Alastair Reynolds Quotes
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It was his experience that crises in space fell into two categories: those that killed you immediately, usually without much warning, and those that gave you plenty of time to ruminate on the problem, even if no solution was very likely.
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He had never lost that mingled combination of awe and terror that welled up in him when confronted by the routinely huge distances of space.
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But when she tried to say something, the words always seemed trite and inadequate. Nothing measured up. When any moment might be their last, there was nothing she could ever imagine saying that had the necessary dignity to fill that instant. Silence was better. Silence had its own dignity.
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'But you can be sure there are pockets of wealth and influence, and I’m willing to wager that a few people are wealthier and more influential than they were before.''That’s always the way with disasters,' I said.'What?''They’re never bad news for everyone. Something nasty always rises to the top.'
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Rashmika could tell when anyone around her was lying. But seeing through her own deceptions was another matter entirely.
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They had been in love, desperately in love, but the universe cared nothing for the vicissitudes of the human heart.
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The Jugglers store patterns, but they seldom show any sign of comprehending actual content. We’re dealing with a mindless biological archiving system, a museum without a curator.
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'How long have we been friends, Dan?''I wouldn’t exactly call it friendship; more a kind of mutual parasitism.'
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'I’m hoping no one will be quite that stupid,' Sparver said. 'Then again, this is baseline humans we’re dealing with.'
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The new regime which had succeeded his after the coup had become as fragmentary as the old, in the time-honoured way of all revolutions.
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'Is he dangerous?'Anyone who lies for a living is dangerous.'
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The one thing I never counted on was having luck on my side.It was generally simpler that way.
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As always, it was necessary to strike a balance between a cavalier disregard for the rules and a professional understanding that some rules were more flexible than others.
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There were choices to be made, harder choices than I would have liked, and I realised that I had been neglecting them because of their very difficulty.
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They screwed with democracy. I’m not going to lose much sleep when democracy screws them back.
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'That’s how it went, wasn’t it Zebra?''It might,' she said. 'If I happened to be colluding in your own delusions.'
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She wondered if she could put a dart in his eye. It would not kill him, but it might take the edge off his cockiness.
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Anxiety is a useful tool: it forces us to make plans. But when too much anxiety freezes us into indecision, it needs checking.
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'How are the internal complications, anyway? Aren’t the other branches of government getting a little suspicious about all these machinations?''Let’s just say that one or two discreet assassinations may still have to be performed,' Khouri said.
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'I’m not a bad man, Ilia. I’m just someone who knows exactly what needs to be done.''Like you said, always the most dangerous sort.'
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Charm was what he excelled at. If anyone sensed his underlying shallowness, they usually mistook it for well-hidden great depth of character, like misinterpreting a radar bounce.
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Memo to himself: the one way to make people panic was to warn them not to.
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Just because something had spawned a myth did not automatically mean it had to contain anything of substance.
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'Tanner, are you insane?''Very probably several kinds of insane,' I said. 'But I’m afraid it doesn’t change anything. I’m perfectly happy with my current delusional system.'