Emily Grenon

“Who can say if the thoughts you have in your mind as you read these words are the same thoughts I had in my mind as I typed them? We are different, you and I, and the qualia of our consciousnesses are as divergent as two stars at the ends of the universe.

And yet, whatever has been lost in translation in the long journey of my thoughts through the maze of civilization to your mind, I think you do understand me, and you think you do understand me. Our minds managed to touch, if but briefly and imperfectly.

Does that thought not make the universe seem just a bit kinder, a bit brighter, a bit warmer and more human?

We live for such miracles.”
― Ken Liu, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories

“History is the long shadow cast by the past upon the future. Shadows, by nature, lack details.”
― Ken Liu, The Wall of Storms

“I’m reminded of a book my father used to read me,” she said. “A bunch of elves and things get into a huge war over a piece of jewelry that everybody wants but nobody can wear.”
― Lemony Snicket, Who Could That Be at This Hour?

“Every generation must compose its own destiny. There is no shirking of this duty. Teeth on the board.”
― Ken Liu, Speaking Bones