"“We had a good day,” Tig said, slapping me on the back. “Got a whole mess of ’em, didn’t we? Two fifty-eight confirmed.” “Forget the numbers. You woke up this morning, and you’re going to sleep tonight. In my book, that’s a good day.” In recent months, I have adopted Tig’s philosophy."

"It didn’t feel, at that moment, like I was getting into something over my head. It never does, before you take the leap."

"If you look at other so-called children’s authors, you’ll see they never wrote directly for children. Though Lewis Carroll dedicated his book to Alice, I feel it was an afterthought once the whole was already committed to paper. Beatrix Potter declared, “I write to please myself!” And I think the same can be said of Milne or Tolkien or Laura Ingalls Wilder."

"Remember me with smiles and laughter, for that is how I will remember you all. If you can only remember me with tears, then don't remember me at all."

"There's no great loss without some small gain."

"The Little House books are stories of long ago. The way we live and your schools are much different now, so many changes have made living and learning easier. But the real things haven't changed. It is still best to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasures and to be cheerful and have courage when things go wrong."

"Now is now. It can never be a long time ago."

"I am beginning to learn that it is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all."

"Marriage was something I thought happened only to other people, like fatal traffic accidents."

"People who live their lives by proverbs waste their time doing lots of stupid things. “Getting even is the best revenge” is my motto."

"I liked being the screwer rather than the screwee."

"She gave me a wide-eyed, innocent smile that looked as out of place on her as it would have on a desert scorpion."

"Let me make it clear: You don’t want his disapproval. He never forgets these things. If he needs to, he hires other people to carry his grudges for him."

"“I think you should know that I’m a devout Christian.” I took that to mean that my new servant wholeheartedly disapproved of almost everything I might say or do."

"The butler recognized me, even favoring me with a minute change in his expression. Evidently I had become a celebrity. Politicians and sex stars may cuddle up to you and it doesn’t prove a thing, but when the butlers of the world notice you, you realize that some of what you believe about yourself is true."

"I shook my head ruefully. Police departments all over the world were identical in two respects: they all have a fondness for breaking your head open for little or no provocation, and they can’t see the simple truth if it’s lying in front of them naked with its legs spread. The police don’t enforce laws; they don’t even get busy until after the laws are broken. They solve crimes at a pitifully low rate of success. What the police are, to be honest, is a kind of secretarial pool that records the names of the victims and the statements of the witnesses. After enough time passes, they can safely shove this information to the back of the filing system to make room for more."

"I looked good, faster than light with a little money in my pocket. You know what I mean. I was the same as always: the clothes looked first-rate. That was fine, because most people only look at the clothes, anyway."

"I told you it was dirty. When you wander into the highest level of international affairs, it’s almost always dirty."

"The longer I observe the way people really act, the happier I am that I never pay attention to them."

"“What do you know about the activities of the brain and the nervous system?” I laughed. “About as much as any hustler from the Budayeen who can barely read and write his name. I know that the brain is in the head, I’ve heard that it’s a bad idea to let some thug spill it on the sidewalk. Beyond that, I don’t know much.” I did, truthfully, know some more, but I always hold something in reserve. It’s a good policy to be a little quicker, a little stronger, and a little smarter than everybody thinks you are."

"The information I got from one person often contradicted the version I heard from another, so I’d long ago gotten into the habit of trying to hear as many different stories as I could and averaging them all out. The truth was in there somewhere, I knew it; the problem was coaxing it into the open."

"In many ways, Islam is a beautiful and elegant faith; but it is the nature of religions to put a higher premium on your proper attention to ritual than on your convenience."

"I was no more eccentric than your average raving loon."

"“The universe doesn’t have secrets,” I said cynically, “only lies and swindles.”"

"The most frequent expression in the Muslim world is inshallah, if God wills. It removes all guilt: blame it on Allah. If the oasis dries up and blows away, it was Allah’s will. If you get caught sleeping with your brother’s wife, it was Allah’s will. Getting your hand or your cock or your head chopped off in reprisal is Allah’s will, too. Nothing much gets done in the Budayeen without discussing how Allah is going to feel about it."

