Quotes from Alan Dean Foster

I've found that most people do a lot of talking and they wind up not saying very much. Especially adults when they're talking to children. It's kind of like they enjoy talking at you but not to you. They want you to listen to them all the time, but they don't want to listen to you. I think that's pretty stupid. Just because you're small doesn't mean you don't have some important things to say.

Today's science is yesterday's magic, friend Oak. Today's magic is tomorrow's science. All disciplines are tangent and the differences between them often nothing more substantial than semantics. Scientists or laibon who dismiss conclusions out of hand because they do not countenance the methodology utilized to reach them forfeit their title.

You can still have children. We'll buy out your contract. You'll get everything you deserve. We owe you.' She wavered. 'You're not going to take it back?

You try kicking some butts here and they'll eat your leg right off.

The trouble with computers, she thought, was that they had no intuitive senses. Only deductive ones. You had to ask the right question.

To be angered by evil is to partake of it, stupid. - Phrases of Import and Salvation, Chapter IX, The Book of Universal Truths and Other Humorous Anecdotes

One downward cut, she saw. One quick, final strike, and she could kill him. The landing lights of a shuttle appeared in the distance, coming over the trees in her direction. She had to make a decision, now. Kill him, a voice inside her head said. It was amorphous, unidentifiable, raw. Pure vengeful emotion. So easy, she told herself. So quick.

One downward cut, she saw. One quick, final strike, and she could kill him. The landing lights of a shuttle appeared in the distance, coming over the trees in her direction. She had to make a decision, now. Kill him, a voice inside her head said. It was amorphous, unidentifiable, raw. Pure vengeful emotion. So easy, she told herself. So quick. She recoiled from it. From the dark side.

It was exciting and intellectually gratifying to speculate on what might lie waiting in the black gulfs when one was behind the business end of a telescope, quite another to do so isolated on an unpleasant little speck of a world such as this, confronted by a ship of non-human manufacture that uncomfortably resembled a growth instead of a familiar device for manipulating and overcoming the neat laws of physics.

I do not 'gallivant,' Truzenzuzex commented primly. I plan in haste.

Impossible for me to harm or, by omission of action, allow to be harmed a human being.

I will remove these restraints. And leave this cell, with the door open, and retire to my living quarters. I will speak of this encounter to no one.

There was no reply. That in itself was encouraging. They trudged on, Luke stealing admiring glances at her when she wasn't looking.

Awkwardly pressed up against him, the Princess seemed to take no notice of their proximity. In the dampness, though, her body heat was near palpable to Luke and he had to force himself to keep his attention on what he was doing.

Those who had led the rebellion had under-estimated the deeply buried desire of far too large a proportion of the population who simply preferred to be told what to do. Much easier it was to follow orders than to think for oneself.

Why did you let the alien survive inside Kane?' The science officer scowled. 'I'm not sure you're getting through to me. Nobody "let" anything survive inside anybody. It just happened.

You know what I'm talking about. Mother was monitoring his body. You were monitoring Mother.

The Empire does what is necessary," the subofficer observed in a phlegmatic manner which would have gratified his superiors.

Building better worlds

I got a bad feeling about this." —

That's not what's bothering you, is it? You're worried about what they might find. Or have we all misjudged you and you're really a high-minded seeker after knowledge, a true devotee of pushing back the frontiers of the known universe?' 'Hell, no.' Parker didn't seem the least offended by Ripley's casual sarcasm. 'I'm a true devotee of pushing back the frontiers of my bank account.

You're all crazy,' he muttered. 'You know that.' 'Man,' Vasquez told him softly, 'why else would anyone join the Colonial Marines?

No, but your idea of what betters human life might differ from someone else's.' For

Remember that the prime consideration of science is the protection and betterment of human life. I would never contravene that.