Science Fiction Authors

"I believe that intelligence and rationality will always be primary no matter what shape sentient creatures take. To not think that would be to doubt the value of life itself."

"“They lied!” “Of course they lied. They’re politicians, it’s what they do.”"

"Jeff didn’t blame Dr. Sperber, but he’d been around long enough to know how the information would be used, twisted, sanitized, controlled, released in a way that left Brussels devoid of responsibility. That was the way of all government and politicians; it was never their fault."

"Politicians, they’re all as bad as each other."

"When he thought about it, he wasn’t totally sure what kind of group he did want to be with on a permanent social basis. Late twenties, probably, or early thirties. Young enough not to be boring, old enough to have some wisdom."

"“I look young, almost as young as you lot; but the real difference between us is cynicism. You don’t have any, while I’ve got a ton of it.” “I’m cynical, Philip protested. “I don’t believe a word politicians say.” “That’s not cynicism,” Sophie said. “That’s just common sense.”"

"Jeff hadn’t played croquet for twenty years. It was fun remembering all the dirty tricks. Anybody who believed that croquet was a civilized sport had clearly never played before."

"“Do I get her in the end, the princess?” “Unless you’ve got a magic sword and a flying dragon that does smart-ass one-liners, not a snowflake’s chance in hell.”"

"The thing is this, Tim; you’re eighteen, forever is about a month at your age."

"Your generation, always want the capital letters, never the subtext. You don’t learn to read properly, that’s the trouble. And don’t start telling me you’ve accessed books. I’m talking about the real thing, good solid paper that you can hold in your hand, and bend the page corners the way you’re not supposed to."

"Annabelle was a damn fine notch on your bedpost."

"But the thing is, you can never believe that anyone who looks so lovely can be anything other than lovely. Especially when it comes to women. I mean, that knowledge is hardwired into a man’s genes. Pretty equals nice. Jesus wept, did I ever learn the hard way. I’m not joking, Tim, Flaky Tracy turned out to be the ultimate bitch demon from hell. The only reason she was sent to roam the earth was because the devil got nervous when she was around down below."

"Well, I’ve grown up from that silly little girl, Jeff. I’ve learned how to be a full-fledged modern bitch, which is the only survival trait that counts in this world. I can swim with the sharks now, and they’ll be the ones who get scared when I’m in the water."

"It was the sort of review board that Jeff thoroughly disapproved of; hands-on bureaucratic interference in university and agency programs always lead to pure science being impoverished."

"I’ve got the worst time of my life ahead of me, and our wonderful medical establishment will stretch it out and out until I just scream for it to end."

"It didn’t matter that Nicole had made all the moves; sleeping with a friend’s granddaughter had to be pretty close to the top of all-time Bad Things."

"It was a struggle that had turned her into a minor media celebrity, and produced a great many supporters from across the political spectrum, all of them loud."

"Jesus, what planet do they import people like that from?"

"“Ladies,” Pamela raise her glass. “A toast.” “A toast,” they agreed. “Expensive shopping, older champagne, and younger men.”"

"“Bankers in pain,” Alan said. “Now there’s a happy thought.”"

"It must be a sign of true age to think parties were a pain to be avoided at all costs."

"We have been extraordinarily successful. As a result, only Europe is in a position to provide this treatment for its citizens. America, with its increasingly isolationist foreign policy and Religious Right cultural dominance, is a long way behind us in this field. Our unquestioned leadership in this field can only be seen as an endorsement of our social inclusiveness. Ours is the culture in which the promotion of human life can flourish to its full potential."

"Lost causes are the worst kind to fight."

"Even Sue was impressed by how quickly he slid from reasonable human being to petulant teenage grouch."

"One of the reasons she’d never quite made it to supermodel status was her generous bust size."

"Well, just remember, babies are God’s way of persuading parents to have teenagers."

"Having a famous father is a difficult concept for any child to understand. After all, he is just your father, nothing else, nothing exceptional."

"Faith, Quinn mused, was a strange power. They had committed their lives to the sect, never questioning its gospels. Yet in all of that time, they had the reassurance of routine… The bedrock of every religion, that your God is a promise, never to be encountered in this life, this universe."

