Quotes from Geoff Ryman

All around them, the people worshipped, on their knees. Worshipped what was good, able to worship what was good by deliberately using it to cover up the bad.

What have you learned Dorothy? he asked her. Dorothy thought for a moment and said, I learned to be disappointed and not to hope too much. I learned how to be beaten and how to beat others. I learned that I am worthless and the world is worthless, and that love is a lie and if it's not a lie, then it's wasted. They learned you wrong, he said.

Endings don't mean anything. Meanings lie where the world takes its breath, and that is always now.