The Good Quote
Open menu
Quotes
Authors
Topics
More
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
#
Home
Authors
Joan D. Vinge
American
Author
About the author
The futures and ultimate fates of the characters in The Snow Queen are profoundly changed by choices made in their own minds or hearts, as well as choices unexpectedly forced on them by things beyond their control.
Joan D. Vinge,
American
Author
#Control
#Queen
#Choices
#Snow
Perhaps the thing that makes humans truly unique on Earth is that we are never satisfied with our situation; maybe that is what's taken us so far.
Joan D. Vinge,
American
Author
#Earth
Probably I chose immortality because mortality is a universal human obsession.
Joan D. Vinge,
American
Author
#Immortality
#Obsession
Studying anthropology, I developed a kind of holistic view of human existence, in which the dichotomies you listed are all necessary and vital aspects of life.
Joan D. Vinge,
American
Author
#Life
#Existence
#Anthropology
The contradictions are what make human behavior so maddening and yet so fascinating, all at the same time.
Joan D. Vinge,
American
Author
#Time
#Behavior
The ecosystem of our world is a closed system: it would run out of gas, collapse of its own weight.
Joan D. Vinge,
American
Author
#World
#Weight
The mers were also designed to reproduce only at long intervals, in order to maintain the natural balance of the environment in which they were placed.
Joan D. Vinge,
American
Author
#Balance
#Environment
#Order
There's no such thing as a free lunch, at least on the karmic level.
Joan D. Vinge,
American
Author
These days too many of us seem inclined to cover our ears, close our eyes, and blindly follow the most narrow, conservative tenets of religion; or else seek comfort in the ancient traditions of New Age ritual.
Joan D. Vinge,
American
Author
#Comfort
#Conservative
#Age
#Eyes
#Religion
#Traditions
#Ritual
Throughout the ages, stories with certain basic themes have recurred over and over, in widely disparate cultures; emerging like the goddess Venus from the sea of our unconscious.
Joan D. Vinge,
American
Author
#Unconscious
#Sea
Myth is, after all, the neverending story.
Joan D. Vinge,
American
Author
#Myth
What does immortality mean to me? That we all want more time; and we want it to be quality time.
Joan D. Vinge,
American
Author
#Want
#Time
#Quality
#Immortality
Humans may be the only creatures on Earth who spend significant time thinking about the fact that someday their lives will end.
Joan D. Vinge,
American
Author
#Time
#Will
#Thinking
#End
#May
#Earth
#Fact
What I do not want to write is didactic political tracts.
Joan D. Vinge,
American
Author
#Want
We are all born with a unique genetic blueprint, which lays out the basic characteristics of our personality as well as our physical health and appearance... And yet, we all know that life experiences do change us.
Joan D. Vinge,
American
Author
#Life
#Change
#Personality
#Health
#Appearance
As for the historical inspirations I drew on in writing The Snow Queen, I suppose I would call them more cross-cultural inspirations, though they frequently involve past societies as well as present day ones.
Joan D. Vinge,
American
Author
#Day
#Past
#Writing
#Present
#Queen
#Snow
I was thinking about what I wanted to write next, after my first novel, and had decided that I wanted to write a story with a lot of strong female characters in it.
Joan D. Vinge,
American
Author
#Thinking
#First
And so The Snow Queen also became a story about the need to seek equilibrium, in our own lives, with the natural world, even within the universe at large.
Joan D. Vinge,
American
Author
#World
#Universe
#Queen
#Snow
Moon is also a naive native girl when she sets out for Carbuncle.
Joan D. Vinge,
American
Author
#Moon
Besides, wouldn't it be wonderful if no one ever had to worry about the random cruelty of fatal illness or the woes of old age attacking them or their loved ones?
Joan D. Vinge,
American
Author
#Old
#Age
#Illness
#Worry
#Cruelty
Beyond that, I seem to be compelled to write science fiction, rather than fantasy or mysteries or some other genre more likely to climb onto bestseller lists even though I enjoy reading a wide variety of literature, both fiction and nonfiction.
Joan D. Vinge,
American
Author
#Science
#Reading
#Fantasy
#Literature
#Fiction
#Variety
But our society does not grant nontraditional forms of intelligence equal recognition, no matter how much it would help us get along or truly enrich our lives.
Joan D. Vinge,
American
Author
#Society
#Help
#Intelligence
Everything born has to die, in order to make room for the future.
Joan D. Vinge,
American
Author
#Future
#Order
Fear of the unknown is a terrible fear.
Joan D. Vinge,
American
Author
#Fear
For every path you choose, there is another you must abandon, usually forever.
Joan D. Vinge,
American
Author
Here was a fragment of Goddess myth that, through all its permutations, had somehow escaped being turned on its head. It was the perfect springboard for the sort of novel I wanted to write.
Joan D. Vinge,
American
Author
#Being
#Myth
Humans are upsetting a fragile balance that their own human ancestors established.
Joan D. Vinge,
American
Author
#Balance
I wanted to show those characters discovering it is possible to find common ground, as they make their way through a plotline that I hope is engrossing enough to keep the reader a willing participant.
Joan D. Vinge,
American
Author
#Hope
Each time, storytellers clothed the naked body of the myth in their own traditions, so that listeners could relate more easily to its deeper meaning.
Joan D. Vinge,
American
Author
#Time
#Body
#Traditions
#Meaning
#Myth