Poets are regarded as handicapped writers whose work must be treated with a tender condescension, such as one accords the athletic achievements of basketball players confined to wheelchairs. Thomas M. Disch More Quotes by Thomas M. Disch More Quotes From Thomas M. Disch Creativity is the ability to see relationships where none exist. Thomas M. Disch ability-to-see ability creativity The distances between the stars seem brief by contrast to the distances between each of us and his fellows. Thomas M. Disch distance stars loneliness Gene Wolfe has produced a work of art that can satisfy adult appetites and in which even the most fantastical elements register as poetry rather than as penny-whistle whimsy. Thomas M. Disch elements adults art Creativeness is finding patterns where none exist. Thomas M. Disch creativeness findings patterns Let me tell you about the end of the world. It happened fifty years ago. Maybe a hundred. And since then it's been lovely. I mean it. Nobody tries to bother you. You can relax. You know what? I like the end of the world. Thomas M. Disch lovely mean years America is a nation of liars, and for that reason science fiction has a special claim to be our national literature, as the art form best adapted to telling the lies we like to hear and to pretend we believe. Thomas M. Disch liars lying art A predilection for genre fiction is symptomatic of a kind of arrested development. Thomas M. Disch development kind fiction Science Fiction is a branch of children's literature. Thomas M. Disch literature children fiction Thought is a disease of the brain. The mind defends itself against the degenerative process of creativity; it begins to jell; notions solidify into inalterable systems. Thomas M. Disch creativity mind brain So, without saying anything to the others, it made its way to the farthest corner of the meadow and began to toast an imaginary muffin. That was always the best way to unwind when things got to be too much for it. Thomas M. Disch too-much cute way Sameness is what marketers want us to want. Thomas M. Disch marketers commerce want Writers tend to consider distinction and originality as virtues, but they are anathema to publishers. Thomas M. Disch originality virtue writing The gods, after all, are only human, and once their rage has been placated they are perfectly capable of acts of mercy and grace. Thomas M. Disch rage mercy grace All children... feel a demonic sympathy with those things that cause disorder in the grown-up world. Thomas M. Disch causes children world For a lot of people, poetry tends to be dull. It's not read much. It takes a special kind of training and a lot of practice to read poetry with pleasure. It's like learning to like asparagus. Thomas M. Disch training practice people Knowledge is devalued when it becomes too generally known Thomas M. Disch known Here was a flower (the daisy reflected) strangely like itself and yet utterly unlike itself too. Such a paradox has often been the basis for the most impassioned love. Thomas M. Disch daisies paradox flower Though opposition is a hopeless task, acquiescence would be worse. Thomas M. Disch acquiescence tasks would-be Genius is an infinite capacity for pain. Thomas M. Disch infinite pain genius The forest stretched on seemingly forever with the most monotonous predictability, each tree just like the next - trunk, branches, leaves; trunk, branches, leaves. Of course a tree would have taken a different view of the matter. We all tend to see the way others are alike and how we differ, and it's probably just as well we do, since that prevents a great deal of confusion. But perhaps we should remind ourselves from time to time that ours is a very partial view, and that the world is full of a great deal more variety than we ever manage to take in. Thomas M. Disch confusion taken views
