M. John Harrison
M. John Harrison
Michael John Harrison, known for publication purposes primarily as M. John Harrison, is an English author and literary critic. His work includes the Viriconium sequence of novels and short stories,, Climbers, and the Kefahuchi Tract trilogy which consists of Light, Nova Swingand Empty Space. He is widely considered one of the major stylists of modern fantasy and science fiction, and a "genre contrarian". The Times Literary Supplement described him as 'a singular stylist' and the Literary Review called him 'a...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionAuthor
Date of Birth26 July 1945
Every moment of a science fiction story must represent the triumph of writing over world-building.
I've never been to the Himalayas, and I'm not really interested in them. I'm more interested in a dirty old quarry in Lancashire, and by god, they can be dirty.
Writing's like gambling. Unpredictable and sporadic successes make you more addicted, not less.
World-building numbs the reader's ability to fulfill their part of the bargain because it believes that it has to do everything around here if anything is going to get done. Above all, world-building is not technically necessary. It is the great clomping foot of nerdism. It is the attempt to exhaustively survey a place that isn't there.
Perception of a state is not the state.
Happiness and beauty are the worst things you can have in a life, because you never forget them. They go on and on ambushing you, presumably until you die.