Quotes from John Scalzi

I had my PDA set to wake me up at 0600, which it did by gently piping music through its little speakers and gradually increasing the volume until I woke.

the plan was not the goal. The goal was the goal, and we were going to get to it however we could. And if it meant changing our plans, sometimes in the middle of executing them, then we would.

However, one always led with being nonbribable. It gave those attempting to bribe a sense of accomplishment.

comes immediately after.

I had been escorted into a conference room with more brass in it than an eighteenth-century schooner.

And since I can tell you're not the sort to show any actual goddamned initiative on your own part, you fucking cognitive mudfart, I care that your shitty little house is insulting me and my house—both of my houses, since I am still of House fucking Lagos.

No human is an island. They are rarely even peninsulas.

Kiva considered that she might be developing a thing for Fundapellonan, which on one hand would be a very not-Kiva thing to do, but on the other hand who gave a fuck if it was "not-Kiva," because she wasn't some fucking fictional character destined to do whatever some goddamn hack wanted her to do.

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

Actually, the captain and I were just talking about the plight of the less advantaged," Kiva said. "You?" Ghreni said, disbelieving. "One, fuck you, and two, yes.

the Cubs ought to have been demoted to the minor leagues after they went two centuries without a World Series championship.

They look like terrain, until they don't." Tom pointed to one of them. "That's Kevin." "Really?" Niamh said. "Fucking Kevin?

That's why you have a partner," Vann said. "So you can vent at me. Afterward. Now, come on. Let's get back to work." "Where to now?" "I want to get a better look at that hotel room," Vann said, and sucked on her cigarette. "Trinh hustled us through it pretty quickly. I'm ready for a slow dance.

Kiva had been struck by a realization that, if not exactly an epiphany, was certainly enough to make her stop in her tracks: Either she was going to have to become less fundamentally selfish, or she was going to have to find a way to make others less so.

Modifying the shuttle flight software to take the human presence out of the equation would not only require a substantial amount of time, but would also technically be classified as treason. Wilson preferred not to engage in treason if he could avoid it.

Be that as it may, if Stephen King or John Grisham really wanted to (and to be clear, I don't suspect they do), they could probably whip up a book comprised entirely of reviews of their own intestinal emanations ("A Bear in the Woods: 25 Years of Squatlogging, 1979-2004")

there are now lots of people working overtime in the American culture to suggest that people who believe in evolution and the big bang also want to mandate forced downloads of child porn into your computer and give terrorists the key to your house.

Sorvalh stopped walking and stood calmly at the frontier of the colony of Deliverance.

turn off the bullshit for the moment, Jack. Turn off that lawyer brain of yours and the thinking three steps ahead and the self-absorption and that overriding love of money you have, and answer me seriously and honestly.

When you're a teenager and you're in love, it's obvious to everyone but you and the person you're in love with," I said. "Don't ask me why. It just works that way.

I interned one summer in Washington, D.C., and didn't die," I said.

No, they don't. They have shredded orange and white sadness that mocks cheese and everything it stands for.

I can't believe you just quoted a Steve Miller tune to the leader of an alien race, Van Doren, standing next to me, muttered under his breath. Shut up, I muttered back. It worked.

When power is within reach, few will wait patiently for it.