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Patrick Nielsen Hayden Quotes

born 1959 United States

Patrick Nielsen Hayden (born January 2, 1959) is a science fiction editor, writer, teacher, and musician. He is also a commentator on many matters in publishing and on politics, not a few of which can be found on the blog he writes with his wife, Teresa Nielsen Hayden, called Making Light.

United States
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Random Patrick Nielsen Hayden quote

5 quotes

If our “sole interest” was “instant profit,” not only would we never do any number of the things we actually do every day, we probably wouldn’t be in book publishing at all.

This is stupid. I now have stupid all over me.

Personally, I've been hearing all my life about the Serious Philosophical Issues posed by life extension, and my attitude has always been that I'm willing to grapple with those issues for as many centuries as it takes.

Do we really have to wander around apologizing for enjoying plot, just because James Wood and a few dozen other arch-aesthetes sniff at it? It's like being careful not to sing pop songs in the shower because some guy in the local alt-weekly is a music snob.

Book publishing was never a heaven “run by editors”, and it is by no means today a hell “run by accountants.” If our “sole interest” was “instant profit,” not only would we never do any number of the things we actually do every day, we probably wouldn’t be in book publishing at all.

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Patrick Nielsen Hayden (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.