Barry B. Longyear > Quotes

“Sharks don't kill because they're poor, criminal, insane, or repressed. A shark kills because it's a shark.”
― Barry B. Longyear

“There is no force as powerful as a promise that insists on being kept.”
― Barry B. Longyear, Enemy Mine

“Fairness is an illusion. Neither effort nor intention holds title to the nature or form of either the present or the future. And if the sincere effort has no title, what interest can the bellow or the lamentation hold?" - Davigde. "The humans on Amadeen have a different way of saying it... Tough shit." - Yazi Ro”
― Barry B. Longyear

“Lawn roller? ... What is it for?"
Why it is for rolling lawns."
I shook my head and laughed back at him. "Do I look like I have hay in my ears fellow? Just why, madman, would anyone want to roll a lawn? There would be nothing left but mud, and the grass would die from lack of sun."
No, Korvas. Rolling means to flatten."
No, it doesn't. A roller rollsa a flattener flattens."
Obushawn sighed and nodded. "Very well, it is a lawn flattener. It's for flattening lawns."
I see no purpose in it. If I wanted a flat lawn, that's what I would have planted in the first place. I think you are a failure at business, you obviously drink to excess, and beat your wife, dog, and children, you steal from the temple and blind beggars, and are most likely well on your way to being put away in a home. I do not want to talk to you anymore. Go away.”
― Barry Longyear

“You're soaked and you'll catch your death."
"Better I should catch death than it should catch me," I answered with a smile.”
― Barry B. Longyear, Jaggers & Shad: ABC is for Artificial Beings Crimes

“I once heard a program nazi defined as someone who goes around giving advice to people who are happier than he is.”
― Barry B. Longyear, Yesterday's Tomorrow: Raw Stories of Hard-Fought Recovery

“Who am I to be marryin' people?"

Little Will smiled with a hint of mischief, "Waxy, who better than the boss harness man to tie the know?”
― Barry B. Longyear, Elephant Song

“Aydan," spoke Niagat, "I would server Heraak; I would see an end to war; I would be one of your warmasters."
  "would you kill to achieve this, Niagat ?"
  "I would kill."
  "Would you kill Heraak to achieve this ?"
  "Kill Heraak, my master ?" Niagat paused and considered the question. "If I cannot have both, I would see Heraak to see and end to war."
  "That is not what I asked."
  "And, Aydan, I would do the killing."
  "And, now, would you die to achieve this ?"
  "I would risk death as does any warrior."
  "Again, Niagat, this is not my question. If an end to war can only be purchased at the certain cost of your own life, would you die by your own hand to achieve peace ?"
  Niagat studied upon the thing that Aydan asked. "I am willing to take the gamble of battle. In this gamble there is the chance of seeing my goal. But my certain death, and by my own hand - there would be no chance of seeing my goal. No, I would not take my own life for this. That would be foolish. Have I passed your test ?"
  "You have failed, Niagat. Your goal is not peace; your goal is to live in peace. Return when your goal is peace alone and you hold a willing knife at your own throat to achieve it. That is the price of a warmaster's blade."
  - Aydan and the War of Ages, Koda Itheda, The Talman
 ”
― Barry B. Longyear, The Tomorrow Testament

“the cars and learn something of”
― Barry B. Longyear, The War Whisperer: Book 1: Geronimo

“My training is in the arts of killing and preparing the kill for consumption. I am told you call this home economics.”
― Barry B. Longyear, Elephant Song