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Design cannot rescue failed content.


Edward R. Tufte

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Information design has been around since the 1970s. Pioneers like Yale University design guru Edward...
DAVID MCCANDLESS ‎"A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves."
- Edward R. Murrow
EDWARD R. MURROW Building on the work of George Macdonald, William Morris and Edward Plunkett, what became known as h...
ADRIAN MCKINTY What about confusing clutter? Information overload? Doesn't data have to be "boiled down" and "simpl...
EDWARD R. TUFTE Above all else show the data.
EDWARD R. TUFTE Right now, the government must devote its energy to the rescue and recovery of the affected region a...
GARY ACKERMAN You cannot spell prosperity, without i-s and p-r-o-p-e-r-t-y
BRADLEY J. HARRISON Real artists ship.
STEVE JOBS None of the content has changed, ... The only thing that was tweaked was the graphical design.
CHRIS GILL Even religion cannot rescue man from his body's lustful desires.
DAVID ATTA (A.K.A DAVIED ATTLARS & MR DAIN) If faith cannot rescue you today,then tomorrow hope shall.
DAVID ATTA (A.K.A DAVIED ATTLARS & MR DAIN) I do believe that there are some universal cognitive tasks that are deep and profound - indeed, so d...
EDWARD TUFTE If you like overheads, you'll love PowerPoint.
EDWARD TUFTE That is to say, nature's laws are causal; they reveal themselves by comparison and difference, a...
EDWARD TUFTE The point of the essay is to change things.
EDWARD TUFTE The speculative part of my work is that these particular cognitive tasks - ways of thinking analytic...
EDWARD TUFTE The goal is to provide analytical tools that will last students a lifetime.
EDWARD TUFTE Beautiful Evidence is about the theory and practice of analytical design.
EDWARD TUFTE The minimum we should hope for with any display technology is that it should do no harm.
EDWARD TUFTE What gets left out is the narrative between the bullets, which would tell us who's going to do w...
EDWARD TUFTE I think it is important for software to avoiding imposing a cognitive style on workers and their wor...
EDWARD TUFTE It is straightforward for me to be ethical, responsible, and kind-hearted because I have the resourc...
EDWARD TUFTE My idea here is that, inasmuch as certain cognitive tasks and principles are tied to nature's la...
EDWARD TUFTE It's not that PowerPoint brought the Columbia down, but the method of presentation broke up the argu...
EDWARD TUFTE The point is that analytical designs are not to be decided on their convenience to the user or neces...
EDWARD TUFTE All I have to do is educate myself enough in the field to be able to do what I want. It's very pract...
EDWARD TUFTE The leading edge in evidence presentation is in science; the leading edge in beauty is in high art.
EDWARD TUFTE The know-your-audience philosophy can be a big step down the road to pandering to the audience.
EDWARD TUFTE If you like overheads, you'll love PowerPoint.
EDWARD TUFTE The commonality between science and art is in trying to see profoundly - to develop strategies of se...
EDWARD TUFTE 95% of the published literature is junk.Only 5% you have to read. You have to identify it. You have ...
EDWARD TUFTE Second, simply use PowerPoint as a slide projector rather than an information tool.
EDWARD TUFTE The central claim of the book is that effective analytic designs entail turning thinking principles ...
EDWARD TUFTE Public discussions are part of what it takes to make changes in the trillions of graphics published ...
EDWARD TUFTE A curious consequence is that I have become a minor celebrity.
EDWARD TUFTE The idea of trying to create things that last - forever knowledge - has guided my work for a long ti...
EDWARD TUFTE What gets left out is the narrative between the bullets, which would tell us who's going to do what ...
EDWARD TUFTE My father worked for governments all his life as an engineer and public works director.
EDWARD TUFTE The key argument is that cognitive tasks should be turned into design principles.
EDWARD TUFTE There are many true statements about complex topics that are too long to fit on a PowerPoint slide.
EDWARD TUFTE What this means is that we shouldn't abbreviate the truth but rather get a new method of presentatio...
EDWARD TUFTE I hope that I am generous and tolerant, but certainly on the intellectual side I think that there ar...
EDWARD TUFTE Rather, the point is to recognize the tightness between seeing and thinking on an intellectual level...
EDWARD TUFTE At its heart, my work is about how to think clearly and deeply, using evidence, and all that has to ...
EDWARD TUFTE I was writing a chapter of Beautiful Evidence on the subject of the sculptural pedestal, which led t...
EDWARD TUFTE We shouldn’t abbreviate the truth but rather get a new method of presentation.
