Lois McMaster Bujold

"All great human deeds both consume and transform their doers. Consider an athlete, or a scientist, or an artist, or an independent business creator. In the service of their goals they lay down time and energy and many other choices and pleasures; in return, they become most truly themselves. A false destiny may be spotted by the fact that it consumes without transforming, without giving back the enlarged self. Becoming a parent is one of these basic human transformational deeds. By this act, we change our fundamental relationship with the universe — if nothing else, we lose our place as the pinnacle and end-point of evolution, and become a mere link. The demands of motherhood especially consume the old self, and replace it with something new, often better and wiser, sometimes wearier or disillusioned, or tense and terrified, certainly more self-knowing, but never the same again."

"I've described my usual writing process as scrambling from peak to peak on inspiration through foggy valleys of despised logic. Inspiration is better — when you can get it."

"Women do desperately need models for power other than the maternal."

"I cannot emphasize enough that I do not start with a plan or agenda and mechanically manipulate characters and events to carry it out. I set characters in motion, and let them teach me what the book is."

"I am a shy person when allowed. I regard a lot of the PR — s, speeches, appearances, media interviews — with much the same dismay as a non-swimming parent would contemplate the prospect of jumping into a raging torrent to rescue their child. One doesn't really see how any good can come of it, but one can't not jump. ("My baby book, help, it is drowning!") I need to get in touch with my surly side more, I suppose, to learn to say "no" to nice people who like me."

"There’s an awful a lot of gaming of the list that goes on in book promotion, where you try to make everybody aware of your book at the same time, try to get them to buy it, get it noticed, get it visible. Which is kind of the opposite of the way I’ve written. I’ve not written bestsellers, I’ve written evergreens. Every book I’ve ever written is still in print."

"Writing is a very redemptive profession, because all of your mistakes can be reclassified as raw material. ... All those things that went awry become material and become more manageable, psychologically and otherwise. ... My five years I spent wandering around in college and left without a degree (to my parents' dismay) — all turned out to be useful to my career ..."

"On the sixth day God saw He couldn’t do it all, it read, so He created engineers."

"Whether you function as welders or inspectors, the laws of physics are implacable lie-detectors. You may fool men. You will never fool the metal. That’s all."

"Were you born inhuman, or did you grow so by degrees—M.S., M.D., Ph.D..."

"Of all the times to pick for this outbreak of idiocy, this has gotta be the worst possible. It’s got to be deliberate. Nothing this fouled up could be by chance."

"The line of logic trailed off in confusion; he turned his thoughts impatiently from it. Mental wheel-spinning, as unproductive as philosophy class in college."

"I don’t know whose judgement is worse, yours or the jerk’s who hired you—"

"Claire, listen to me. The proper response to Bruce isn’t suicide, it’s murder."

"GalacTech’s not God, Claire. You shouldn’t have to sacrifice your firstborn to it."

"There are weapons all around us here, we just don’t recognize them because we call them “tools.”"

"Even soldiers in battle have to be brought to a special state of mental excitement to shoot total strangers."

"This isn’t a class. This is real life."

"God’s not here. Somebody’s got to fill in."

"The quaddies, he reflected, didn’t seem to have a very clear idea of private property. Probably came from a lifetime spent in a communal space habitat, with its tight ecology. Planets were communal in the same way, really, except that their enormous size put so much slack in their systems, it was disguised."

"“The trouble with you, Ti,” lectured Leo kindly, “is that you lack teaching experience. If you had, you’d have faith that the most unlikely people can learn the most amazing things.”"

"“We’ve run into a problem, Leo.” “But of course. Who ever tracks me down to impart good news?"

"We make our own luck. And it’s my responsibility to see it’s good and not bad."

"He loathed letting her push his buttons; still, she had a valid point: cover-your-ass was a fundamental rule for survival even of the fittest."

"Clearly, you could die while waiting for other people to start your life for you."

"“I could bring almost nothing—I scarcely knew what to choose.” “Think of the vast amounts of money we shall save on shipping charges, then.”"

