nebula-award-winners

"Questions, always questions. They didn't wait for the answers, either. They rushed on, piling questions on questions, covering every moment with questions, blocking off every sensation but the thorn stab of questions. And orders. If it wasn't, "Lou, what is this?" it was, "Tell me what this is." A bowl. The same bowl, time after time. It is a bowl and it is an ugly bowl, a boring bowl, a bowl of total and complete boring blandness, uninteresting. I am uninterested in that uninteresting bowl. If they aren't going to listen, why should I talk? I know better than to say that out loud. Everything in my life that I value has been gained at the cost of not saying what I really think and saying what they want me to say. In this office, where I am evaluated and advised four times a year the psychiatrist is no less certain of the line between us than all the others have been. Her certainty is painful to see, so I try not to look at her more than I have to. That has its own dangers; like the others, she thinks I should make more eye contact than I do. I glance at her now. Dr. Fornum, crisp and professional, raises an eyebrow and shakes her head not quite imperceptibly. Autistic persons do not understand these signals; the book says so. I have read the book, so I know what it is I do not understand. What I haven't figured out yet is the range of things they don't understand. The normals. The reals. The ones who have the degrees and sit behind the desks in comfortable chairs. (beginning of Chapter One)"

"(What is your proudest achievement as a writer?) That the books have touched lives in a way that made a difference."

"(You’ve read SF/Fantasy since you were young, I believe. What do you think is the power of the genre? What attracts you now, still?) EM: Traditional storytelling values: interesting characters doing interesting things in a plot that satisfies the itch for Story. Beyond that, science fiction can present intriguing “what if?” scenarios, and fantasy can present “how did we get here?” scenarios."

"whether you consider a past maximal temperature to be "normal" or not, the fact is that the earth's maximal temperature did not sustain what we now wish to sustain. Whether the temperatures we're headed toward can sustain a large human population is...going to be an interesting discovery. Not something to be shrugged off with "It's been there before." The earth has. We haven't."

"It is harder to imagine a different self now that I am an adult. As a child, I did imagine myself into other roles. I thought I would become normal, that someday I would be able to do what everyone else did so easily. In time, that fantasy faded. My limitations were real, immutable, thick black lines around the outline of my life. The only role I play is normal. (p165)"

""...One thing nobody can do better than you is be you." (p164)"

"I like it that order exists somewhere even if it shatters near me. (p242)"

""Autistic is different, not bad. It is not wrong to be different. Sometimes it is hard, but it is not wrong." (p319)"

"I’d better get back to work. It’s like butting my head against a stone wall, but somebody’s got to keep butting, if only for the sake of other people’s morale."

"I folded the paper and wriggled around in the seat. Buses are like candy bars, I thought. The price goes up and the size goes down. Each new bus seem to have less leg room and a lower headrest that its predecessor, so that you had to be a contortionist to take a nap."

"“Thank you,” she said icily. “I accept your good wishes and your resignation. And you can go to hell, Dave Hull.” Dave went to Texas."

"You’re as nutty as a peck of pecans, ma’am."

"“What do you think of it, old man?” I thought very little of it but I pretended to turn it over in my mind. “It’s got class,” I said finally. To myself I thought, with a capital K."

"“‘Morning, Sam,” the coffee boy said. “How about some coffee?” “‘Morning, Herb,” I said. “That’s the first intelligent remark I’ve heard in some time.”"

"“I’m good for about thirty bucks,” I said. “Then I’ll have to get a refill from petty cash.” “There’s nothing petty about cash,” Stew said."

"“I’ve made my choice, Sam,” she had written. “I had to choose between what I wanted and what I could get. There are times when the ideal is just too unattainable and when the second best becomes, in the long run, the best. Maybe this also has a universal application. I hope so.”"

"We’ll jump off that bridge when we come to it."

"While making this game I rediscovered my love for making poison swamps. I know how people feel about them but I suddenly realize I'm in the middle of making one and I can't help myself. It just happens."

"We don't really feel our games have created a standard. I have no concern over others making similar games, it just shows that players wanted games that were like this, that are difficult, and wanted other studios to make challenging games that achieve the same level of satisfaction. We enjoy those games and their approach to creating them are never the same, anyway. We enjoy seeing the differences. We're totally fine with seeing more games come out that borrow aspects. Our main focus is keeping game creation fresh for ourselves."

"Demon’s Souls wasn’t doing well,” he says. “The project had problems and the team had been unable to create a compelling prototype. But when I heard it was a fantasy-action role-playing game, I was excited. I figured if I could find a way to take control of the game, I could turn it into anything I wanted. Best of all, if my ideas failed, nobody would care – it was already a failure."

"“Personally, a world that is happy and bright is something that just doesn’t feel realistic to me. It may sound like I have a trauma or something,” he said with a laugh, “but I believe that the world is generally a wasteland that is not kind to us. That’s just the way I see it.”"

"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."

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

"“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."

"“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."

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

"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."

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

"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."

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

"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.”"

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

"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."

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

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

"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.”"

"“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.”"

"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."

"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.”"

"“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.”"

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

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

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

"“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."

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

"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."

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

"“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?”"