EDWARD TUFTE What this means is that we shouldn't abbreviate the truth but rather get a new method of present...
EDWARD TUFTE I am certainly not an intellectual relativist, nor a moral relativist.
EDWARD TUFTE Even religion cannot rescue man from the seductive power of money.
DAVID ATTA (A.K.A DAVIED ATTLARS & MR DAIN) Design is the method of putting form and content together. Design, just as art, has multiple definit...
PAUL RAND As the wall between advertising and content erodes, the aptitude required to understand the function...
MATTHEW P. MCALLISTER Design is the method of putting form and content together. Design, just as art, has multiple definit...
PAUL RAND You are mine, and Heaven itself cannot rescue you from my power.
MATTHEW LEWIS The great question is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with failure.
CHINESE PROVERB My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN If Content is King, Presentation is Queen
MANSI SAXENA The dark scary servant of all evil was on his way to rescue me. Somehow that thought failed to make ...
ILONA ANDREWS The rescue team reached within an hour's walking distance to the site of the base camp but did not p...
BIKRAM NEUPANE what choice have I? I cannot live without you, but I will not destroy your soul."
-Edward Culle...
STEPHENIE MEYER When people ask me what is an editorial cartoonist, I often say we're kind of a hybrid. We'r...
MICHAEL RAMIREZ He who has never failed somewhere, that man cannot be great.
HERMAN MELVILLE We've gone out on (calls regarding) boa constrictors, snakes. I cannot recall a rescue of an alligat...
JIM WELLS Who with a little cannot be content, endures an everlasting punishment.
ROBERT HERRICK Be content with your lot; one cannot be first in everything.
AESOP Be content with your lot; once cannot be first in everything.
AESOP Be content with your lot; one cannot be first in everything.
AESOP Who with a little cannot be content, endures an everlasting punishment
ROBERT HERRICK Life is a paradiddle...

R-L-RR-L-R-LL...
R-L-R-L-RR-L-R-L-R-LL...
R-L-R-L-R-L...
ROSS R. MASON Most people would think if you're the prime news anchor, then you should sort of be this Edward ...
DON LEMON I'm delighted to carry on in the tradition of the great reporters like Edward R. Murrow, Ernie P...
AL MADRIGAL I came down successfully through Picasso and Braque, down through Pollock, I guess, but I began to s...
IRVING STONE There is no rule saying a failed task cannot be retried, rise and try again!
PENNY D SHERWOOD [Stares at dead knight, killed by the Direwolves]

Ersen: If he had sounded his horn... GEORGE R.R. MARTIN I cannot disclose the content of the report because it is against Parliamentary Standing Orders.
JUSTIN MUTURI I must stress, basically, the very fact that we do have orangutan rehabilitation means that we have ...
WILLIE SMITS The system should not have failed in this way, it should have held together. And there's either desi...
CHARLES CURTIS Without aesthetic, design is either the humdrum repetition of familiar cliches or a wild scramble fo...
PAUL RAND I endeavor to be wise when I cannot be merry, easy when I cannot be glad, content with what cannot b...
ELIZABETH MONTAGU I endeavor to be wise when I cannot be merry, easy when I cannot be glad, content when I cannot be m...
ELIZABETH MONTAGU The first thing that was considered in the design were the soils, moisture content and the wind, so ...
ANGELA HANSEN Although my art work was heavily informed by my design work on a formal and visual level, as regards...
BARBARA KRUGER No wonder Edward was such a crazy driver," I muttered. "Who's Edward?" Elyssa asked. "You know, from...
JOHN CORWIN Suck on this, Edward.
DANI SMITH Open your heart. Someone will come. Someone will come for you. But first you must open your heart.
KATE DICAMILLO Yes, you are exactly my brand of heroin.
STEPHENIE MEYER I endeavor to be wise when I cannot be merry, easy when I cannot be glad, content with what cannot b...
ELIZABETH MONTAGU The actions and emotional responses of others are not your responsibility. You cannot rescue people ...
NIKKI SEX I have lived a thousand lives and I’ve loved a thousand loves. I’ve walked on distant worlds and...
GEORGE R.R. MARTIN I thought all the trees were whispering to each other, passing news and plots along in an unintellig...
J.R.R. TOLKIEN In the stern sat Aragon son of Arathorn, proud and erect, guiding the boat with skilful strokes; his...
J.R.R. TOLKIEN Let me give you some counsel, bastard. Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Mak...
