C. J. Cherryh

"Things there are in the world which have never loved Men, which have been in the world far longer than humankind, so that once when Men were newer on the earth and the woods were greater, there had been places a Man might walk where he might feel the age of the world on his shoulders. Forests grew in which the stillness was so great he could hear stirrings of a life no part of his own. There were brooks from which the magic had not gone, mountains which sang with voices, and sometimes a wind touched the back of his neck and lifted the hairs with the shiver of a presence at which a Man must never turn and stare. But the noise of Men grew more and more insistent. Their trespasses became more bold. Death had come with them, and the knowledge of good and evil, and this was a power they had, both to be virtuous and to be blind."

"When the legend is retold, it mirrors the reality of the time, and one can learn from studying how various authors have attempted to retell the story. I dont think we have an obligation to change it radically. I think that if we ever move too far from the basic story, we would lose something very precious. I dont, for instance, approve of fantasy that attempts to go back and rewrite the Middle Ages until it conforms to political correctness in the twentieth century. That removes all the benefit from reading the story. If you dont understand other people in their time and why they did what they did, then you dont understand your own past. And when you lose your past, you lose some potential for your own future."

"Jane leaned back against the counter and stared at the ceiling. At the traditional location of God, no matter what the planet."

"If youre up against a smart opponent, make him think himself to death."

"Trade isnt about goods. Trade is about information. Goods sit in the warehouse until information moves them."

"Given ignorance in the mix, stupidity was at least as common in politics as astute maneuvering;"

"Average people didnt analyze what they thought: they thought they thought, and half of it was gut reaction."

"For me the purest and truest art in the world is science fiction."

"Inevitably the party trying to resolve a matter had to contend with the party most willing to exploit it."

"Poisoning rarely happens in a well-managed kitchen."

"What the probe had found was a star with reasonable possibilities for encouraging life; a belt of debris, including particles, planetoids, irregular chunks somewhat under planet size with interesting implications for systemic formation, and a planetary companion with its own system of debris and moons...A planet desolate, baked, forbidding. It was no Eden, no second Earth, no better than what existed in the sun’s own system, and it was a far journey to have gone to find that out. The press grappled with questions it could not easily grasp itself, sought after something to give the viewers, lost interest quickly. If anything, there were questions raised about cost, vague and desperate comparisons offered to Columbus, and the press hared off quickly onto a political crisis in the Mediterranean, much more comprehensible and far bloodier."

"People ask where writers get ideas. Take my advice. Some cool, clear night, drive to a country place where city lights don’t block your view. Turn off the car lights. Get out and look up. And see our real neighborhood."