favorite quotations, from memory

wild_irises and nellorat and sturgeonslawyer did it, so I'm going to do it: "When you see this post, post a couple of quotations from your own favorite writers. These should be people you read over and over again, not people who had one great idea; go ahead and do it from memory, mistakes and all."

One quotation each, from several of my favorite writers. The problem is, since I spend so much of my reading time re-reading, keeping it down to just a few.

"Deserves death? I daresay he does. Many who live deserve death. And some who die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in punishment." - J.R.R. Tolkien

"Love doesn't sit there, like a stone. It has to be made, made new every day, like bread." - Ursula K. Le Guin

"Two friends delight to be joined by a third, and three by a fourth or fifth, if only the newcomer is qualified to be a true friend." - C.S. Lewis

"Frequent separation may have contributed to the stability of the Churchills' marriage; the lengthy correspondence resulting from it is certainly a boon to the biographer." - Roy Jenkins

"Glendower: I can call spirits from the vasty deep. Hotspur: Why, so can I, and so can any man. But will they come when you do call for them?" - William Shakespeare (Hotspur was an SF fan. Nobody else is capable of that level of quibbling)

"It's remarkable that they should insist on criticizing Tolkien not on the basis of literary merit, where their opinions could rest undisputable, but on popular appeal, where they can be shown up as wrong beyond a shadow of a doubt." - Tom Shippey

"The question isn't whether women should be interested in Aristotle. I, as an individual, am interested in Aristotle. And I submit there is nothing in my sex or background which should prevent me from knowing about him." - Dorothy L. Sayers

"I do not aspire to the sort of gentility which consists of tormenting the feelings of a respectable gentleman." - Jane Austen

"From now on, any representative of the FBI who comes to my door is welcome to a cup of coffee and some light talk about the Red (but non-Communist) Sox. But I will no longer discuss anyone in private with a government investigator." - Bernard DeVoto

"All the eager salesmen were looking up at their president, thinking: tell us, you tough, two-fisted, son-of-a-bitch businessman. Tell us about our glorious future. Tell us about the rabbits." - Otto Friedrich (with a silent nod to John Steinbeck)

"He's so mean he can't look in a mirror, for fear he'll annoy himself." - Donald E. Westlake

"Meanwhile, the poor Babel Fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and species, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation." - Douglas Adams

"Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent." - Isaac Asimov

"I have thought about their perspective, considered their point of view, tried to put myself in their place. I think they are full of sh*t." - Nora Ephron