GEORGE R.R. MARTIN I am who I am. U r who u r. Be who u r. Don't let nobody tell u different.
TOMMI POLO Russia believes one cannot talk about failed diplomatic efforts or reach a verdict before Kofi Annan...
YEVGENY PRIMAKOV When you as a designer design something that burdens a community with maintenance and old world tech...
CAMERON SINCLAIR W- Work of Art
A- Achiever
R- Resilient
R- Radical
I- Independent
O- Organi...
SHANNON L. ALDER And love is love, in beggars and in kings.
EDWARD DYER In the U.S., the '50s and '60s marked the documentary's golden age, especially at CBS, w...
NAOMI WOLF Websites are kind of useless. There's so much great web content and design out there, but the wa...
DHANI HARRISON R
WOODY ALLEN He thought much but said little.
J.R.R. TOLKIEN

More Edward R. Tufte

What about confusing clutter? Information overload? Doesn't data have to be "boiled down" and "simpl...
EDWARD R. TUFTE Above all else show the data.
EDWARD R. TUFTE I do believe that there are some universal cognitive tasks that are deep and profound - indeed, so d...
EDWARD TUFTE If you like overheads, you'll love PowerPoint.
EDWARD TUFTE That is to say, nature's laws are causal; they reveal themselves by comparison and difference, a...
EDWARD TUFTE The point of the essay is to change things.
EDWARD TUFTE The speculative part of my work is that these particular cognitive tasks - ways of thinking analytic...
EDWARD TUFTE The goal is to provide analytical tools that will last students a lifetime.
EDWARD TUFTE Beautiful Evidence is about the theory and practice of analytical design.
EDWARD TUFTE The minimum we should hope for with any display technology is that it should do no harm.
EDWARD TUFTE What gets left out is the narrative between the bullets, which would tell us who's going to do w...
EDWARD TUFTE I think it is important for software to avoiding imposing a cognitive style on workers and their wor...
EDWARD TUFTE It is straightforward for me to be ethical, responsible, and kind-hearted because I have the resourc...
EDWARD TUFTE My idea here is that, inasmuch as certain cognitive tasks and principles are tied to nature's la...
EDWARD TUFTE It's not that PowerPoint brought the Columbia down, but the method of presentation broke up the argu...
EDWARD TUFTE The point is that analytical designs are not to be decided on their convenience to the user or neces...
EDWARD TUFTE All I have to do is educate myself enough in the field to be able to do what I want. It's very pract...
EDWARD TUFTE The leading edge in evidence presentation is in science; the leading edge in beauty is in high art.
EDWARD TUFTE The know-your-audience philosophy can be a big step down the road to pandering to the audience.
EDWARD TUFTE If you like overheads, you'll love PowerPoint.
EDWARD TUFTE The commonality between science and art is in trying to see profoundly - to develop strategies of se...
EDWARD TUFTE 95% of the published literature is junk.Only 5% you have to read. You have to identify it. You have ...
EDWARD TUFTE Second, simply use PowerPoint as a slide projector rather than an information tool.
EDWARD TUFTE The central claim of the book is that effective analytic designs entail turning thinking principles ...
EDWARD TUFTE Public discussions are part of what it takes to make changes in the trillions of graphics published ...
EDWARD TUFTE A curious consequence is that I have become a minor celebrity.
EDWARD TUFTE The idea of trying to create things that last - forever knowledge - has guided my work for a long ti...
EDWARD TUFTE What gets left out is the narrative between the bullets, which would tell us who's going to do what ...
EDWARD TUFTE My father worked for governments all his life as an engineer and public works director.
EDWARD TUFTE The key argument is that cognitive tasks should be turned into design principles.
EDWARD TUFTE There are many true statements about complex topics that are too long to fit on a PowerPoint slide.
EDWARD TUFTE What this means is that we shouldn't abbreviate the truth but rather get a new method of presentatio...
EDWARD TUFTE I hope that I am generous and tolerant, but certainly on the intellectual side I think that there ar...
EDWARD TUFTE Rather, the point is to recognize the tightness between seeing and thinking on an intellectual level...
EDWARD TUFTE At its heart, my work is about how to think clearly and deeply, using evidence, and all that has to ...
EDWARD TUFTE I was writing a chapter of Beautiful Evidence on the subject of the sculptural pedestal, which led t...
EDWARD TUFTE We shouldn’t abbreviate the truth but rather get a new method of presentation.
EDWARD TUFTE What this means is that we shouldn't abbreviate the truth but rather get a new method of present...
