Harry Turtledove Quotes

I first tried a novel when I was 14. First finished one when I was 16. First started working on stuff that had a chance of being salable in my early 20s, then didn't write much fiction at all because I was in grad school.

when we awoke someone had stolen the sea.

Plausible development, building from what we know about what really did go on, and a whacking good story ... Surrounded by Enemies delivers on both, big-time. So hold on to your hats, folks. You're in for quite a ride.

A horsefly can't do a horse much real damage, but it can drive it wild anyhow.

He'd never played in Wrigley Field - the Cubs had still been out at old West Side Grounds when he came through as a catcher for the Cardinals before the First World War. But seeing the ballpark in ruins brought the reality of this war home to him like a kick in the teeth. Sometimes big things would do that, sometimes little ones; he remembered a doughboy breaking down and sobbing like a baby when he found some French kid's dolly with its head blown off. Muldoon's eyes slid over toward Wrigley for a moment. "Gonna be a long time before the Cubs win another pennant," he said, as good an epitaph as any for the park - and the city.

When you thought of permanent oblivion, temporary oblivion was the only foxhole you had.

Do you see things in black and white, or are there shades of gray for you?"
"I hope there's gray ... Black and white make things easier, but only if you don't want to think.

What does not corrupt a man's heart cannot corrupt his life, or do him any lasting harm.

I'm a social caterpillar. I am not a social butterfly

All the pools are going batshit like you wouldn't believe ... Batshit ... It's a technical term ... Fleidermausscheisse, okay?
Fleidermausscheisse? Kelly silently mouthed the word, and as silently clapped her hands. With a dictionary and patience, she could read scientific German. Thanks to fragments of Yiddish from her folks, she could make a better
not good, but better
stab at speaking it than most of her anglophone peers. But she knew she never would have come up with that particular terminus technicus in a million months of Sundays.

Except when Yankees are around," Moss said. "Then they'll swear up and down that they didn't know what was going on. Some prick will probably write a book that shows how they didn't really massacre their Negroes after all." "Oh, yeah? Then where'd the smokes go?" Goodman asked. "I mean, they were there before the war, and then they weren't. So what happened?" "Well, we killed a bunch of 'em when we bombed Confederate cities." Moss was a well-trained attorney; he could spin out an argument whether he believed in it or not. "Some died in the rebellion. Some went up to the USA. Some died of hunger and disease - there was a war on, you know. But a massacre? Nah. Never happened." Barry Goodman's mouth twisted. "That's disgusting. That'd gag a maggot, damned if it wouldn't." "Bet your ass," Moss said. "You think it won't happen, though? Give it twenty years - thirty at the outside." "Disgusting,

The difference between bad and worse is a lot bigger than the difference between good and better.

He said, "You misunderstand. We did not kill the nuggies and the other folk hereabouts. They see us, and then they commonly die."
"Of what?" I asked.
"Of embarrassment.

For some idiot reason, the idea of going into the drink with a misspelled safety device weirded Bryce out.

Well, I might even get used to the idea that she had no tail.

I do first draft in longhand, which saves a lot of rewriting. I try to get a certain amount done each day. Don't always, but I try. Then I clean up in the rewrites.

Many things are possible. Few things are certain.

The Romans, spring and early