Joan D. Vinge Quotes

Death showed up in my life very early on, so I'm aware of it. If you look at most of the things I write there's a sort of contemplation of mortality - although 'True Blood' doesn't fall into that. Even though there's such a ridiculously high body count!

We do not know what to do with this short life, yet we want another which will be eternal.

You must realize that one day you will die. Until then you are worthless.

To himself everyone is immortal; he may know that he is going to die, but he can never know that he is dead.

The disembodied spirit is immortal; there is nothing of it that can grow old or die. But the embodied spirit sees death on the horizon as soon as its day dawns.

I always know I can die at any moment.

I was fascinated by mortality. Most people are, even if they don't admit it.

That we must all die, we always knew; I wish I had remembered it sooner.

Humans will die like all living things do, but we have the added burden of knowing that we will.

We all have to die some day. Not very many immortals have shown up in this world.

One is born, one lives, one dies. What death is, I don't know.

Unlike other animals, all of which are undoubtedly oblivious to their eventual demise, humans are fully aware that their time on Earth is limited. This is a reality that for most individuals is difficult if not impossible to bear.

I don't think we're any more preoccupied by life and death or heaven and hell than anyone else, but it's fun to write about the inevitable - you're alive, and you're going to die.

We all know that we're going to die, but we don't know when. That's not a blessing, that's a curse.

Believe me, if a man doesn't know death, he doesn't know life.

Life begins when a person first realizes how soon it will end.

I think I want to talk about life from the point of view of death.

We've spent the last few millennia aware that senescence is horrible but knowing nevertheless that it's inevitable. We've had to find some mechanism to put it out of our minds so we can get on with our miserably short lives.

Death does not concern us, because as long as we exist, death is not here. And when it does come, we no longer exist.

You're going to die. You're going to be dead. It could be 20 years, it could be tomorrow, anytime. So am I. I mean, we're just going to be gone. The world's going to go on without us. All right now. You do your job in the face of that, and how seriously you take yourself you decide for yourself.

If we don't know life, how can we know death?

To be immortal is commonplace; except for man, all creatures are immortal, for they are ignorant of death; what is divine, terrible, incomprehensible, is to know that one is immortal.

We all have two things in common, no matter who we are: We were born and we are going to die.

My mission is to kill time, and time's to kill me in its turn. How comfortable one is among murderers.

Death is a false fear. When it is here, you won't be. When it's not, you are here.