Dylan > Dylan's Quotes

“Just as the room of the Inquisitor in Dr. Talos's play, with its high judicial bench, lurked somewhere at the lowest level of the House Absolute, so we have each of us in the dustiest cellars of our minds a counter at which we strive to repay the debts of the past with the debased currency of the present.”
― Gene Wolfe, The Sword of the Lictor

“I was trapped in admiration for what I had once admired, as a fly in amber remains the captive of some long-vanished pine.”
― Gene Wolfe, The Claw of the Conciliator

“That we are capable only of being what we are remains our unforgivable sin.”
― Gene Wolfe, The Claw of the Conciliator

“If we could have our way, no man would have to go roving or draw blood. But women did not make the world. All of you are torturers, one way or another.”
― Gene Wolfe, The Shadow of the Torturer

“It was in this instant of confusion that I realized for the first time that I am in some degree insane.”
― Gene Wolfe, The Shadow of the Torturer

“I have said that I cannot explain my desire for her, and it is true. I loved her with a love thirsty and desperate. I felt that we two might commit some act so atrocious that the world, seeing us, would find it irresistible.”
― Gene Wolfe, The Shadow of the Torturer

“All love that which they destroy.”
― Gene Wolfe, The Shadow of the Torturer

“My hunger fed at least as ravenously upon her imperfections.”
― Gene Wolfe, The Shadow of the Torturer

“By the use of the language of sorrow I had for the time being obliterated my sorrow—so powerful is the charm of words, which for us reduces to manageable entities all the passions that would otherwise madden and destroy us.”
― Gene Wolfe, The Complete Book of the New Sun