Happy Birthday, Lois McMaster Bujold, born 2 November 1949.
Nine Quotes
- I need words that mean more than they mean, words not just with height and width, but depth and weight and, and other dimensions that I cannot even name.
- I quickly discovered that writing was far too demanding and draining to justify as a hobby, and that only serious professional recognition would satisfy me. Whatever had to be done, in terms of writing, rewriting, cutting, editorial analysis, and trying again, I was determined to learn to do. This was an immensely fruitful period in my growth as a writer, all of it invisible to the outside observer.
- Escapist literature gets a bad rap. But I think escape is important for a lot of people in a lot of places.
- The books first turn up as fragmentary pictures in my head, usually, disconnected scenes that I then have to explain to myself, and eventually the reader. They don’t turn up all at once, of course, or my head would explode; just the opening, and a notion of the direction or ending.
- Writing is a very redemptive profession — even one’s failures may be re-classified as raw material. And memoir is not the only genre where the writer finds what to say by opening a slice from neck to navel and rummaging around inside.
- All virtues come down to courage, at the sharp end of the sword. But courage must be tempered by prudence. Courage wasted by misdirection is the most heart-breaking of all tragedies. If there is an eighth deadly sin, it ought to be stupidity.
- I’ve always thought tests are a gift. And great tests are a great gift. To fail the test is a misfortune. But to refuse the test is to refuse the gift, and something worse, more irrevocable, than misfortune.
- I know what the value [of storytelling] is to me — varied and huge, giving me everything from delight, to knowledge, to access to friends and colleagues, a desirable identity through valued work, escape from pain, and a steady income. Not bad, for something so intangible as making and selling dream-by-number kits.
- What you are is a question only you can answer.
Lois McMaster Bujold is an American science fiction author whose novels have been translated into 20 languages. They include the award-winning Chalion series, beginning with The Curse of Chalion, the Sharing Knife series, and the best-selling Vorkosigan Saga. She has won the Hugo Award for best novel four times.
Source for Image
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lois-mcmaster-bujold-by-kyle-cassidy.jpg
Kyle Cassidy, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
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