R. A. Lafferty Quotes

1914–2002 United States

Raphael Aloysius Lafferty (7 November 1914 – 18 March 2002) was an American science fiction and fantasy writer, famous for his humorous use of metaphor, narrative structure, and language in his very peculiar forms of etymological wit.

United States
Novelists
Science fiction authors
Short story writers

Also known as: Lafferty, R A Lafferty, Space Chantey, The Flame is Green

Random R. A. Lafferty quote

107 quotes

The law of levity is allowed to supersede the law of gravity.

Space Chantey (1968)

A crisis should have thunder in it.

Archipelago (1979)

Our own great movement will grow with its own impetus wherever it is not blighted.

The Flame is Green (1971)

Do you not know that the underground lands are shared by many worlds?

Space Chantey (1968)

Do not be fooled as to what it is and who sowed it.

The Flame is Green (1971)

To be completed is to be finished in so many ways!

Arrive at Easterwine (1971)

I will set a Wednesday-term to the monster.

Space Chantey (1968)

As regards very small celestial bodies of a light-minded nature, the law of levity is allowed to supersede the law of gravity.

Space Chantey (1968)

I will never tell anyone how much fun it is in this place.

Space Chantey (1968)

Put the nightmare together. If you do not wake up screaming, you have not put it together well.

The Devil is Dead (1971)

The best time to write a story is yesterday. The next best time is today.

It's Down the Slippery Cellar Stairs (1995)

The idea of the thing was attacked by good and bad men, in good faith and bad.

Fourth Mansions (1969)

Though it ended quite recently, the amnesia concerning its ending is general.

Science Fiction has long been babbling about cosmic destructions and the ending of either physical or civilized worlds, but it has all been displaced babble.

Happy people have no need to talk.

Paul, there is something very slack about a future that will take a biting satire for a vapid dream.

Past Master (1968)

When you can't depend on the Devil, who can you depend on?

The Devil is Dead (1971)

Beware of those who use words to mean their opposites. At the same time have pity on them, for usually this trick is their only stock in trade.

The Flame is Green (1971)

There are no rules. We do whatever seems the most fun.

Space Chantey (1968)

For all other crimes we give asylum, for the most heinous crime in the universe we give no asylum.

Space Chantey (1968)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: R. A. Lafferty (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.