Quotes from John Varley

Never trust anybody who says 'trust me.' Except just this once, of course. - from Steel Beach

I had thought Chicago was inevitable, like diarrhea.

Gas chamber, gallows. Electric chair, stake, firing squad. Hang by the neck till you're dead, dead, dead, and may God recycle your soul.

He was an extraordinarily ugly person, Lilo thought, with the ugliness that only caricature can achieve. As repulsive as a twisted, stunted ghost from the past on Old Earth.

?Chris can sometimes rush into action when it might be smarter to sit back and bark at it for a while.

no matter how tough you think you are, thought you were, you haven't been around long enough to be tested in many, many ways.

But…but…open borders? Absolute anathema to the bureaucratic mentality.

It's because I love you that I don't want you to go." "My God, Bill, I don't want that kind of love. 'I love you, so hold still while I tie you down.' What hurts is that it's you doing it. If you can't have me as my own woman, able to make my own decisions and take care of myself, you can't have me at all.

Humans have this need to name everything, no matter how little that thing may deserve it.

I never made any friends, even as a kid. Not the kind you can open your heart to." "It's not that hard." "I hope not. Because I'm going to be a different person. I'm going to tell people about the real me. This is the first time I can do it, because it's the first time I've really known myself. And I'm going to love. I'm going to care about people.

the more bureaucrats there are, the more laws are needed to keep them fed. I

She smiled-a flickering, tentative thing that broadened when Cirocco smiled back.

Did you rejoice for the one you saved, or weep for the one you lost? She could not do both, so she wept.

Being messy and unable to do anything about it appalled her.

a good story was frequently superior to the truth?

It's the simple things we miss, she thought.

The possibilities were too varied to allow reasonable planning.

She grinned, and then felt the grin getting bigger and bigger. She hadn't wanted to run, it was so like a bad movie, but she was running anyway and so was Gaby, taking absurdly long hops in the low gravity.

She had taken voice and piano lessons for ten years as a child, had considered a career as a singer before the lure of space grew too strong.

They hit so hard they were both breathless for a moment. Cirocco embraced the smaller woman and lifted her off her feet.

She found it surprisingly easy to whisper assurances in the other woman's ear.

I'm going to tell people about the real me. This is the first time I can do it, because it's the first time I've really known myself. And I'm going to love. I'm going to care about people. And it looks like you're it.

They could smell changes in each other's mood.

The Titanides were delighted, they hadn't know the humans had songs.