Quotes by Iain Banks

All I said was that I thought it was a judgement from God that Blyth had first lost his leg and then had the replacement become the instrument of his downfall. All because of the rabbits. Eric, who was going through a religious phase at the time which I suppose I was to some extent copying, thought this was a terrible thing to say; God wasnt like that. I said the one I believed in was.

Bright morning comes; the bloody-fingered dawn with zealous light sets seas of air ablaze and bends to earth another false beginning. My eyes open like cornflowers, stick, crusted with their own stale dew, then take that light.

I dont think you really belong here, Aviger. Xoxarle nodded wisely, slowly.Aviger shrugged, and did not raise his eyes. I dont think any of us do.The brave belong where they decide. Some harshness entered the Idirans voice.

...and I confess that, like a child, I cry. Ah, self-pity; I think we are at our most honest and sincere when we feel sorry for ourselves.

I killed little Esmerelda because I felt I owed it to myself and to the world in general. I had, after all, accounted for two male children and thus done womankind something of a statistical favour. If I really had the courage of my convictions, I reasoned, I ought to redress the balance at least slightly. My cousin was simply the easiest and most obvious target.

I switched the light out again. The room was totally dark, not even the starlight showing while my eyes adjusted. Perhaps I would ask for one of those LED alarm radios, though I’m very fond of my old brass alarm clock. Once I tied a wasp tot the striking-surface of each of the copper-coloured bells on top, where the little hammer would hit them in the morning when the alarm went off. I always wake up before the alarm goes, so I got to watch.

I just think people overvalue argument because they like to hear themselves talk.

Half the fun of writing a novel is finding out from other people later on what you actually meant.

There are no gods, we are told, so I must make my own salvation.

I sucked that smoke in and made it part of me, joined mystically with the universe right at that point, said Yes to drugs forever just by the unique hit I got from that one packet of fags Andy liberated from his dad. It was a revelation, an epiphany; a sudden realisation that it was possible for matter - something there in front of you, in your hand, in your lungs, in your pocket - to take your brain apart and reassemble it in ways you hadnt thought of previously. This was better than religion, or this was what people meant by religion! The whole point was that this worked! People said Believe In God or Do Well At School or Buy This or Vote For Me or whatever, but nothing ever worked the way substances worked, nothing ever fucking delivered the way they did. They were truth. Everything else was falsehood.

Theres something very... I dont know; primitive, perhaps, about you, Gurgeh. Youve never changed sex, have you? He shook his head. Or slept with a man? Another shake. I thought so, Yay said. Youre strange, Gurgeh. She drained her glass.

Och, stop being so sensitive, Prentice; it isnt much fun getting old. One of the few pleasures that do come your way is to speak your mind... Certainly annoying your relatives is enjoyable too, but I expected better of you.

Maybe hes up to something, maybe heś not really crazy after all. Perhaps he just got fed up acting normal and decided to act crazy instead, and they locked him up because he went too far.

Lets be clear: unless I have profoundly misunderstood its position, I pretty much despise American Libertarianism. Have these people seriously looked at the problems of the world and thought, Hmm, what we need here is a bit more selfishness? . . . I beg to differ.

Its like a sealed, forgotten chamber in me; I shant feel complete until Ive discovered its entrance. Sounds like a tomb. Arent you afraid of what youll find in there? Its a library; only the stupid and the evil are afraid of those.

Look on the happy side, think of the good things. Hadnt it been clever? Yes, it had.

The flames had passed over those flattened blades and consumed their heather neighbours on either side while they themselves had remained, made proof against the blaze and guaranteed their stark survival just by their earlier oppression.

Escape is a commodity like anything else

My point has always been that, ever since the Industrial Revolution, science fiction has been the most important genre there is.

Torture is such a slippery slope; as soon as you allow a society or any legal system to do that, almost instantly you get a situation where people are being tortured for very trivial reasons.