Walter Jon Williams Quotes

• I'm not afraid of werewolves or vampires or haunted hotels, I'm afraid of what real human beings to do other real human beings.

  Walter Jon Williams

  Real, Ghouls, Vampire

  51 Copy quote

• I've learned that I get blocked when my subconscious mind is telling me that I've taken the work in a wrong direction, and that once I start listening to what my subconscious is trying to tell me, I can work out the problem and get moving again.

  Walter Jon Williams

  Moving, Taken, Writing

  17 Copy quote

• I'm in favor of any technology that makes my work available to the reading public at a reasonable price.

  Walter Jon Williams

  Reading, Technology, Favors

  7 Copy quote

• Right up till the 1980s, SF envisioned giant mainframe computers that ran everything remotely, that ingested huge amounts of information and regurgitated it in startling ways, and that behaved (or were programmed to behave) very much like human beings... Now we have 14-year-olds with more computing power on their desktops than existed in the entire world in 1960. But computers in fiction are still behaving in much the same way as they did in the Sixties. That's because in fiction [artificial intelligence] has to follow the laws of dramatic logic, just like human characters.

  Walter Jon Williams

  Character, Years, Law

  8 Copy quote

• If you can find collaborators whose strengths compliment your own, the result can be more than the sum of its authors.

  Walter Jon Williams

  Writing, Compliment, Results

  8 Copy quote

• Even if you only want to write science fiction, you should also read mysteries, poetry, mainstream literature, history, biography, philosophy, and science.

  Walter Jon Williams

  Philosophy, Writing, Science

  8 Copy quote

• Science fiction readers probably have the gene for novelty, and seem to enjoy a cascade of invention as much as a writer enjoys providing one.

  Walter Jon Williams

  Science, Fiction, Novelty

  81 Copy quote

• Now I have to motivate myself much more than I had previously.

  Walter Jon Williams

  4 Copy quote

• It's a tough job to tell a story when the audience already knows the ending, and the ending is bleak.

  Walter Jon Williams

  Jobs, Stories, Tough

  8 Copy quote

• That's why editors and publishers will never be obsolete: a reader wants someone with taste and authority to point them in the direction of the good stuff, and to keep the awful stuff away from their door.

  Walter Jon Williams

  Doors, Editors, Want

  8 Copy quote

• Working within the limitations of the shared world generally made the writing easier, because I didn't have to invent any of the characters or background, which is usually the hardest part.

  Walter Jon Williams

  Writing, Character, World

  4 Copy quote

• I now have to find a reason to write, every single day.

  Walter Jon Williams

  Writing, Reason

  4 Copy quote

• I was pretty much grown-up by the time I attended school in Britain - or as grown-up as I'll ever get.

  Walter Jon Williams

  School, Britain

  8 Copy quote

• I went to college, though I didn't take many writing courses.

  Walter Jon Williams

  Writing, College, Courses

  4 Copy quote

• I've experienced writer's block, but never for more than a few days.

  Walter Jon Williams

  Block, Writer's Block

  7 Copy quote

• The mass-market paperback, for one, is too expensive.

  Walter Jon Williams

  Mass, Expensive

  4 Copy quote

• The Rift, which was well over a thousand pages of manuscript, took two years.

  Walter Jon Williams

  Years, Two, Rift

  52 Copy quote

• Everything that you read is an influence on everything you write, and you want to draw as many elements into your work as you can.

  Walter Jon Williams

  Work, Writing, Elements

  8 Copy quote

• How long it takes to write a book depends on its length.

  Walter Jon Williams

  Book, Writing, Long

  6 Copy quote

• Genre labels are useful only insofar as they help you find an audience.

  Walter Jon Williams

  Labels, Helping, Genre

  8 Copy quote

• The Internet offers an interesting combination of advertising and community - by participating in the community you can become an advertisement for yourself.

  Walter Jon Williams

  Interesting, Community, Advertising

  8 Copy quote

• I can't speak for the other authors, but what I hoped to achieve was to illuminate certain corners of the Lucas universe that hadn't yet been explored.

  Walter Jon Williams

  Afterlife, Speak, Achieve

  8 Copy quote

• I want a platform that, like a book or a magazine, I can carry into the bath or leave at the beach.

  Walter Jon Williams

  Beach, Book, Magazines

  8 Copy quote

• An SF author who reads only SF will have little new to contribute, but someone with a broader experience will bring more to the table.

  Walter Jon Williams

  Experience, Tables, Littles

  4 Copy quote

• Some of my ideas were shot down by Lucasfilm because they stepped on territory that has been reserved for the movies. I didn't have a problem with that.

  Walter Jon Williams

  Movie, Ideas, Territory

  4 Copy quote

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