Lyra

“Being in love was like China: you knew it was there, and no doubt it was very interesting, and some people went there, but I never would. I'd spend all my life without ever going to China, but it wouldn't matter, because there was all the rest of the world to visit.”
― Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass

“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.”
― Alastair Reynolds, Redemption Ark

“if human beings really grasped how synthetic their world was - how much of it was stitched together not from direct perception, but from interpolation, memory, educated guesswork - they would go quietly mad.”
― Alastair Reynolds, Absolution Gap

“I was like
'Okay, sure, fine, whatever swings your string,'
and she was all 'Babycakes you swing my string,'
which is a really nice thing for someone to say to you, especially before you use mouthwash”
― M. T. Anderson