Martha Wells

"They’re academics, surveyors, researchers, not action-hero explorers from the serials I liked because they were unrealistic and not depressing and sordid like reality."

"Humans are nervous of me because I’m a terrifying murderbot, and I’m nervous of them because they’re humans."

"I was only 97 percent certain this meeting was a trap."

"Young humans can be impulsive. The trick is keeping them around long enough to become old humans. This is what my crew tells me and my own observations seem to confirm it."

"Hard work really did make you improve; who knew?"

"This lobby was on multiple levels and had large square biozones depicting different ecologies, with furniture arranged around them. It looked nice, inviting humans to sit around and discuss proprietary information in the hotel’s choked feed so the hotel could record it and sell it to the highest bidder."

"They were all annoying and deeply inadequate humans, but I didn’t want to kill them. Okay, maybe a little."

"“I don’t want to be human.” Dr. Mensah said, “That’s not an attitude a lot of humans are going to understand. We tend to think that because a bot or a construct looks human, its ultimate goal would be to become human.” “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”"

"She said that in the normal human adolescent exasperated and borderline whiney tone. (That’s actually statistically normal for human adults, too.)"

"Self-determination was a pain in the ass sometimes but it beat the alternative by a lot."

"But I couldn’t ignore it. I mean, I guess I couldn’t. Ignoring stuff is always an option, up until it kills you."

"Yes, the giant transport bot is going to help the construct SecUnit pretend to be human. This will go well."