Quotes from John Scalzi

Our lives are arbitrary and weird, but if I pull this off—if me and all my friends from the Intrepid pull this off—then we get something that everyone else in our universe doesn't get: a chance to make our own fate. I'm going to take it. I don't know how yet. But I'm not going to blow it.

I can think of no better way to die than as a martyr for my race and my way of life, Smyrt said. And if the Colonial Union dies with us, then I will welcome its diluted population as our honor guard into hell.

Don't you ever want to stop fighting?" I asked. "Why?" Jane asked. "Well, for one thing, it dramatically cuts down your chances of violent death

What I fear is diminishment, and subtle change, and the moment in which a life without you becomes a sustainable thought.

As I clicked in, I saw Kevin pitch the small park in the direction of the other kaiju, which meant in our direction as well. The massive clod flew apart, and one sizable chunk sailed right toward us. That has trees in it, my brain said.

So far the FDA has only approved them for Hadens. But paraplegics and quadriplegics can benefit from threeps. So can other Americans with mobility issues. So can older Americans whose bodies are failing them in one way or another. The FDA has kept threeps to Haden's victims because jamming a second brain into your head is inherently dangerous, Buchold said. You do it if you have no other choice. But everyone else should still _have_ that choice, Hubbard said.

I mean, I don't know that I was actually planning to possibly die tonight in order to protect a kaiju, Kahurangi said. But I might be willing to possibly die to save a kaiju and ten thousand Canadians. Now we know what motivates you, I said. Ten thousand Canadians.

How much?" Patz said nothing but gave Kiva a look that she interpreted as saying a whole fuckton.

It's a hell of a thing to say good-bye to your whole life. I signed.

When the drive failed, the ship exploded. And when I say "exploded" I mean "interacted catastrophically with the topography of space/time in ways we're not entirely able to explain," but "explode" gets the gist of it, particularly with regard to what would happen to a human caught in it.

Nadashe propped herself up and smiled at her mother. "Hi, Mom," she said. The Countess Nohamapetan slapped her daughter hard across the face. "That's for killing your brother," she said. Then she slapped Nadashe again. "What's that one for?" Nadashe asked. "For getting caught.

were technically their security detail. Chen, who was new

If I were to wander into the path of the beam I might be uncomfortable just long enough for my brain to register the pain before I was turned into a floating pile of carbon dust. That was not on my schedule for the day.

She shrugged. "I don't mind getting old." "I didn't mind getting old when I was young, either," I said. "It's the being old now that's getting to me." Her

overthinking things is a hobby of mine. I'm the first to admit I'm weird

I waited for the last few seconds to deploy my nanobots into a parachute form, braking with an abruptness that would have killed an unmodified human body. Fortunately, I don't have an unmodified human body.

Not a very original title," I said. "Well, physicists save their imagination for other things." Harry chuckled.

I don't mind getting old." "I didn't mind getting old when I was young, either," I said. "It's the being old now that's getting to me.

It takes a special kind of pathetic loser to help someone you hate just to make his girlfriend happy, I thought.

he wasn't much of a natural in anything. This was something he sensed early and hid with overcompensation, which is why so many of his training squad members thought he was an asshole.

Fundamentally, there's no connection between whether someone is personally nice and whether they pursue an agenda inimical to what you perceive as desirable.

I'm not insane, sir," I said. "I have a finely calibrated sense of acceptable risk.

Maybe that's what's bothering me," I said. "There's no sense of consequence. I just took a living, thinking thing and hurled it into the side of a building. Doing it didn't bother me at all. The fact that it didn't does bother me, Alan. There ought to be consequences to our actions.

She dropped dead mid-sentence, still pissy. On one hand, she really didn't feel it, which I suppose isn't a bad thing. On the other hand, well. I think it came as a surprise to her that she could die.