You never learn how to write a novel. You just learn how to write the novel that you're writing.

Men are said to desire women, Severian. Why do they despise the women they obtain?

All time exists. That is the truth.... If the future did not exist now, how could we journey toward it? If the past does not exist still, how could we leave it behind?

You seem to think that the only genuine existence evil can have is conscious existence - that no one is evil unless he admits it to himself. I disagree.

Woody Allen once said: "You know there must be intelligent life in space. The question is do they have good Chinese restaurants and do they deliver?" Which is really a joke, but it is also a very profound remark. When you say do they have good Chinese restaurants, what you're really saying is, "How much are they like us?" And when you say, "Do they deliver?" you're saying, "Can they get here?" Both of which are profound questions. And at the present, we have no answers.

Knowledge is soon changed, then lost in the mist, an echo half-heard.

You never learn how to write a novel. You just learn how to write the novel that you're writing.