Joan D. Vinge Quotes

"Here was a fragment of Goddess myth that, through all its permutations, had somehow escaped being turned on its head. It was the perfect springboard for the sort of novel I wanted to write."

"Humans are upsetting a fragile balance that their own human ancestors established."

"Humans may be the only creatures on Earth who spend significant time thinking about the fact that someday their lives will end."

"I wanted to show those characters discovering it is possible to find common ground, as they make their way through a plotline that I hope is engrossing enough to keep the reader a willing participant."

"And so The Snow Queen also became a story about the need to seek equilibrium, in our own lives, with the natural world, even within the universe at large."

"But our society does not grant nontraditional forms of intelligence equal recognition, no matter how much it would help us get along or truly enrich our lives."

"The Big Questions, about survival and quality of life, are confronted by all the main characters in The Snow Queen, at some point."

"The mers were also designed to reproduce only at long intervals, in order to maintain the natural balance of the environment in which they were placed."

"We are all born with a unique genetic blueprint, which lays out the basic characteristics of our personality as well as our physical health and appearance... And yet, we all know that life experiences do change us."

"Myth is, after all, the neverending story."

"Throughout the ages, stories with certain basic themes have recurred over and over, in widely disparate cultures; emerging like the goddess Venus from the sea of our unconscious."

"Besides, wouldn't it be wonderful if no one ever had to worry about the random cruelty of fatal illness or the woes of old age attacking them or their loved ones?"

"Fear of the unknown is a terrible fear."

"Moon is also a naive native girl when she sets out for Carbuncle."

"Perhaps the thing that makes humans truly unique on Earth is that we are never satisfied with our situation; maybe that is what's taken us so far."

"Probably I chose immortality because mortality is a universal human obsession."

"Studying anthropology, I developed a kind of holistic view of human existence, in which the dichotomies you listed are all necessary and vital aspects of life."

"The ecosystem of our world is a closed system: it would run out of gas, collapse of its own weight."

"What does immortality mean to me? That we all want more time; and we want it to be quality time."

"Beyond that, I seem to be compelled to write science fiction, rather than fantasy or mysteries or some other genre more likely to climb onto bestseller lists even though I enjoy reading a wide variety of literature, both fiction and nonfiction."