"Shooting people was such a stupid activity, why should everybody—anybody!—be so impressed? Silver wondered irritably. You would think she had done something truly great, like discover a new treatment for black stem-rot."

"If you ever have to make a choice between learning and inspiration, boy, choose learning. It works more of the time."

"And what is the most important leg of a three-legged stool? The one that is missing, of course."

"He gave himself up to God and pressed the button."

"“Smoke test?...What’s that?”... “It’s an ancient and honorable term for the final step in any engineering project,” Leo explained. “Turn it on, see if it smokes.”"

"Leadership is mostly a power over imagination, and never more so than in combat. The bravest man alone can only be an armed lunatic. The real strength lies in the ability to get others to do your work."

"If it ever came down to exerting power by force, it would mean I’d already lost it."

"Save me from that! To pour your life into sons for eighteen or twenty years, and then have the government take them away and waste them cleaning up after some failure of politics—no thanks."

"I suppose my determination to be a soldier stems from that date. I mean the real thing, not the parades and the uniforms and the glamour, but the logistics, the offensive advantage, the speed and surprise—the power. A better-prepared, stronger, tougher, faster, meaner son-of-a-bitch than any who came through that door."

"Even after four days of oatmeal and blue cheese dressing, they were a disappointment. “Are you sure this isn’t instant boots?” asked Cordelia."

"The old customs are dead, and we keep trying on new ones, like badly fitting clothes."

"She took the story in like some strange, spiked gift, too fragile to drop, too painful to hold."

"“Seems to me the only difference between your friends and your enemies is how long they stand around chatting before they shoot you.” “Yes,” Vorkosigan agreed, “I could take over the universe with this army if I could ever get all their weapons pointed in the same direction.”"

"I had a teacher who used to reflect back my questions that way. I thought it was the Socratic method, and it impressed me immensely, until I found out he used it whenever he didn’t know the answer."

"“We were told the Betans killed you, sir,” he said suspiciously. “Yes, it’s a rumor I’ve had difficulty living down,” said Vorkosigan. “You can see it’s not true.” “Your funeral was splendid,” said Koudelka. “You should have been there.” “Next time, perhaps,” Vorkosigan grinned. “Oh. You know I didn’t mean it that way, sir. Lieutenant Radnov made the best speech.” “I’m sure. He’d probably been working on it for months.”"

"They stared at her curiously and she caught snatches of conversation in two or three languages. It wasn’t hard to guess their content, and she smiled a bit grimly. Youth, it appeared, was full of illusions as to how much sexual energy two people might have to spare while hiking forty or so kilometers a day, concussed, stunned, diseased, on poor food and little sleep, alternating caring for a wounded man with avoiding becoming dinner for every carnivore within range—and with a coup to plan for at the end."

"Captains may come and captains may go, but the administration goes on forever."

"Vorkalloner seemed suddenly less amusing. “Why are you all so anxious to put us in a bottle, anyway?” “Why, orders,” said Vorkalloner simply, like an ancient fundamentalist who answers every question with the tautology, “Because God made it that way.” Then a little agnostic doubt began to creep over his face. “Actually, I thought we might have been sent out here on guard duty as some kind of punishment,” he joked. The remark caught Vorkosigan’s humor. “For your sins? Your cosmology is too egocentric, Aristede”"

"I have an aversion to closed doors anyway. You never know what’s on the other side."

"“Anybody ever tell you you’re a lunatic?” “Not in this context.”"

"It’s a moribund body anyway, afflicted with the narrowest conservatism and stuffed with old relics only concerned with protecting their privileges. I’m not sure anything can be done with the Counts in the long run. Perhaps they should finally be allowed to dodder over the brink of extinction."

"Do you know, I think you’d like politics at least on Barrayar. Maybe because it’s so similar to what we call war, elsewhere."

"I’m sure we’d all rather be clever than brave."

"So in the physics of the heart, distance is relative; it’s time that’s absolute."