Doorways in the Sand Quotes

“Did you ever look back at some moment in your past and have it suddenly grow so vivid that all the intervening years seemed brief, dreamlike, impersonal—the motions of a May afternoon surrendered to routine?”
― Roger Zelazny, Doorways in the Sand

“You are one of the few successful persons I know."
"Me? Why?"
"You know precisely what you are doing and you do it well."
"But I don't really do much of anything."
"And of course the quantity means nothing to you, nor the weight others place upon your actions. In my eyes, that makes you a success."
"By not giving a damn? But I do, you know."
"Of course you do, of course you do! But it is a matter of style, an awareness of choice—”
― Roger Zelazny, Doorways in the Sand

“As a student of business administration, I know that there is a law of evolution for organizations as stringent and inevitable as anything in life. The longer one exists, the more it grinds out restrictions that slow its own functions. It reaches entropy in a state of total narcissism. Only the people sufficiently far out in the field get anything done, and every time they do they are breaking half a dozen rules in the process.”
― Roger Zelazny, Doorways in the Sand

“Time means a lot to me, paperwork wastes it, and I have always been a firm believer in my right to do anything I cannot be stopped from doing. Which sometimes entails not getting caught at it. This is not quite so bad as it sounds, as I am a decent, civilized, likable guy. So, shading my eyes against the blue and fiery afternoon, I began searching for ways to convince the authorities of this. Lying, I decided, was probably best.”
― Roger Zelazny , Doorways in the Sand

“I feel obligated to point out, though, that I have always been a sucker for ideas I find aesthetically pleasing. The cosmic sweep of the thing - an interstellar kula chain - affirming the differences and at the same time emphasizing the similarities of all the intelligent races in the galaxy - tying them together, building common traditions... The notion strikes me as kind of fine.”
― Roger Zelazny, Doorways in the Sand

“Let there be an end to thought. Thus do I refute Descartes.' I sprawled, not a cogito or a sum to my name.”
― Roger Zelazny, Doorways in the Sand

“They are doodlehums."
"Doodlehums?"
"Antisocial individuals, intentional circumventors of statutes."
"Oh, hoodlums. Yes I guessed that much on my own. What can you tell me about them?"
"Morton Zeemeister," he said, indulges in many such activities. He is the heavy one with the pale fur. Normally, he remains away far from the scene of his hoodling, employing agents to execute it for him. The other, Jamie Buckler, is one such. He has hoodled well for Zeemeister over the years and was recently promoted by him to guard his body.”
― Roger Zelazny, Doorways in the Sand

“When you are going to die, a wombat is better than no company at all.”
― Roger Zelazny, Doorways in the Sand

“I have always been a sucker for ideas I find aesthetically pleasing.”
― Roger Zelazny, Doorways in the Sand

“Matters of sentiment are seldom mediated by the intellect”
― Roger Zelazny, Doorways in the Sand

“They did actually creep, though, those thousands of days. Petty pace, and all that,” he continued. “I know this intellectually, though something else is currently denying it. I am aware of it particularly, because I am especially conscious of the difference between that earlier time and this present. It was a cumulative thing, the change. Space travel, cities under the sea, the advances in medicine—even our first contact with the aliens—all of these things occurred at different times and everything else seemed unchanged when they did. Petty pace. Life pretty much the same but for this one new thing. Then another, at another time. Then another. No massive revolution. An incremental process is what it was. Then suddenly a man is ready to retire, and this gives rise to reflection. He looks back, back to Cambridge, where a young man is climbing a building. He sees those stars. He feels the texture of that roof. Everything that follows is a blur, a kaleidoscopic monochrome. He is here and he is there. Everything else is unreal. But they are two different worlds, Fred—two completely different worlds—and he didn’t really see it happen, never actually caught either one in the act of going or coming. And that is the feeling that accompanies me tonight.”
― Roger Zelazny, Doorways in the Sand

“Back where I left them so many years ago,” he went on. “I’ve a very peculiar feeling now—the thing I set out to analyze tonight. Did you ever look back at some moment in your past and have it suddenly grow so vivid that all the intervening years seemed brief, dreamlike, impersonal—the motions of a May afternoon surrendered to routine?” “No,” I said. “One day, when you do, remember—the cognac,” he said, and he took another sip and passed me the bottle. I had some more and returned it to him.”
― Roger Zelazny, Doorways in the Sand

“Clocking his expressions, I noted disbelief, rage and puzzlement within the first five seconds. I was hoping for despair, but you can’t have everything all at once.”
― Roger Zelazny, Doorways in the Sand

“Several minutes passed in this fashion, then: “All right,” he said, “I’m ready for you.” He looked up at me then and he smiled. “This semester. Mister Cassidy, we are going to graduate you,” he said. I smiled back at him. “That, Mister Wexroth, will be a cold day in hell,” I said.”
― Roger Zelazny, Doorways in the Sand

“But advisers come and go—general, departmental, special. I’ve dealt with the best and I’ve dealt with the worst. Offhand, I can’t say who was my favorite. Maybe Merimee. Maybe Crawford. Merimee helped me head off a suspension action. A very decent fellow. Crawford almost tricked me into graduating, which would probably have gotten him the Adviser of the Year award. A good guy, nevertheless. Just a little too creative. Where are they now?”
― Roger Zelazny, Doorways in the Sand

“Time means a lot to me, paperwork wastes it, and I have always been a firm believer in my right to do anything I cannot be stopped from doing. Which sometimes entails not getting caught at it”
― Roger Zelazny, Doorways in the Sand