From Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds:
And though he did eventually return, his doubters had in a sense been right, because a large portion of his sanity had not come back with him.
Thanks to my son for sharing that with me. I have read the book but it was several years ago. ("Several" being something like 10 maybe)
From Helliconia Spring by Brian W. Aldiss:
...life has a quality rulers cannot touch.
I have thought about this but something that good writers can do that most of us can't is state a thought simply and elegantly that most of us take whole paragraphs to try to say without ever really getting the point across.
I just found this in my Drafts. It's from weeks ago. I don't know why I didn't go ahead and post it at the time but anyway, here it is.
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From The Last Humans by Dima Zales:
"This confirms my theory that bullies are secretly pussies."
From The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Sir Edward Gibbon:
The various modes of worship which prevailed in the Roman world were all considered by the people as equally true; by the philosopher as equally false; and by the magistrate as equally useful.
From Perdido Street Station by China Mieville:
The river twists and turns to face the city. It looms suddenly, massive, stamped on the landscape. Its light wells up around the surrounds, the rock hills, like bruise-blood. Its dirty towers glow. I am debased. I am compelled to worship this extraordinary presence that has silted into existence at the conjunction of two rivers. It is a vast pollutant, a stench, a klaxon sounding. Fat chimneys retch dirt into the sky even now in deep night. It is not the current which pulls us but the city itself, its weight sucks us in. Faint shouts, here and there the calls of beasts, the obscene clash and pounding from the factories as huge machines rut. Railways trace urban anatomy like protruding veins. Red brick and dark walls, squat churches like troglodytic things, ragged awnings flickering, cobbled mazes in the old town, culs-de-sac, sewers riddling the earth like secular sepulchres, a new landscape of wasteground, crushed stone, libraries fat with forgotten volumes, old hospitals, tower blocks, ships and metal claws that lift cargoes from the water.
How could we not see this approaching? What trick of topography is this, that lets the sprawling monster hide behind corners to leap out at the traveller?
From Farewell Earth's Bliss by D. G. Compton:
If asked about his routine he would have said it was all that had kept him sane. If asked about being sane he would have admitted that of course he wasn't.
Am I evil for liking this one?
From East of Eden by John Steinbeck:
The church and the whorehouse arrived in the Far West simultaneously. And each would have been horrified to think it was a different facet of the same thing. But surely they were intended to accomplish the same thing: the singing, the devotion, the poetry of the churches took a man out of his bleakness for a time, and so did the brothels.
You need to read this. No, don't tell me it's too long; I don't want to hear it. But here's just a sample:
I often go through periods of wondering if writing fiction is a waste of time in a world that needs so many more practical things. Why contribute a novel when what is needed is potable water, enough healthy food, more medical supplies, and safer buildings? What is the point of fiction when reality is so pressing?
Invariably I am reminded that stories have power. Because it’s not just our physical needs that need to be met in this life. We need to know that we are not alone. We need to be reminded that restoration and redemption are possible. We need to remember what hope feels like. We need to believe that there is another future for us beyond our current situation. We need to dream. We need to encounter the divine.
Go read the whole thing. Seriously.
From Brass Man by Neal Asher:
It had not taken the general population, for whom it was a long-established tradition to look upon their human leaders with contempt, very long to realize that the AIs were better at running everything. And it is very difficult to motivate people to revolution when they are extremely comfortable and well off.
