Orson Scott Card citations Page 11

“Je n’en mourus pas. Mais quand ma voix se tut et de vis la terre refermée, je voulus la refaire surgir du néant, rappeler à la vie le hideux vieillard, permettre à son existence de se poursuivre même si son être ne pouvais pas vivre. Il méritait de mourir, sauf que rien ne mérite la mort, et j’aurais pu devenir fou en cet instant, partagé entre le besoin de ramener à la vie l’homme et la maison, et la certitude que leur destruction était nécessaire.”

It's life. It hurts, it's dirty, but it's so good.
en
Les enfants de l'Esprit, 2000

“Il eut un surprenant sourire, puis il me prit dans ses bras et me dit : « Je ne pensais que tu m’avais trahi la dernière fois que tu as parti. Je ne comprenais pas, Lanik. Je pensais que si je te faisais confiance, cela signifie que tu agirais toujours comme je le voulais…”

A Planet Called Treason

“Un décor rustique évoque toujours la fantasy; pour évoquer la science-fiction, il faut des panneaux de métal et du plastique. Il faut des boulons.”

A Planet Called Treason

Orson Scott Card Citations

“Lanik :
- Je suis en train de perdre Saranna.
L'Homee-qui-sais-tout :
- C'est très bien. Peresonne ne doit posséder quelqu'un d'autre.”

Comment écrire de la fantasy et de la science-fiction

“La vie et encore assez douce pour nous… même si nous savons que cela ne tardera pas. Et cela aussi sera un bien. Même la mort sera un bien, je pense, non parce qu’elle mettra fin aux anciennes amertumes, mais parce qu’à mon avis elle sera la dernière des aigres saveurs qui m’ont signalé que j’étais en vie.
Par-dessous toutes choses je continue d’entendre le cri de la terre, mais il n’affecte plus ce que je vois et ce que je fais. Au contraire, il rehausse mes plaisirs, car le lever du soleil est plus éclatant à couse des sombres gouffres au fond de moi, et la sourire de Saranna est plus chaleureux à cause de la cruauté que j’ai connue, et les soins que je prodigue aux gens et aux animaux ont plus de valeur à cause des tueries que j’ai commises.”

A Planet Called Treason

“Mais peu importe qu’il y ait ou non des grands desseins extérieurs à moi. Mon seul espoir a été ceci : discerner ce qui pouvait être accompli, croire que c’était possible, et ensuite mettre tout en œuvre pour exécuter, à n’importe quel prix. Et quand une vie s’achève comme la mienne s’achèvera, nul ne peut me persuader que le prix ne valait pas d’être payé en échange de ce que j’ai reçu”

A Planet Called Treason

“Something had been given back to him. And because [she] had been a part of it, there was something between them now. A bond of loss, if loss could bind.”

A Planet Called Treason

Orson Scott Card: Citations en anglais

“Some men are great enough that they can love a whole woman, and not just part of her.”

Orson Scott Card livre Homebody

Homebody (1998)

“Sometimes it felt to him as though he’s spent most of his life traveling, and never quite got to anywhere that mattered.
Then again, that might be as good a description of what life was supposed to be as anyone ever thought of. The only real destination was death, and our lives consisted of finding the most circuitous and pleasant path to get there.”

Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Prentice Alvin (1989), Chapter 10.

“Here’s the bottom line. I promise you it’s entirely legal, and he can’t touch you for it. This is how the laws are written. They’re designed to protect the fortunes of people as rich as you, while throwing the main tax burden on people in much lower brackets.”

Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, The Crystal City (2003), Chapter 7 “Errand Boy” (p. 136).

“We've seen the worst that men can do, pa, and been the worst that men can be. But that don't mean that someday we won't see the best, too. And if we can never be perfect after this, well, we can still be pretty good, can't we?”

Orson Scott Card Ender's Game hexalogy

Page 200
Ender's Game series, First Meetings in the Enderverse (2003), Investment Counselor

“Maybe if I could bear my life as it is for one day, for one hour, for one minute, I could forget my wish to be something else.”

Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Red Prophet (1988), Chapter 14.

“Many a man isn't as good as his woman, but I never knew a husband who was better than his wife.”

Homecoming saga, Earthborn (1995)

“Don’t you think it’s ironic that you have no idea what you’re supposed to do,” said Verily, “and yet so many people have gone to so much trouble to prevent you from doing it?”

