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I just took [my cancer diagnos...

I just took [my cancer diagnosis] as bad luck, basically. It did strike me almost immediately, my atheist sort of thing kicked in and I thought 'ha, if I was a God-botherer, I'd be thinking, why me God? What have I done to deserve this?' and I thought at least I'm free of that, at least I can simply treat it as bad luck and get on with it.

Iain Banks 122 quotes

The trouble with writing ficti...

The trouble with writing fiction is that it has to make sense, whereas real life doesn't.

Iain Banks 122 quotes

Mr Blawke always reminded me o...

Mr Blawke always reminded me of a heron; I'm not sure why. Something to do with a sense of rapacious stillness, perhaps, and also the aura of one who knows time is on his side.

Iain Banks 122 quotes

Something in your voice tells ...

Something in your voice tells me we approach the question of remuneration.

Iain Banks 122 quotes

That was how divorced from the...

That was how divorced from the human scale modern warfare had become. You could smash and destroy from unthinkable distances, obliterate planets from beyond their own system and provoke stars into novae from light-years off...and still have no good idea why you were really fighting.

Iain Banks 122 quotes

You like music, Mr. Gurgeh?' ...

You like music, Mr. Gurgeh?' Hamin asked, leaning over to the man. Gurgeh nodded. 'Well, a little does no harm.

Iain Banks 122 quotes

One of the advantages of havin...

One of the advantages of having laws is the pleasure one may take in breaking them. We here are not children, Mr. Gurgeh.' Hamin waved the pipestem round the tables of people. 'Rules and laws exist only because we take pleasure in doing what they forbid, but as long as most of the people obey such proscriptions most of the time, they have done their job; blind obedience would imply we are ha!' Hamin chuckled and pointed at the drone with the pipe 'no more than robots!

Iain Banks 122 quotes

Well,' he sighed to no one in...

Well,' he sighed to no one in particular, and looked up into yet another alien sky. 'Here we are again.

Iain Banks 122 quotes

There are no gods, we are told...

There are no gods, we are told, so I must make my own salvation.

Iain Banks 122 quotes

What is all your studying wort...

What is all your studying worth, all your learning, all your knowledge, if it doesn't lead to wisdom? And what's wisdom but knowing what is right, and what is the right thing to do?

Iain Banks 122 quotes

You're a wicked man.' 'Thank...

You're a wicked man.' 'Thank you. It's taken years of diligent practice.

Iain Banks 122 quotes

The combination of modern ordn...

The combination of modern ordnance and outdated tactics had, as usual, created enormous casualties on both sides.

Iain Banks 122 quotes

Here, in the bare dark face of...

Here, in the bare dark face of night A calm unhurried eye draws sight We see in what we think we fear The cloudings of our thought made clear

Iain Banks 122 quotes

I am not being obtuse. You are...

I am not being obtuse. You are being paranoid.

Iain Banks 122 quotes

If you have any helpful sugges...

If you have any helpful suggestions I'd be pleased to hear them. If all you can do is make snide insinuations then it would probably benefit all concerned if you bestowed the fruits of your prodigious wit on someone with the spare time to give them the consideration they doubtless deserve.

Iain Banks 122 quotes

I am, as I have always been, o...

I am, as I have always been, of the opinion that while the niceties of normal moral constraints should be our guides, they must not be our masters.

Iain Banks 122 quotes

Maybe it wasn't anything remot...

Maybe it wasn't anything remotely to do with religion, mysticism or metaphilosophy after all; maybe it was more banal; maybe it was just...accounting.

Iain Banks 122 quotes

Any such inklings were like a ...

Any such inklings were like a few scattered grains of truth dissolved in an ocean of nonsense, and were anyway generally inextricably bound up with patently paranoid ravings which served only to devalue the small amounts of sense and pertinence with which they were associated.

Iain Banks 122 quotes

Empires are synonymous with ce...

Empires are synonymous with centralized if occasionally schismatized hierarchical power structures in which influence is restricted to an economically privileged class retaining its advantages through usually a judicious use of oppression and skilled manipulation of both the society's information dissemination systems and its lesser as a rule nominally independent power systems. In short, it's all about dominance.

Iain Banks 122 quotes

I'm from out of town,' he sai...

I'm from out of town,' he said breezily. This was true. He'd never been within a hundred light-years of the place.

Iain Banks 122 quotes

Добрые, щедрые, великодушные: 6 советских актеров, которые были всеобщими любимчиками

23

Советских актёров часто ставят в пример как образец духовной силы, национальной гордости и внутренней красоты. Они стали символами эпохи, носителями культуры и нравственности. Но, как известно, за кул...

Десять кинозвезд, которые отлично поют

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Актеры — люди творческие, но кто бы мог подумать, что некоторые из них скрывают прекрасный голос. В эпоху раннего Голливуда актеров с музыкальными способностями было немало — это считалось скорее норм...

Мэрилин Монро, Ким Кардашьян и другие

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Неузнаваемая Ким Кардашьян в объективе фотографа Маркуса Клинко, 2009 год. Памела Андерсон в самой первой съёмке для журнала «Playboy», 1990. На фото голливудская актриса Dorothy Lamour и шимпанзе Джи...

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Расскажем, как сложилась судьба актеров, которые начинали сниматься еще в детстве.
Остаться на вершине в Голливуде удаётся не каждому, особенно если путь начался в детстве. Одни актёры теряются из-за...

Жизнь за границей: как изменились судьбы 7 уехавших телеведущих

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Два года назад отечественное телевидение столкнулось с беспрецедентной кадровой тектоникой — целая группа ярких и узнаваемых ведущих стремительно исчезла с экранов федеральных каналов. Эти лица долгие...

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Кира Найтли на страницах журнала к выходу фильма «Пиджак», 2005. Следы динозавра, раскопанные в русле реки Палакси. Техас. США. 1952г. Самая большая женщина рядом с самым маленьким мужчиной, 1922 год....