Quotes from Richard Powers

Everything in the forest is the forest. Competition is not separable from endless flavors of cooperation.

What?" he asks the tree. "What? " The tree feels no need to reply.

The solitary act of sitting over the page and waiting for her hand to move may be as close as she'll ever get to the enlightenment of plants.

I read then, everything I could lay hands on. Reading was my virgin continent. I read instantly upon awakening, and was still at it well past the hour that consciousness shut down. I read for nothing, for a pleasure difficult to describe and impossible afterward to recover.

That's the ruling story on this planet. We live suspended between love and ego. Maybe it's different in other galaxies. But I doubt it.

the ill, insane, and disabled: all changed, unthinkably, over the centuries, into persons by the law.

There was a planet that couldn't figure out where everyone was. It died of loneliness. That happened billions of times in our galaxy alone.

Her budget is blessedly free of those two core expenses, entertainment and status.

Long answers need long time. And long time is exactly what's vanishing.

I never knew how strong a drug other people are." "The strongest. Or at least the most widely abused." "How long does it take to . . . detox?" He considers. "Nobody's ever clean.

Humankind is deeply ill. The species won't last long. It was an aberrant experiment. Soon the world will be returned to the healthy intelligences, the collective ones. Colonies and hives.

So many substances in woodland pharmacies that no one has yet identified. Powerful molecules in bark, pith, and leaves whose effects have yet to be discovered. One family of distress hormones used by her trees—jasmonate—supplies the punch to all those feminine perfumes that play on mystery and intrigue. Sniff me, love me, I'm in trouble. And they are in trouble, all these trees.

the greatest flaw of the species is its overwhelming tendency to mistake agreement for truth.

We scientists are taught never to look for ourselves in other species. So we make sure nothing looks like us!

Sooner or later, all men will do and know all things.

someone to speak for the trees." She

The sunlight's blaze doesn't threaten the yellow of a flower. We only resent what we can still hope to be.

Olivia leans in. Are you okay? His reply sticks in his wide, coprophagic grin.

Maybe it's useful to think of forests as enormous spreading, branching, underground super-trees.

I don't know any sad songs. Except for the funny ones.

That's when Adam realizes: Humankind is deeply ill. The species won't last long. It was an aberrant experiment. Soon the world will be returned to the healthy intelligences, the collective ones. Colonies and hives.

A cracker kid in a designated white house in a black neighborhood off in fly- bitten Mississippi was about to let loose the secret beat of race music, forever blowing away the enriched-flour, box stepping public.

Scopophobia hits them all—fear of seeing and being seen. A dog will bite if you stare at it too hard. People will shoot you.

I never knew how strong a drug other people are. The strongest. Or at least the most widely abused. How long does it take to . . . detox? He considers. Nobody's ever clean.