Barry N. Malzberg

"…as indifferent to the meaning and central absurdity of the situation as swallows in a cathedral."

"Great recrimination demands a large subject, will invent one if it does not exist."

"There is no truth which cannot be given in fifty words; the truth is always concise."

"“Events,” I say to the Captain, “events control our lives, although we have no understanding of them nor do they have any motivation. Everything is blind chance, happenstance, occurrence; in an infinite universe anything can happen. After the fact we find reasons.”"

"Nothing matters at all. Survival is the coin of the realm. Time is a river with banks."

"Ruthven surmised that he had hit upon some of the central deceptions which had wrecked him and reduced him and so many of his colleagues to this condition. To surmise was not to conquer, of course; he was as helpless as ever but there was a dim liberation in seeing how he had been lied to, and he felt that at least he could take one thing from the terrible years through which he had come: he was free of self-delusion."