Literary Birthday – 9 June – Joe Haldeman

Happy Birthday, Joe Haldeman, born 9 June 1943.

Six Quotes

1. Like a lot of things that everybody knows, it wasn’t true.
2. Bad books on writing tell you to ‘WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW’, a solemn and totally false adage that is the reason there exist so many mediocre novels about English professors contemplating adultery.
3. There’s no such thing as writing about the future. The future hasn’t happened yet.
4. Anyone who sees clearly sees chaos everywhere. Art is a way of temporarily setting order to confusion. Temporary and incomplete; that’s why we never run out of new art. Anyone who comes to the tools of art without that sense of confusion is an invader.
5. Politicians cover their mistakes with money; cooks cover their mistakes with mayonnaise; doctors cover theirs with dirt.
6. Rationalism doesn’t require belief, only observation. The real, measurable world doesn’t care what you believe.

Joe Haldeman is an American science fiction author. He is best known for his novel The Forever War.

by Amanda Patterson

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