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John Varley Quotes

1947–2025 United States

John Herbert Varley (August 9, 1947 – December 10, 2025) was an American science fiction author.

United States
Novelists
Science fiction authors
Short story writers

Random John Varley quote

37 quotes

The nice thing about being a pessimist is that bittersweet is an improvement.

Millennium (1983)

They understood the basic principles of morals: that nothing is moral always, and anything is moral under the right circumstances.

Like plugging into life-support equipment, I view apologizing as a dangerous vice that can take over your whole life if you give in to it.

Millennium (1983)

Predestination is the ugliest word in any human language.

Millennium (1983)

I found that it is much more pleasurable to read adventures than to live them.

The Ophiuchi Hotline (1977)

If only she could convince them, perhaps she could convince herself.

The Ophiuchi Hotline (1977)

"The universe is, so far as I know, Doctor Mayer, indifferent to what you believe or disbelieve."

Millennium (1983)

“Don’t be such a pessimist.”
“All time travelers are pessimists.”

Millennium (1983)

"In five years, the penis will be obsolete," said the salesman.

Thou shalt not screw around with things you do not understand.

Overdrawn at the Memory Bank (1976)

Semantic content zero, nonsense quotient high.

I don’t have much truck with romantic notions of human destiny, or Gods, or Good Guys winning out in the end. I have seen destiny in action, and I can tell you, it stinks.

Millennium (1983)

Me, I don’t know if I was born a pessimist or had pessimism thrust upon me. What I do you know is that I’ve had ample reason to embrace the philosophy.

Millennium (1983)

Sherman looked surprised as an infallible Pope holding a losing ticket at the racetrack.

Millennium (1983)

It was not pleasant to admit what one is willing to do to go on living.

The Ophiuchi Hotline (1977)

You've got to watch yourself when you get as old as I am. You have to try new things, sometimes for no better reason than that they’re new. Otherwise you rust.

The Ophiuchi Hotline (1977)

Buildings were just the world's furniture, and he didn't care how it was arranged.

I hate inefficiency. You’d have to look a long long ways before you found a better example of it than the press conference.

Millennium (1983)

I had kept a straight face under worse provocation, so I trust I did well enough then.

By then I was sure the universe could no longer surprise me, nor interest me. I was wrong. It managed to do both in no more than ten minutes.

Millennium (1983)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: John Varley (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.