John Shirley's Quotes

I think paranoia can be instructive in the right doses. Paranoia is a skill.

I do sometimes watch 'Dr. Who' and while the stories barely make sense, if at all, the doctor is such great company I don't care.

Innocence could be considered a discrete state of mind.

Weekends are a bit like rainbows; they look good from a distance but disappear when you get up close to them.

I get drunk writing words. I don't drink or do drugs, but I get so carried away with writing that I get inebriated from it.

I'm cursed with empathy. I'm also by nature way too opinionated.

I'm incapable of writing without social commentary. I like to think that it's integrated and not really heavy handedly didactic.

I'm not quite pompous enough to think of myself as an educator or a man capable of definitive refutation of falsehoods.

I'm trying to trick people into thinking about the unthinkable by using pop culture images.

People in extreme conditions are suddenly naked, realer than normal, perhaps even more alive.

I do try to be of some use in the world. I sometimes do volunteer work with kids, and manage to help some people a little, but really making a significant difference can be hard.

Labels only confuse people. The smarter people recognize artists who transcend categories. But I always try to entertain. It's in my nature; writers are born to entertain. If that means working ostensibly within a genre, fine.

My purpose is to inspire people of all walks of life to discover the virtue inherent within them and to bring forth that virtue in their daily lives.

Words alone cannot fully convey the realities of the soul or the greatness of the human spirit.

Images adorn our inner life and carry great power there.

Images have a unique power to impart that which is beyond words.

I am of opinion that it is highly requisite forthwith to pass a law, prohibiting upon great penalties all trade with our enemies, and more especially the supplying of them with arms, ammunition or provisions of any kind whatsoever.

I don't flatter myself with much dependence upon the present disposition of the Eastern Indians, who are many ways liable to be drawn into a rupture with us by the artifices of the French, their own weakness and the influence which the French Missionary Priests have over them.

I'd like to focus on my life on creating new medicines for people who are suffering from rare disease.