Michael Moorcock

Michael Moorcock
Michael John Moorcockis an English writer, primarily of science fiction and fantasy, who has also published literary novels. He is best known for his novels about the character Elric of Melniboné, a seminal influence on the field of fantasy in the 1960s and 1970s...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth18 December 1939
treasure care reckless
Treasures are not won by care and forethought but by swift slaying and reckless attack.
taken destiny challenges
Because I had sought to challenge Destiny, Destiny had taken vengeance.
cousin lying destiny
And now, Elric had told three lies. The first concerned his cousin Yyrkoon. The second concerned the Black Sword. The third concerned Cymoril. And upon those three lies was Elric's destiny to be built, for it is only about things which concern us most profoundly that we lie clearly and with profound conviction.
past men secret
Doomed Lord's Passing. For the mind of man alone is free to explore the lofty vastness of the cosmic infinite, to transcend ordinary consciousness, to roam the secret corridors of the brain where past and future melt into one...And universe and individual are linked, the one mirrored in the other, and each contains the other.
character thinking unhappy-childhood
Arthuriana has become a genre in itself, more like TV soap opera where people think they know the characters. All that's fair enough, but it does remove the mythic power of the feminine and masculine principles. So I prefer it in its original form, even if you have to wade through Mallory's 'Le Morte d'Arthur' - people smashing people for pages and pages! It still has the resonances of myth about it, which makes it work for me. I don't want to know if Mordred led an unhappy childhood or not.
rocks rock-and-roll edginess
What happened to fantasy for me is what also happened to rock and roll. It found a common denominator for making maximum money. As a result, it lost its tensions, its anger, its edginess and turned into one big cup of cocoa.
character writing plot
Introduce your main characters and themes in the first third of your novel. If you are writing a plot-driven genre novel make sure all your major themes/plot elements are introduced in the first third, which you can call the introduction. Develop your themes and characters in your second third, the development. Resolve your themes, mysteries and so on in the final third, the resolution.
thinking ideas bigs
I think of myself as a bad writer with big ideas, but I'd rather be that than a big writer with bad ideas.
atheist children responsibility
When gods die, self-respect buds', murmured Orland Fank. 'Gods and their examples are not needed by those who respect themselves and, consequently, respect others. Gods are for children, for little, fearful people, for those who would have no responsibility to themselves or their fellows.
fate destiny champion
Destiny's Champion, Fate's fool. Eternity's Soldier, Time's Tool.
enemy chaos logic
The Lords of Chaos are the enemies of Logic, the jugglers of Truth, the molders of Beauty
peace imperfect-world opposites
Elric knew that everything that existed had its opposite. In danger he might find peace. And yet, of course, in peace there was danger. Being an imperfect creature in an imperfect world he would always know paradox. And that was why in paradox there was always a kind of truth. That was why philosophers and soothsayers flourished. In a perfect world there would be no place for them. In an imperfect world the mysteries were always without solution and that was why there was always a great choice of solutions.
mean mad legends
By means of our myths and legends we maintain a sense of what we are worth and who we are. Without them we should undoubtedly go mad.
home koalas bullshit
Americans need bullshit the way koala bears need eucalyptus leaves. They've become totally addicted to it. They get so much of it back home that they can't survive without it.