Quotes from Alastair Reynolds

Everything's connected," I answered. "That doesn't mean everyone's working towards the same goal.

observing the way the rig needed only occasional human intervention to stay locked on the road. Doubtless it could have managed with none at all, were it not for local union laws. Very

Weapons readiness?" "Nominal," Dalal

This Fura was different. This Fura was harder and scowlier and knew what needed to be done. This one could turn her back on her own dying father, or watch a blinded man whimper in pain and not give one cold cuss. This one could cut her own hand off if it helped. This one didn't care what people thought of Fura. And even as I cursed those tin fingers, which wouldn't yet do a tenth of what I wanted from them, I knew which Fura I liked the best.

There were whole habitats where people had had their higher brain functions disengaged, so that they could live like sheep under the care of machines

Few of us get the things we deserve,' Ndege said, 'but we make the best of what we're given.

To live is better than not to live. Even for a few hours, in the company of friends.

Everyone's getting very excited, but in that educated way of not showing it.

Must you respect a man to be in his service?" "No," he answered carefully. "But since it helps to be paid, you must respect the fullness of his pockets.

Then take them there. They can still change their minds, can't they? But you make sure Rack understands that he owes us both a finder's fee, if they pass his tests." "They will," Mr. Quindar said. "Got a nose for these things, I 'ave. And these sisters ain't slipping through my fingers.

we have to keep him in a state of enlightened deception.

Never put off until the next million years what you can do during this million.

The geometry! I think I can see it! Each quarter section is homeomorphic to a triangle!

Generally it's best to accept that things are exactly as bad as they look. At least that way you know it's time to start digging your way out.

Quantum reality is a nest of snakes, Clavain, and we are already poking it with a very sharp stick.

I thought we were losing the habit of wars," Eunice said glumly, stooping to adjust one of the irrigation lines running into her plant beds. "We are, slowly." Chiku took a seat. "But it's still in our blood, like some fucking horrible disease we're still carrying around with us.

I watched 'Who' with a mixture of affection and exasperation through the eighties, always ready to cheer on the Doctor but seldom feeling that the series was playing to its strengths. Some of the adventures, revisited on DVD, turn out to be better than I remembered - others just as infuriating.

I despair of reality television, but I've never met anyone who watches it. Or people say, 'I watch it, but I hate it.' I've never met anyone who loves it. It's like, it's there, and we have to accept it.

I've never had much interest in spinoffery - the idea of writing in someone else's universe generally leaves me cold - but 'Doctor Who' is different. I've grown up with it. It's been part of my life since I was tiny, watching Jon Pertwee on a grainy black and white television in Cornwall and being terrified out of my mind.

I've been enthralled by deep vistas of space and time ever since watching George Pal's film of 'The Time Machine,' while an early encounter with Arthur C. Clarke's 'The City And The Stars' cemented my love for books with a scope spanning millions of years.

I am playing in a playground that's already been played in. I am always aware that a lot of the furniture in science fiction is second hand.

If the Chinese are the first to the asteroids or the first to Mars, good for them, as far as I'm concerned.

You have to be able to invest in your own creations, to suspend your own disbelief in order to be able to write them. We all have to draw the line somewhere.

Why would you need to expand beyond the solar system if you already have access to all the information you need, and you've essentially insulated yourself against a planetary apocalypse? Maybe that's enough.