Happy Birthday, R. Scott Bakker, born 2 February 1967.
Nine Quotes
- History. Language. Passion. Custom. All these things determine what men say, think, and do. These are the hidden puppet-strings from which all men hang.
- [I use] genre as a vehicle to smuggle literary and philosophical themes into subcultures where you otherwise don’t see them at all. I embrace the conventions of a genre and then I attack it with as much subversive material as I can get away with.
- Love is lust made meaningful. Hope is hunger made human.
- Our words always paint two portraits when we describe our families to others. Outsiders cannot but see the small peeves and follies that wrinkle our relationships with our loved ones. The claims we make in defensive certainty—that we were the one wronged, that we were the one who wanted the best—cannot but fall on sceptical ears since everyone makes the same claims of virtue and innocence. We are always more than we want to be in the eyes of others simply because we are blind to the bulk of what we are.
- The world is a big place and our brain is only three pounds.
- Literary types don’t read my books for pretty much the same reason they don’t wear white after Labour Day. They’re afraid of being laughed at.
- Darkness shields as much as it threatens.
- I’ve always felt more intelligent when I write than when I speak. Take me away from my computer screen, and I’m lucky if my thoughts attain the clarity of Campbell’s Soup. I suppose this is because writing allows you to step outside of time, to think a thousand thoughts where the reader encounters only one.
- I want to write literature. I want to write books that leave the reader scratching their head afterwards and perhaps not looking at the world quite the same way.
Richard Scott Bakker is a Canadian fantasy author. His work is dominated by a large series informally known as the The Second Apocalypse. Titles in his series include The Darkness That Comes Before and The Warrior Prophet.
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