Quotes from James Alan Gardner

The way past despair and false hope is just letting go. It doesn't improve your odds of survival, but it doesn't waste mental energy.

That's the first rule of command; be consistent! You can be sadistic, you can be lazy, you can be stupid, but if you're consistent the crew will still let you sit in when they play dominoes.

Everyone's life is a mess. Everyone's. We all make mistakes . . . and not just little slip-ups. Major mistakes that hurt us and other people.

What kind of programmer is so divorced from reality that she thinks she'll get complex software right the first time?

Some see the glass half full, some see it half empty, and some see it crawling with toxic alien parasites who want to devour your pancreas.

I hated relying on luck. When it worked, it made me feel so damned eerie.

Don't be a little paranoid; worry about everything, or let it all go.

Everyone's life is a mess. Everyone's. We all make mistakes . . . and not just little slip-ups. Major mistakes that hurt us and other people.

What kind of programmer is so divorced from reality that she thinks she'll get complex software right the first time?

If you agree to work for us, half the time you won't know the purpose of your duties . . . and when we do explain, we might not be telling the truth. But that's the real world, folks . . .

I do not care about the greatest good for the greatest number . . . Most people are poop-heads I do not care about them at all .

Sometimes all the procedures in the world can't protect you . . . but that's no reason to walk up to something that looks like a lion and kick it in the ass.

I like people thinking I'm an asshole. Being an asshole is my life's vocation; I'm a goddamned asshole professional.

You clutch your comfortable excuses, saying, Someday I'll be brave, it won't take a lot, just give me one more chance and this time I'll grab it. .

We're ruthless bastards and we always play dirty.

Given time, a ship's crew will attach sexual innuendo to anything. It makes their jobs more exciting.

The council is a place where everyone schemes against everyone else, and people talk incessantly about Power with a capital "Pow".

That's the first rule of command; be consistent! You can be sadistic, you can be lazy, you can be stupid, but if you're consistent the crew will still let you sit in when they play dominoes.

Fate does not invite ugly boring people to save the world; and if you do try to save the world (without being beautiful, strong, clever, or wise), you will soon die pointlessly and how much adventure is there in that?

Don't be such a party-pooper, missy --when you're well and truly screwed, either you just sit pissing yourself or you invent some reason to hope.

That must be the chief reason to become sergeant; so you can assign yourself to monitor the most beautiful security risk.

It was graffiti tagging for rich people, except they used plaques instead of spray paint.

When CEOs become vampires, Congress outlaws stakes.

My dear Ninety-Nine,' Aria said, 'paranoia is our friend. Paranoia is our sunscreen, our condom, our duct tape. Paranoia tells the nine times out of ten, and the tenth time is when you weren't paranoid enough. We will never correctly anticipate what flavour of shit will hit the fan, but we can calculate the trajectory and attempt to avoid the splatter.