fascinated by something, I like to play with it.

No one is ever ordinary.

Maidens who stay maidens turn into saints. Old women become sorceresses. Tough jobs, both of these.

I will draw you back to me. You shall see. By a chain of stars.

Never be afraid of a cliché, if it expresses what you wish to say.

The so-called Real World. Human misery and sadness. Blind politics and general cruelty.

Flat or round, there has always been hate in the world.

We all have our dreams. May we find them, and God have mercy on us when we do.

I never know where I am going, though. That is part of what makes it so wonderful. And after all, who does?

Genre categories are irrelevant. I dislike them, but I do not have the casting vote.

I simply write what I want, wish, long to write.... The state of human life and the god or demon within. The constant internal war that being alive can conjure.

I like writing about women, weak and strong, pathetic and heroic. I like writing about men, ditto. And all the variants of men and women, beasts and demons.

There was no violence, no speed. It moved to the rhythm of an elder dance, putting all the rituals of the world to shame. Black, silver, gold and moon-opal, night and sea, fire, earth, air and water.

If they had said my writing wasn't good enough, fair enough, that's an opinion. But to say it's too complex is to insult the intelligence of the so-called young.

It's very selfish when I write. I'm not aware, ever, of writing for another person; I'm not even really aware of writing for myself.

Writers tell stories better, because they've had more practice, but everyone has a book in them. Yes, that old cliche.

I like films, or some films, and would be intrigued to see my work on screen.

Im writing what comes into my head, or through me, or from somewhere else, and it is the most extraordinary, exciting thing. I love it, and Im very greedy, and I really enjoy it!

In the greater part of humankind there resides an instinct for survival. It is this which can clutch at straws and effect a rescue from them. It is this which can, now and then, outwit fate.

Madness. I did not get myself born to die. I have better things to do.

Ecstasy and vulnerability belonged in the same dish. The fear the cup would be snatched away was what gave the wine its savor.

I hardly ever work from a synopsis -- I find they act like chains.

As a child, my mother told me lots of fairy stories, many her own invention. She, too, tended to reverse the norm.

I love writers all across the board, but one who influenced me very directly at the beginning was Mary Renault.

The worst vulgarity is to avoid vulgarity solely on the grounds that it is vulgar.

I came up with a parallel Venice called Venus. set in a parallel Venice about 1701.

I haven't changed. Something's happened to me, that's all.

Hope is a punishable offense. The verdict is always death; one more death of the heart.

Oh, love. Love is best of all. There is no such total element, not even pain. Who has ever loved, knows this. I need not say more.

He sat by her, watching every gesture she made, as if he would paint her portrait afterward.

She could not mourn. She could no longer weep grasping the essence of annihilation, she wished only to cease, to be no more, as if sunk in some profound sleep devoid of wakening.

I began to feel lighthearted. Don't ever do that; it tempts some dark and evil force abroad in the universe.

Condemned and executioner with aren't coupled in a primitive rite.

Danger and anger are everywhere. Love is the rarity, the gem buried in the core of the mine, the outpost of God.

Whatever the hell I am, I am Me.

The humble were the elect of God. Did not the priests teach so, in their gemmed, kingly robes, from their towering pulpits?

What is any of this to us? Time is endless and ours. Love and Death are only the games we play in it.

I'm not very good at being alive. Sometimes I despair of ever mastering it, getting it right. When I'm old, perhaps.

It's lovely. I hate it.

If you run away from trouble, it always follows.' Rather my impression, too. Though that never stopped me trying.

I also love Disney, and will defend doing so, because there's so much in those films and I don't care if it's stereotyped.

Your dreams will betray you. Go nowhere on a horse that fades.

I was reading some complex books in my own youth-and no, I didnt always understand every word, let alone every concept-but I got the main thrust, which was like a lifeline in a fluctuating world.