Russian author (1968- )
A car's not the right place for showing off to a girl--the bed's the place for that. The consequences of a mistake there are more upsetting, but less tragic.
SERGEI LUKYANENKO
The Last Watch
The common good and the individual good rarely coincide.
SERGEI LUKYANENKO
Night Watch
Fairy tales lie just as much as statistics do, but sometimes you can find a grain of truth in them.
SERGEI LUKYANENKO
Night Watch
Ill-considered but well-intentioned actions do more good that actions that are well-considered but cruel.
SERGEI LUKYANENKO
Night Watch
If you have love in you, it's a strength. But if you are in love, it's a weakness.
SERGEI LUKYANENKO
Day Watch
This is the inevitable consequence of a popular movie: you become the guy who wrote "the book that inspired the movie." Frankly speaking, I find it a bit insulting.
SERGEI LUKYANENKO
interview with Paul Semel, December 2, 2014
You're a big boy, you ought to understand that punctual transport, public order and safe streets, polite people and good medical services are all the achievements of dictatorship.
SERGEI LUKYANENKO
New Watch
Where there's black, even grey looks white.
SERGEI LUKYANENKO
Twilight Watch
How wonderful it would be if everything could always be as clear and simple as it used to be when you were twelve years old, or twenty years old. If there really were only two colors in the world: black and white. But even the most honest and ingenuous cop, raised on the resounding ideal of the stars and stripes, has to understand sooner or later that there's more than just Darkness and Light out on the streets. There are understandings, concessions, agreements. Informers, traps, provocations. Sooner or later the time comes when you have to betray your own side, plant bags of heroin in pockets, and beat people on the kidneys--carefully, so there are no marks.
SERGEI LUKYANENKO
Night Watch
We're not given the chance to choose absolute truth. Truth's always two-faced. The only thing we have is the right to reject the lie we find most repugnant.
SERGEI LUKYANENKO
Night Watch
After all, inside every woman, no matter how grown up she is, there is still a frightened little girl.
SERGEI LUKYANENKO
Last Watch
When there are strange things going on all around, every coincidence should be considered very carefully.
SERGEI LUKYANENKO
New Watch
We are our own gods and our own demons.
SERGEI LUKYANENKO
Twilight Watch
Above all, translators must be native speakers. It's not because they speak the language better -- I understand that sometimes a foreigner can learn a language better than native speakers. It has more to do with having an intimate knowledge of the society for which the book is being translated.
SERGEI LUKYANENKO
interview, The Telegraph, October 5, 2012
What if it turns out there really are witches and vampires and werewolves living right here alongside us? After all, what better disguise could there be than to get your image enshrined in the culture of the mass media? Anything that's described in artistic terms and shown in the movies stops being frightening and mysterious. For real horror you need the spoken word, you need an old grandpa sitting on a bench, scaring the grandkids in the evening.
SERGEI LUKYANENKO
Twilight Watch
What an unfortunate instrument the guitar is! An instrument of such great nobility, a genuine monarch of music-- reduced to a pitiful lump of wood with six strings, constantly abused by people with no ear and no voice.
SERGEI LUKYANENKO
Day Watch
The simple people are trash. A herd of sheep that are good for shearing, but sometimes it's more profitable to slaughter them.
SERGEI LUKYANENKO
Day Watch
The hardest thing of all is when pain is hidden behind a mask of calm.
SERGEI LUKYANENKO
Night Watch
I often use detective elements in my books. I love detective novels. But I also think science fiction and detective stories are very close and friendly genres, which shows in the books by Isaac Asimov, John Brunner, and Glen Cook. However, whilst even a tiny drop of science fiction may harm a detective story, a little detective element benefits science fiction. Such a strange puzzle.
SERGEI LUKYANENKO
interview with Paul Semel, December 2, 2014
Generally speaking, we can and should say everything. We just have to choose the right time, otherwise the truth can be worse than a lie.
SERGEI LUKYANENKO
Night Watch