"Sometimes the only vitamins I get are in the lime slices in my gimlets."

"With a stiff forefinger I silenced the koto music. Peace flooded in; the world thanked me."

"“She cost you more.” “I know,” said the trick. “How much?” “You tell me,” she said, thinking he might be a cop setting her up. That kind of thing still happened whenever the religious authorities ran out of infidels to persecute."

"I looked at myself in the mirror. I looked awful, but I always look awful in the mirror. I keep myself going with the firm belief that my real face is much better looking."

"You bought the girls drinks and you stared at their perfect bodies and you pretended that they liked you. And they pretended that they liked you, too. When you stopped spending money, they got up and pretended that they liked someone else."

"Brant felt a spasm of pain. “Uh,” she said. She closed her eyes tight until the pain went away. “Can I do anything?” said Staefler. “Yes,” she said. “Have my baby for me.”"

"“Are you happy, Norman?” asked Brant. “Well, sure, I guess.” “That’s what I thought,” she said bitterly. “Neither am I.”"

"With people, Moore suspected, no matter how noble the intent, a defect was unavoidable, a taint of politics."

"That was the evil of Dr. Bertram Waters: the perpetuation of hopeless dreams, compounded by the betrayal of those dreams to make his own a reality."

"Was that what he wanted, what the grand scheme of Utopia 3 was designed for? It was a lot like death, only more tedious."

"“Isolation is nice,” thought Brant as she drifted closer to sleep. “It’s a shame you can’t share it with anybody.”"

"The night is this city’s single resource. Well, that and disease."

"The network was running a pre-recorded tape of a morning quiz show. The contestants looked vapid, the announcer cheerfully bored, the questions pointless, and the prizes undesirable."

"The party had demanded this; Weintraub was to be a scapegoat, the local conspirator in the Reichstag tragedy. “I suppose I can’t doubt them,” he thought, as his heart pounded, as his mouth grew dry, as he felt his head become airy and his thoughts giddy. “After all, the Party has the broadest perspective. I don’t have any real sense of this worldwide operation. It’s all for the greater good, I guess. They know what they’re doing.”"

"“You shouldn’t be so critical,” said Mike the bartender. “Some people like this kind of thing, you know.” “The kind of person who gets excited over that, I don’t care about,” said Ernest."

"His thoughts grew confused, and he mistook that quality for complexity."

"“We have now successfully enlisted the aid of many groups of theoretically anti-communist people, all supporting those very causes which lead directly to victory for the Party. These students will be of great value in creating political upheaval here in the next few years. Though they may not vote themselves, they will do a great part of the work for the candidates we shall endorse.” “I think it was the vague promise of sexual freedom that did it,” said Weintraub wryly. “That seems to work on everybody. Even the clergy.”"

"After all, our laws only reflect the definitions of the majority. When those ideas change, the laws change."

"I believe that it is possible to overlegislate ourselves into a highly restrictive form of government."

"The idea of sin and retribution is just an attempt to hide behind the shield of superstition. You are trying to find rational causes where there aren’t any."

"“Useful! You want to talk about useful? Have you ever read anything about politics? Economics? You know what keeps a culture alive?” “Yes,” said Ernest sullenly, while M. Gargotier cleaned up the mess. “People not bothering other people.”"

"You underestimate the ability of people to act like idiots."

"“The male sexual drive is supposed to fall off during moments of stress,” he thought. “It is comforting sometimes to know that I must be abnormal. Especially in a situation like this. Perpetual lust has got to be good for the human race.”"

"Perhaps he could organize everyone. He could stand up on something and shout slogans until he had attracted enough attention. Then he could begin some rambling speech, hoping that the people around him would be so desperate for leadership they wouldn’t notice the absurdity of what he said."

"“I wonder,” he thought, “is it worth getting myself crushed in that crowd just to save my life? Is it worth getting all frustrated and angry, lowering myself to their level, pushing and shoving with all the rest, fighting like a common animal, just to stay alive?” He smiled ruefully. “It always comes to the simple question: what is more important, life or self-respect?”"