EDWARD TUFTE I am certainly not an intellectual relativist, nor a moral relativist.
EDWARD TUFTE Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn't mean you are wiser than when it...
EDWARD R. MURROW Good night, and good luck.
EDWARD R. MURROW He mobilized the English language and sent it into battle.
EDWARD R. MURROW To be persuasive, we must be believable; to be believable, we must be credible; to be credible, we m...
EDWARD R. MURROW Anyone who isn't confused doesn't really understand the situation.
EDWARD R. MURROW Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices - just recognize the...
EDWARD R MURROW Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices - just recognize th...
EDWARD R MURROW A great many people think they are thinking when they are really rearranging their prejudices.
EDWARD R. MURROW Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices - just recognize them...
EDWARD R. MURROW A reporter is always concerned with tomorrow. There's nothing tangible of yesterday. All I can say I...
EDWARD R. MURROW Principle, particularly moral principal, can never be a weathervane, spinning around this way and th...
EDWARD R. LYMAN If we confuse dissent with disloyalty
EDWARD R. MURROW I have always been on the side of the heretics, against those who burned them, because the heretics ...
EDWARD R. MURROW We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason i...
EDWARD R. MURROW We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of Ame...
EDWARD R. MURROW The obscure we see eventually, the completely apparent takes longer.
EDWARD R. MURROW The newest computer can merely compound, at speed, the oldest problem in the relations between human...
EDWARD R. MURROW A satellite has no conscience.
EDWARD R. MURROW We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.
EDWARD R. MURROW No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices.
EDWARD R. MURROW After last night's debate, the reputation of Messieurs Lincoln and Douglas is secure.
EDWARD R. MURROW If we were to do the Second Coming of Christ in color for a full hour, there would be a considerable...
EDWARD R. MURROW A reporter is always concerned with tomorrow. There's nothing tangible of yesterday. All I can s...
EDWARD R. MURROW Difficulty is the excuse history never accepts.
EDWARD R. MURROW We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. Our mass media reflect...
EDWARD R. MURROW Our major obligation is not to mistake slogans for solutions.
EDWARD R. MURROW Senator McCarthy's reckless and unfounded attempt to impugn my loyalty is just one more example ...
EDWARD R. MURROW To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; credible we must be tr...
EDWARD R. MURROW No man can terrorize a whole nation unless we are all his accomplices.
EDWARD R. MURROW When the politicians complain that TV turns the proceedings into a circus, it should be made clear t...
EDWARD R. MURROW We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven into an age of unreason if we dig de...
EDWARD R. MURROW The speed of communications is wondrous to behold. It is also true that speed can multiply the distr...
EDWARD R. MURROW The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer.
EDWARD R. MURROW Most truths are so naked that people feel sorry for them and cover them up, at least a little bit.
EDWARD R. MURROW Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn't mean you are wiser than when it rea...
EDWARD R. MURROW Anyone who isn't confused really doesn't understand the situation.
EDWARD R. MURROW A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.
EDWARD R. MURROW The politician in my country seeks votes, affection and respect, in that order. With few notable exc...
EDWARD R. MURROW Just once in a while let us exalt the importance of ideas and information.
EDWARD R. MURROW Seldom, if ever, has a war ended leaving the victors with such a sense of uncertainty and fear -- wi...
EDWARD R. MURROW This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to...
EDWARD R. MURROW [The] See It Now ... See It Now.
EDWARD R. MURROW baleful look of the eyes, the tilt of the head - it's the real Murrow.
EDWARD R. MURROW Is that what's going around? I haven't had any calls.
EDWARD R. MURROW a blur of blinks, taps, jiggles, pivots and shifts ... the body language of a man wishing urgently t...
EDWARD R. MURROW I began by saying that our history will be what we make it. If we go on as we are, then history will...
EDWARD R. MURROW We cannot make good news out of bad practice.
EDWARD R. MURROW People say conversation is a lost art; how often I have wished it were.
EDWARD R. MURROW To be persuasive we must be believable;
to be believable we must be creditable;
to be cred...
EDWARD R. MURROW The politician is trained in the art of inexactitude. His words tend to be blunt or rounded, because...
EDWARD R. MURROW A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
EDWARD R. MURROW Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices--just recognize them.
EDWARD R. MURROW A reporter is always concerned with tomorrow. There's nothing tangible of yesterday. All I can say I...
EDWARD R. MURROW How you lose or keep your hair depends on how wisely you choose your parents.
EDWARD R. NIDA ‎"A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves."