"Like men in his position throughout history, Kingsley Pryor did nothing as events swept him to their conclusion; simply waiting and praying that a magical third option would spring from nowhere."

"Here there was only yourself; a soul buried alive. Nothing to comfort you but your own life. Screaming from the pain of the blows which battered him down might have stopped, but the internal scream of self-loathing could never cease."

"The whole concept of salvation through belief offers strength to those who doubt themselves."

"You cannot impose ideologies on people who do not embrace it wholeheartedly."

"Joshua was the most dynamic lover she had ever known. Gentle and domineering; it was a lethal combination. If only he wasn't quite so ruthlessly mechanical about it. A little too much of his pleasure had come from seeing her lose all control. But then that was Joshua; unwilling to share… Joshua didn't trust people."

"The , it's called—written and spoken with capital letters. So remote, it is almost a nation unto itself. On maps, it is labeled the , a blade of land thrusting north by northeast into the frigid waters of . Running lengthwise down the peninsula's center, like the blood gutter of a bayonet, are the richest s on earth. collected chunks of the red metal from streams and shallow pits: float copper so pure it hardly needed refining at all, so beautiful and malleable that it could be made into that were traded as far south as Arkansas."

"One minute, she was in the State of Puerto Rico and the next minute, she was in the State of Persistent Vegetables."

"(Which other...writers do you appreciate?) V:...if you ask me for a list, it can go from Clarice Lispector to Haruki Murakami, with innumerable names on the way."

"The novelist Haruki Murakami wrote in his Kafka on the Shore, "And once the storm is over you won't remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won't even be sure, in fact, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm you won't be the same person who walked in. That's what this storm's all about." This is the experience of transformation that Terry Tempest Williams wrote about."

"I know a few beautiful women, the kind that anyone would find lovely and charming. But to me those beautiful women, the majority of them at least, never seem able to truly, unconditionally, derive pleasure in being gorgeous. Kind of strange, I think. Women who are born beautiful are always the center of men’s attention. Other women are jealous of them and they get coddled no end. People give them expensive presents, and they have their pick of men. So why don’t they seem happier? Why do they sometimes even seem depressed? What I’ve observed is that most of the beautiful women I know are dissatisfied, and irritated by tiny, inconsequential flaws—the kind inevitably found somewhere in any person’s physical makeup. They obsess over these little details. Their toes are too big, or their nails are weirdly off center, or their nipples aren’t the same size. One gorgeous woman I know is convinced that her earlobes are too long, and always wears her hair long to hide them."

"No matter how vivid memories may be, they can’t win out against the power of time."

"Once again, I was confused. It felt like bits of reality and unreality were randomly changing places."

"In Hollywood in the fifties, a happy ending always involved marriage—the creation of an environment in which lovers could have sex legally."

"I’ve heard it said that the happiest times in our lives is the period when pop songs really mean something to us, really get to us. It may be true. Or maybe not. Pop songs may, after all, be nothing but pop songs. And perhaps our lives are merely decorative, expendable items, a burst of fleeting color and nothing more."

"Whether you cut it off or someone else cuts it off if you put your neck on the stone pillow believe it—you will turn to dust."

"Each and every moment, our bodies are on a one-way journey to collapse and deterioration, unable to turn back the clock."

"Loving someone is like having a mental illness that’s not covered by health insurance."

"You can hide memories, but you can't erase the history that produced them."

""Between a high, solid wall and an egg that breaks against it, I will always stand on the side of the egg." [...] We are all human beings, individuals transcending nationality and race and religion, fragile eggs faced with a solid wall called the System. [...] We must not allow the System to exploit us. We must not allow the System to take on a life of its own. The System did not make us: We made the System."

"Grammar is like the air: someone higher up might try to set rules for its use, but people won't necessarily follow them."

"He inherited from his mother's stories the fundamental style he used, unaltered, in his own stories: namely, the assumption that fact may not be truth, and truth may not be factual."

"But even so, every now and then I would feel a violent stab of loneliness. The very water I drink, the very air I breathe, would feel like long, sharp needles. The pages of a book in my hands would take on the threatening metallic gleam of razor blades. I could hear the roots of loneliness creeping through me when the world was hushed at 4 o'clock in the morning."