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All Quotes by author - Jeff Vandermeer
" An important reason that we're in the trouble we are in with climate change is that we don't have a handle on our environment. We form public policy based on information that is wrong. "
Information
Change
Reason
" Cross-pollination and 'contamination' is really important to the health of fiction, and sometimes it's a literal conversation, too, in that writers who might never otherwise meet and talk do so because of our anthologies. "
Health
Important
Meet
" Every day, I get up, and I fill the bird feeders and put out fruit and other food for both the birds and any passing mammals. Is that pointless long-term? I have no idea. All I know is that on this day, in this moment, it makes a difference. "
Day
Moment
Birds
" Film fixes a precise visual image in the viewer's head. In fiction, you just hope you're precise enough to convey the intended effect. "
You
Film
Hope
" History has shown us all too often the consequences of dreaming poorly or not at all. "
Us
Dreaming
Too
" I always try to be alert to the potential for repetition, for a decaying orbit with regard to my use of technique, etc. "
Use
Always
Potential
" I do believe very much in the idea of unexpected or 'convulsive' beauty - beauty in the service of liberty. "
Unexpected
Beauty
Believe
" I have always tended toward a lush prose style, but I take care to modulate it from story to story and to strip it down entirely when necessary. "
Story
Style
Take Care
" I'm not a fan of fiction that's totally hopeless. "
Totally
Fan
Fiction
" In a sense, fictional dystopias have been a way of distracting us from the truth of our condition by placing it 'over there.' "
Over
Way
Us
" I see music as an aid. It overcomes my internal editor, especially when the music evokes the character or the mood I'm trying to build. "
Build
Mood
Trying
" I used to work for a succession of software editing companies that would have contracts with state and federal agencies. And I would be the documenter of meetings, sometimes doing limited business analysis. I began to become quite cynical about how the world works. It works on ineptitude and inefficiency and a kind of passiveness. "
World
Meetings
Work
" My best time to write is right after coffee and breakfast - four eggs - because, full disclosure, I'm really a komodo dragon - and that's because then I'm energized but not so awake that the critical voice clicks on, the voice that sometimes says, 'Don't write that,' or, 'Man, that sentence is terrible - you should give up and go pet the cats.' "
Man
Time
Best
" My dad is an entomologist and research chemist. That's why he was in Fiji, studying the rhinoceros beetle invasive species. "
Fiji
He
Why
" My mom was a biological illustrator for a time before computers replaced that job. "
Mom
Computers
Before
" My mother is an artist, and I have a strong visual sense. I almost always choose the cover art for my books. I've learned that the more I collaborate, like by having someone do a soundtrack to one of my books, the more I see my own work differently. "
Art
Mother
Work
" My parents were in the Peace Corps. "
Parents
Peace Corps
Peace
" My stepmom is one of the leading researchers on lupus in the world. "
Leading
World
Researchers
" So many differing opinions and philosophies... are rarely housed under the roof of a single magazine. "
Many
Magazine
Single
" The music I listen to while writing is really scene-specific. It's just a great motivator, a way to put myself in the mood. "
Listen
Music
Myself
" There are a lot of human-created systems that we like to tout as being logical that are actually riddled with illogic. And then, on the other hand, we have all these natural systems that are not conscious, but they are logical, and they work really well. "
Work
Natural
Hand
" There's also a lot of gritty Americana type of bands. I actually have a lot of Britpop on my iPod, too. "
Lot
Too
Actually
" There simply aren't enough constitutional safeguards in place to protect against a rogue president. "
Enough
Against
Rogue
" Trump lays bare a lot of things already wrong with our society. But he also accelerates the process of it becoming worse, when it could be getting better. "
Process
Better
Society
" When you describe a character's dream, it has to be sharper than reality in some way and more meaningful. It has to somehow speak to plot, character, and all the rest. "
Speak
Rest
Character
" When you think about the complexity of our natural world - plants using quantum mechanics for photosynthesis, for example - a smartphone begins to look like a pretty dumb object. "
Dumb
Look
Plants
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