Jordan Dennis

“We’re not people,” he said. “We’re the stories that people tell each other about us. Belters are crazy terrorists. Earthers are lazy gluttons. Martians are cogs in a great big machine.” “Men are fighters,” Naomi said, and then, her voice growing bleak. “Women are nurturing and sweet and they stay home with the kids. It’s always been like that. We always react to the stories about people, not who they really are.” “And look where it got us,” Holden said.”
― James S.A. Corey, Babylon's Ashes

“As they passed the bandstand, they saw a few words chalked onto the back wall that they hadn’t noticed before: GET RID OF IMBECILES. Alice snorted, and shook her head. “I’ll tell the constable. We’ll soon have it gone.” Seeing the scrawled words darkened Kim’s thoughts. It was a poison. A slow drip of a concoction—part hate, part fear—and one that could sicken Uxley. And the enmity could spread. It was spreading, she feared. Words on a bandstand in a park. She worried what it could become.”
― Kay Kenyon, At the Table of Wolves

“Senator, who’s the better farmer, the man who hitches up his tractor and runs it until it breaks or the man who oils and services it and lets it cool off if the engine overheats? And who gets more plowing done in the long run? These men and women who have lived half their lives in loneliness are often thrown off balance temporarily when they finally find someone with whom they can relate, I admit. Sometimes they just want to quit—to be with their new partner every hour. But eventually they come back—and when they do they’re working for something, not just to get away from something.”
― Gene Wolfe, Castle of Days: Short Fiction and Essays

“Manhood isn’t an on-off switch. That’s what nobody tells you. It’s more like a river . . . you jump in too fast and you’ll get swept away. It’s perfectly acceptable to start by wading ankle-deep along the bank as you observe how the others who have come before you have learned to brave its currents. But right now, all you need is the courage to take that first step.”
― Nicky Drayden, The Prey of Gods