- Edward R. Murrow
EDWARD R. MURROW If you believe that this war will be decided on the home front, then you must believe that radio use...
EDWARD R. MURROW I have an old-fashioned belief that Americans like to make up their own minds on the basis of all av...
EDWARD R. MURROW [The] See It Now ... See It Now.
EDWARD R. MURROW The person of wisdom is the person of years.
EDWARD The thing that impresses me most about Americans is the way parents obey their children.
EDWARD Some follow ideas. Others think of them.
EDWARD Not all those who wander are lost.
J. R. R. TOLKIEN I don't like allegories.
J. R. R. TOLKIEN A safe fairyland is untrue to all worlds.
J. R. R. TOLKIEN They say it is the first step that costs the effort. I do not find it so. I am sure I could write un...
J. R. R. TOLKIEN Myth and fairy-story must, as all art, reflect and contain in solution elements of moral and religio...
J. R. R. TOLKIEN Go not to the Elves for counsel, for they will say both no and yes.
J. R. R. TOLKIEN A box without hinges, key, or lid, yet golden treasure inside is hid.
J. R. R. TOLKIEN If you really want to know what Middle-earth is based on, it's my wonder and delight in the eart...
J. R. R. TOLKIEN The proper study of Man is anything but Man; and the most improper job of any man, even saints (who ...
J. R. R. TOLKIEN I should like to save the Shire, if I could - though there have been times when I thought the inhabi...
J. R. R. TOLKIEN It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.
J. R. R. TOLKIEN I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as...
J. R. R. TOLKIEN You have been chosen, and you must therefore use such strength and heart and wits as you have.
J. R. R. TOLKIEN The wide world is all about you: you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot forever fence it out.
J. R. R. TOLKIEN Nobody is a villain in their own story. We're all the heroes of our own stories.
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN A pen is to me as a beak is to a hen.
J. R. R. TOLKIEN Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not b...
J. R. R. TOLKIEN Courage is found in unlikely places.
J. R. R. TOLKIEN Some who have read the book, or at any rate have reviewed it, have found it boring, absurd, or conte...
J. R. R. TOLKIEN All your words are but to say: you are a woman, and your part is in the house. But when the men have...
J. R. R. TOLKIEN Nothing bores me more than books where you read two pages and you know exactly how it's going to...
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN One of the big breakthroughs, I think for me, was reading Robert A. Heinlein's four rules of wri...
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN Not all who wander are lost.
J. R. R. TOLKIEN Elves seldom give unguarded advice, for advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wis...
J. R. R. TOLKIEN It's the job that's never started takes longest to finish.
J. R. R. TOLKIEN I wish life was not so short, he thought. languages take such a time, and so do all the things one w...
J. R. R. TOLKIEN Still round the corner there may wait,
A new road or a secret gate.
J. R. R. TOLKIEN Remember what Bilbo used to say: It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step ont...
J. R. R. TOLKIEN The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has go...
J. R. R. TOLKIEN Then the enchantment became more dreamlike, until he felt that an endless river of swelling gold and...
J. R. R. TOLKIEN Do not meddle in the affairs of Wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger.
J. R. R. TOLKIEN I dislike Allegory - the conscious and intentional allegory - yet any attempt to explain the purport...
J. R. R. TOLKIEN Whether you're a history buff or a fantasy fan, Druon's epic will keep you turning pages. Th...
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN It's the job that's never started as takes longest to finish.
J. R. R. TOLKIEN So comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their ending!
J. R. R. TOLKIEN All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.
J. R. R. TOLKIEN All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does no...
J. R. R. TOLKIEN Still round the corner there may wait, A new road or a secret gate.
J. R. R. TOLKIEN Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.
J. R. R. TOLKIEN If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.
J. R. R. TOLKIEN An awful lot of fantasy, and even some great fantasy, falls into the mistake of assuming that a good...
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN As Faulkner says, all of us have the capacity in us for great good and for great evil, for love but ...
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN Over the years, more than one reviewer has described my fantasy series, 'A Song of Ice and Fire&...
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN I had an encyclopedia with a list of flags in the back, so I would look at all these flags of China ...
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN Middle English is an exciting field - almost uncharted, I begin to think, because as soon as one tur...
J. R. R. TOLKIEN It is plain indeed that in spite of later estrangement Hobbits are relatives of ours: far nearer to ...
J. R. R. TOLKIEN He had a feeling that the answer was quite different and that he ought to know it, but he could no...
J. R. R. TOLKIEN The distinction between literary and genre fiction is stupid and pernicious. It dates back to a feud...
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN Short cuts make long delays.
