Quotes from Greg Bear

You never know what it is like to be a child, even as a child. You have to have one of your own, and then it comes to you. You understand for the first time.

The huge Bernard is encompassed within a tiny hundred-cell cluster.

It's out there," Bitterness says. "Your monster. Mendicant Bias. Can't you feel it?

So ended the days of the last dinosaur circus.

A government based on fear attracts the worst elements, who corrupt it from within. A shaky edifice, a government against its people, any of its people, must soon collapse.

rendezvous with the robots after a fast

Some adopted new strategies for survival; they went dormant. Others became dust that could regenerate our past forms; time rendered this dust defective. It brought only disease and misery; but that was good, we saw the misery and found it good.

No more will. No more freedom. Nothing new but agonizing death and never good shall come of it. We are the last of those who gave you breath and form, millions of years ago. We are the last of those your kind defied and ruthlessly destroyed. We are the last Precursors. And now we are legion.

Of all the illusions of childhood, the one he hated to lose most was this: that humans worked according to unspoken but noble goals, that they followed an intrinsic path to justice, that they would resist error and move toward self-understanding.

Throughout my life, I sought power and profit for myself, for my rate. Now, at long last, I think I understand the meaning of a crime against the Mantle. After this, no need to seek balance. I will await my penance here.

Fog obscured the distant towers of Manhattan, allowing only pale silhouettes of the World Trade Center to rise above gray and white opacity.

They sped along the conduits reserved for the subtle messages of subatomic particles, space-time's hidden circuitry.

We are all different sexes, though with only two brands of equipment. —The Kiss of X, Alive Contains a Lie 2 Stone Hammer Alice Grale believes this is cataspace, all interaction but no motion.

I'll go see what's in the building," she said. "Maybe it's somebody like me, somebody smarter who knows about electricity. Tomorrow morning I'll go see.

Fear is a drug you need to survive. Without fear, you die quicker; that's part of basic, that's what the old guys instill in us when we're fledglings waiting and eager to fly; fear is your friend, but only in controlled doses, never in such flooding waves that you panic. Panic kills you quicker than bullets. Panic turns you into doomed animals.

M/F, F/M, M/M, F/F / is what happens between us / is what separates us. We are all different sexes, though with only two brands of equipment. —The Kiss of X, Alive Contains a Lie

You always knew what you wanted to be didn't you? He asked Edward. More or less. Smart moves, a gynecologist. Never false moves. I was different, I had goals but no direction. Like a map without roads, just places to be.

They are Russians. You do not remember them in Berlin. I do. I was just a boy, but I remember them—strong, sentimental, cruel, crafty and stupid at once.

It went okay. Kaye shifted her eyes to one side and shrugged. Rachel Browning tried to pull down my shorts. Did she succeed? Cross asked. Got them down to my curlies, Kaye said. The young men looked ready to appear shocked, should Cross be. Cross laughed. Jesus, Kaye. I never know what I'm going to hear from you. You drive my PR folks nuts.

MY HUSBAND Ã¢â'¬Â¦ HAS become a child again. But not any sort of child I'd be proud of. Not any sort of child I would trust.

They understood the universe in ways we never will. We can't unlock their secrets—but now, apparently, we can destroy all they ever made. That's what I call progress.

named Wendell Berry, often used by citizens of Thistledown. The slate's simple

Sparkling lakes and rivers on Earth … pictures of Thierry riding his solar-powered yacht around the world. That sort of thing. All very attractive to a Moon girl." "Did

We were not then powerful enough to erase all evidence of the Precursors, to destroy their star roads and citadels and other artifacts. And so we left at least one Precursor behind, to live out dreams of vengeance and hatred, to lay down plans in cold and darkness at the heart of a lost asteroid—over millions of years.