Quotes from Walter Jon Williams

it isn't passions that make us weak, but rather uncontrollable passions.

Curzon stood up. He gestured with a fist. "I don't want you to think about anything," he said. "I want you to feel. Feel the rightness of this. The correctness of this vision. The necessity of it." Steward could see patches of sweat under Curzon's arms. "I want you to sense, Steward, that this is something worth having.

Necessity is a cold mistress, but Liberty inspires delightful bed-play.

Here's Daljit, Aristide's former lady-love: "Do you still have that horrible cat?" "Yes, said Bitsy. "He does." "I didn't know you were here," Daljit said weakly. "I lurk," said the cat. Bitsy is not a cat-like creature to fuck around. Of one of her fellow-AIs, she says: "I'd kick Aloysius' ass. That AI always gets my goat.

Ratnasari, taking a seat next to Sula, explained that the United States had been a prosperous democratic republic, in which citizens elected others to represent them on the city council and other civic forums. "I thought the United States was some kind of oligarchy based on religion." "That, too.

To Persepolis the dream, came Gabriel. Demons buzzed insistently in his head but he kept them on a short leash. For Persepolis was a place where demons as well as dreams were shared.

you think the two of us have changed enough to make it interesting again?" Bitsy put her paw on the pavement. "Sometimes," she said, "I'm immensely grateful that I don't possess a limbic system.

Aristide collected memories, stringing lines of poetry like pearls on a cord.  When he called the lines to his mind, a host of memories accompanied them.  Memories which he otherwise might have lost.

A brain the size of a planet," said Aristide, "and you're as fucked by Sartre as the rest of us.

I'm not afraid of werewolves or vampires or haunted hotels, I'm afraid of what real human beings to do other real human beings.

if a person of authority talks only to those who agree with him he soon finds himself out of authority. Luke

I hate it!" he said. "I don't want to be human anymore." "Neither do I," she said. "It's not a good place to be.

Terror skittered around the fringes of his consciousness on fast rodent feet.

If you wish to find the unclouded truth, he told himself, do not concern yourself with right or wrong. Conflicts with right and wrong are a sickness of the mind. The

Why do I feel that ghosts are more real Than these creatures of substance and matter? Why does their song seem to drive me along More than humanity's drivel and pratter?

May I ask what role you envision for the Jedi in this war Two words Skywalker. None whatsoever. Luke Rodan

Until you actually join this government you say that you defend and join it on the same basis as any other citizen then I have every intention of regarding you as I would any other lobbyist for any other interest group demanding special privileges for its members. Fyor Rodan

When all else fails fall back on the truth. No I'm a politician I can't tell the truth Mara Cal Omas

What happens if you need a diplomat who can also practice philosophy fight with a lightsaber and levitate small objects Who else are you going to call but us Mara

Thin streams of blood ran in artistic patterns. "Pulling toenails serves the Destinarian philosophy?" he asked. Ardala shrugged. "Demonstrates the fragility of flesh as opposed to hardware. I'm going to take a bath.

If the Force is life and the Yuuzhan Vong are alive and you cannot see them in the Force then is the problem with the Yuuzhan Vong or is it with your perceptions Vergere to Luke

I have a Jedi Council to put together. I thought you might help me. We get to spend the day gossiping about our colleagues and calling it work I'm willing. Luke Mara

Kyp has changed. He hasn't blown up any planets in a few years that's true. That wasn't precisely Kyp who did that. He was possessed by the spirit of a long-dead Sith Lord named Exar Kun. That's exactly the sort of thing I hope never to have to explain to a Senatorial committee. Luke Cal Omas

Earth, the startlingly pure blue and white, the brown and silver snakes that are rivers filled with erosion, the fragmented coastlines where the rising seas are eating the land, just as Earth's remaining resources are being eaten by the population. Soon the population may be the only resource left. The Orbitals were once their hope, a gateway to new resources. Now the Orbitals stand like a wall between Earth and its broken dreams, claiming the future for their own. Reno