152 quotes
"We can only guess what's going to happen. He knows.
The Golden Man (1954)
For a moment he studied the massive figure who stood calmly between the two Civil Policemen. Beside him, they seemed to have shrunk, become ungainly and repellent.
The Golden Man (1954)
It takes a certain amount of courage, he thought, to face yourself and say with candor, I’m rotten. I’ve done evil and I will again. It was no accident; it emanated from the true, authentic me.
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (1965)
Writing is a lonely way of life. You shut yourself up in your study and work and work.
Introduction to The Golden Man (1980)
Can any of us fix anything? No. None of us can do that. We're specialized.
The Variable Man (1952)
Perhaps if you know you are insane then you are not insane.
The Man in the High Castle (1962)
A lot can be said for the infinite mercies of God, but the smarts of a good pharmacist, when you get down to it, is worth more.
VALIS (1981)
No man is infinitely strong; for every creature that runs, flies, hops or crawls there is a terminal nemesis which he will not circumvent, which will finally do him in.
VALIS (1981)
I am a fictionalizing philosopher, not a novelist; my novel and story-writing ability is employed as a means to formulate my perception. The core of my writing is not art but truth.
In Pursuit of Valis: Selections from the Exegesis (1991)
If you are wise, Matson said to himself grimly, you never take one-way trips. Anywhere. Even to Boise, Idaho...even across the street. Be certain, when you start, that you can scramble back.
Lies, Inc (1984)
This is an artifact and that was a relic. This is alive in the now, whereas that merely remained.
The Man in the High Castle (1962)
No tools. He doesn't build anything or utilize anything outside himself. He just stands and waits for the right opportunity and then he runs like hell.
The Golden Man (1954)
Madness has its own dynamism. It just goes on.
VALIS (1981)
Too bad, Matson thought archly, that George Hoffman didn't discover more planets in more star systems habitable by us, the frail needs of living, sentient, mentating biochemical upright bipeds which we humans are.
Lies, Inc (1984)
Ramp hawkers were peddling “methods,” low priced sure-fire theories guaranteed to predict bottle twitches and beat the whole Minimax game. The hawkers were ignored by the hurrying throngs of people; anybody with a genuine system of prediction would be using it, not selling it.
Solar Lottery (1955)
The hell with the newspapers. Nobody reads the letters to the editor column except the nuts. It's enough to get you down.
Confessions of a Crap Artist (1959)
In the presence of the computer, he found himself becoming stupid.
Vulcan's Hammer (1956)
This, to me, is the ultimately heroic trait of ordinary people; they say no to the tyrant and they calmly take the consequences of this resistance.
How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later (1978)
The greatest menace that faces the human being in the 20th century is the coming into existence in our times of the totalitarian state, which can take many forms.
Are we to assist it in gaining power in order to save our lives? Is that the paradox of our earthly situation?
The Man in the High Castle (1962)