Quotes from John Scalzi

There aren't a lot of humans who speak more than one dialect of Forshan. I know all four of the major ones.' 'Impressive,' Duvall Said. 'I'm good with my tongue,' Dahl said. 'Now who's being forward?' Duvall asked.

Realborn go for years without the slightest clue what they're going to do with themselves. From what I understand, some of them never actually figure it out. They just walk through life in a daze and then fall into their graves at the end of it.

Apparently a 'go-getter.'" "What does that mean?" "I think it means he was an asshole, just an enthusiastic one who did his job and got things done.

When a lie has negative consequences, people dislike it. But otherwise? They move on, and eventually the lie as a lie is forgotten, or in this case, codified as the foundation of religious practice and buffed and sanded into something prettier and more congenial.

The half-life between story of the century and not even the story of the day is quicker than you would ever guess.

Then: "What time is it in Arizona?" "It's two hours behind here, so about eight thirty," I said. "Maybe. Arizona is weird about time zones.

Well, isn't that just like religion for you, Archie," he said. "One day it's a nice way to spend your weekends and the next you're in the middle of a righteous theological clusterfuck.

You are, at least to a certain approximation, human. You're not supposed to be here.

Look," I said. "Something that needs your attention. Over there. Away from here.

If he dies during the jump, I would suggest it would be politic for you to follow him," Abumwe said.

Either every member of your pure race of human dies, or every human dies. And, well Ã¢â'¬Â¦ you know how mongrels think, Mr. Smyrt. They have no appreciation for the perfection of purity.

I do have a sense of adventure," I said. "It's overawed by my sense of self-preservation.

our revenue. Our delivery people— "Deliverators." I shifted in the beanbag. "What?" "Deliverators. That's what we're calling them now. Clever right? I thought up the term." "I thought Neal Stephenson did." "Who?" "He's a writer. He wrote Snow Crash." "And that's, what, a Frozen sequel?

Hide' isn't a word we like to use," Cassaway said. "'Perform alternative tasks' is the preferred term." "Just not in the storage room," Mbeke said. "That's our alternative tasking place." "I'll just alternatively task behind my work desk, then, shall I," Dahl said. "That's the spirit," Mbeke said. *

Making people change because you can't deal with who they are isn't how it's supposed to be done. What needs to be done is for people to pull their heads out of their asses.

It's time to get you into your crawl space, if you want to be at the negotiations tomorrow without a hangover. He stood up and offered his hand to Lowen. She took it, wobbling only slightly. Whoa, she said. Someone did something to the artificial gravity. Yes, Wilson said. That's it exactly.

Angrily consume your bacon on the toilet, is my advice.

I'm trying to decide what I want to be when I grow up. A nice thing to wonder about when you're thirty.

While the elite of the Interdependency were making their plans to abandon the common people to their fate, the common people of the Interdependency were beginning to come to grips with what, exactly, that fate actually was.

They found no colonists, but they found parts of them. And a lot of blood.

It worked because on a social level, apparently enough people wanted it to, and because at the heart of it, billions of humans living in fragile habitats prone to mechanical and environmental breakdowns and degradation, and with limited natural resources, were better off relying on each other than trying to go it alone. Even without the Interdependency, being interdependent was the best way for humanity to survive.

No one wants you to apologize," Catherine said. "And you know we all have an interest in politics." "I don't," Wes said. "We all have an interest in politics except for Wes

Sometimes in life you're going to win and sometimes you're going to lose. But just because you lose doesn't mean the other guy needs to win.

You see tools and parts and my arm shoved inside a small spacecraft, and you really have to ask what I'm doing?