I really struggle to pinpoint whether I became a scientist because I like science fiction, or did I gravitate to science fiction because I identified strongly with scientists.

Nightside, cities glistened in chains, and a spray of tinkertoy habitats girdled the planet. Gossamer starbridges reached from the equator towards orbit.

I think I've reduced the amount of blood in my caffeine system to an acceptable level.

Victory loses its meaning without the memory of what you've vanquished.

As the old saying went, the Manhattan Project wasn't built in a day. Or was that Rome? Something to do with Earth, anyway.

A city's only ever three hot meals away from anarchy.

Enjoy it, kid. Enjoy feeling that you can make a difference.' Floyd flashed him a smile. 'It won't last for ever.

You worry that we're becoming monsters. Merlin, we already were monsters. You didn't make us any worse.

Without risk in our lives, we're scarcely better than machines ourselves.

It’s the people who don’t worry—those who never have any doubts that what they’re doing is good and right—they’re the ones that cause the problems.

Autocratic governments are masters of self-contradiction. They say one thing, do another.

It's Not How Good You Are... But How Good They Think You Are - That Matters!

At present I feel like a caged animal, bound up by the luxury, comfort and respectability of my position. I can't get the training that I want without neglecting my duty.

Frenchwomen could not dress like Englishwomen without conviction of sin.

I think Yelena Akhtiorskaya is a genius. What she manages to do, linguistically and emotionally, in the span of a single sentence, is astonishing.

The best way to describe myself would be...unpredictable.

You aren't afraid of what you think you're afraid of - you're afraid of what you think.

This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.

Memories are like holograms: you recreate in your head the whole image of something which isn't there.

I make very basic country rustic furniture.

If I ventured in the slipstream between the viaducts of your dreams, where immobile steel rims crack and the ditch in the back roads stop. Could you find me?