J. R. R. TOLKIEN When I am writing best, I really am lost in my world. I lose track of the outside world. I have a di...
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN Still round the corner there may wait,
A new road or a secret gate.
J. R. R. TOLKIEN 'I wish life was not so short,' he thought. 'Languages take such a time, and so do all the things on...
J. R. R. TOLKIEN Many that live deserve death. And some die that deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then be not t...
J. R. R. TOLKIEN His house was perfect, whether you liked food, or sleep, or work, or story-telling, or singing, or j...
J. R. R. TOLKIEN One Ring to rule them all,
One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all
and in the ...
J. R. R. TOLKIEN All that is gold does not glitter; not all those that wander are lost.
J. R. R. TOLKIEN It's a dangerous business going out your front door.
J. R. R. TOLKIEN I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as wel...
J. R. R. TOLKIEN All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.
J. R. R. TOLKIEN Nearly all marriages, even happy ones, are mistakes: in the sense that almost certainly (in a more p...
J. R. R. TOLKIEN The Hobbits are just rustic English people, made small in size because it reflects the generally sma...
J. R. R. TOLKIEN Little by little, one travels far.
J. R. R. TOLKIEN It's a job that's never started that takes the longest to finish.
J. R. R. TOLKIEN I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done since I grew old and wa...
J. R. R. TOLKIEN The original 'Hobbit' was never intended to have a sequel - Bilbo 'remained very happy t...
J. R. R. TOLKIEN There was part of me that wanted to see the world and travel to distant places, but I could only do ...
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN I have files, I have computer files and, you know, files on paper. But most of it is really in my he...
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN The odd thing about being a writer is you do tend to lose yourself in your books. Sometimes it seems...
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN In my 10 years that I spent out in TV and film, I had my shares of frustrations and annoyances and d...
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN I try to make the readers feel they've lived the events of the book. Just as you grieve if a fri...
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN All fiction has to have a certain amount of truth in it to be powerful.
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN It may be the part of a friend to rebuke a friend's folly.
J. R. R. TOLKIEN I like grey characters; fantasy for too long has been focused on very stereotypical heroes and villa...
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN There are some examples of medieval kings who were terrible human beings but were nevertheless good ...
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN It's really irritating when you open a book, and 10 pages into it you know that the hero you met...
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN I do get invitations all of the time to play actual fantasy football, by the way, but I get the feel...
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN I'm a huge fan of Tolkien. I read those books when I was in junior high school and high school, ...
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN Many children make up, or begin to make up, imaginary languages. I have been at it since I could wri...
J. R. R. TOLKIEN In October 1920 I went to Leeds as Reader in English Language, with a free commission to develop the...
J. R. R. TOLKIEN I have an instinctual distrust of conventional happy endings.
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN I had this desire to see the world. I couldn't see any of it, but I saw it in my imagination, an...
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN Yes - 90% of fantasy is crap. And so is 90% of science fiction and 90% of mystery fiction and 90% of...
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN I have always regarded historical fiction and fantasy as sisters under the skin, two genres separate...
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN Hobbits are an unobtrusive but very ancient people, more numerous formerly than they are today; for ...
J. R. R. TOLKIEN I prefer to work with grey characters rather than black and white.
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN I've always preferred writing about grey characters and human characters. Whether they are giant...
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN Start with short stories. After all, if you were taking up rock climbing, you wouldn't start wit...
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN Many writers will get a contract by selling chapters and outlines or something like that. I wrote th...
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN Don't write outlines; I hate outlines.
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN When I'm writing from a character's viewpoint, in essence I become that character; I share t...
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN The prejudice is still there, but it's breaking down. You have writers like Michael Chabon and T...
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN It's like these ideas, these characters, kind of bubble up inside me, and one day they're no...
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN One of the things I love, and I'm a voracious reader as well as a writer, is books that surprise...
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN With a book I am the writer and I am also the director and I'm all of the actors and I'm the...
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN A friend of mine tells that I talk in shorthand and then smudge it.
J. R. R. TOLKIEN I never liked Gandalf the White as much as Gandalf the Grey, and I never liked him coming back. I th...
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN The success that the Tolkien books had redefined modern fantasy.
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN If you go all the way back, I've always written science-fiction, I've always written fantasy...
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN I have many books that I want to write; I'd like to think that I'll be around for another 20...
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN If I was a soldier going to war, I'd be pretty scared the night before a battle. It's a scar...
GEORGE R. R. MARTIN