Orson Scott Card livre Saints

Saints (1983)

“Calvin, what kind of trouble are you planning to make?”
“No trouble at all,” said Calvin, annoyed. “Why do you think I want to cause trouble?”

Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Heartfire (1998), Chapter 3.

“When I am drunk I am at my best. It is the national knack of the French.”

“Because you are awake.”
Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Heartfire (1998), Chapter 4.

“God's hand is strange to us. He cares nothing for the moment, nothing for the feeble ambitions of men and women. He sees the road that flows onward forever.”

Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Heartfire (1998), Chapter 6.

“[He] looked death in the eye and did not seem disappointed.”

Orson Scott Card livre Stone Tables

Stone Tables (1997)

“I went to the Garden of Love,
And saw what I never had seen:
A chapel was built in the midst,
Where I used to play on the green.

And the gates of this chapel were shut,
And ‘Thou shalt not’ writ over the door,
So I turned to the Garden of Love,
That so many sweet flowers bore,

And I saw it was filled with graves,
And tomb-stones where flowers should be:
And priests in black gowns were walking their rounds,
And binding with briars my joys and desires.”

Orson Scott Card Songmaster

Songmaster (1979)

“Our savior will resurrect us,” said Peggy, “but I haven’t noticed that Christians end up any less dead at the end of life than heathens.”

Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Seventh Son (1987), Chapter 10.

“Keep your freedom, keep your immortality, but somewhere along the line I hope you figure out what you're living forever for. What noble purpose you mean to achieve. Because you're no good to anyone here, not even yourselves.”

Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Alvin Journeyman (1995), Chapter 14.

“Evil people naturally assume that you will use that power exactly as they would use it.”

Treason (1988)

“I will not be tamed, only persuaded. I will not be coerced or led blindly or tricked or bullied - I am willing only to be convinced. If you don't trust your own basic goodness enough to tell me what you're trying to do… Then you're confessing your own moral weakness and I'll never serve you.”

Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Heartfire (1998), Chapter 3.

“She had that irony in her eyes. Knowledge without wisdom. Power without purpose. Like me.”

Homecoming saga, The Memory Of Earth (1992)

“No, no, no, Hooch told himself silently. Getting even don’t amount to nothing in this world. Getting even only gets you behind. The best revenge is to get rich enough to make them all call you sir, that’s how you get even with these boys.”

Orson Scott Card Treasure Box

Treasure Box (1996)

“Alvin wondered if it was true—if all men had evil in their hearts, and those men as were good, maybe they were simply the ones who controlled theirselves so well they could act contrary to their heart’s desire. But if that were so, then no man was good, not one.”

Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Red Prophet (1988), Chapter 1.

“This man, though, was of that rare type that knew what he wanted but didn't want anything badly enough to demand it or beg for it or hurt anyone else in the process of getting it.”

Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Alvin Journeyman (1995), Chapter 11.

“I wanted your songs.
You wanted my songs more than you wanted my happiness. So you took my happiness, and stole my songs.”

Orson Scott Card livre Homebody

Homebody (1998)

“We're not a family. We're the opposite of a family. We're people so lonely that when we're together we make a black hole of loneliness and everything else gets sucked down into it and is never seen again.”

Orson Scott Card Songmaster

Songmaster (1979)

“I'm accusing you of violating the laws of nature," he said, irritated at my failure to respond.
"Nature's virtue is intact," I reassured him. "I just know some different laws.”

Orson Scott Card livre Homebody

Homebody (1998)

“Even in cultures where marriages are arranged by parents, you’re never actually forbidden to fall in love with your mate.”

Dialog between Lord Barton and Lanik Mueller, after the latter performs a series of apparent miracles
[A Planet Called Treason, 1979, 1st Dell printing, 1980, July, Dell Publishing, New York, ISBN 0-440-16897-X, p. 240 of 299]

“I don't know a soul who doesn't maintain two separate lists of doctrines — the ones that they believe that they believe; and the ones that they actually try to live by.”

Orson Scott Card Ender's Game hexalogy

Page 100
Ender's Game series, First Meetings in the Enderverse (2003), Teacher's Pest

“I'm nobody's child.
You're mine now. Not my child, but mine, to miss you when you go, to look out for you, to hope you'll be careful.”

Orson Scott Card Ender's Game hexalogy

Spoken by Sister Carlotta.
Ender's Game series, Shadow of the Hegemon (2001)