Emanate

“At the core, you’ve got to get university certification for parenting, just as you do for, say, being a doctor or an engineer. No offence to you or your species, but going into the business of creating life without any sort of formal prep is . . .’ He laughed. ‘It’s baffling. But then, I’m biased.”
― Becky Chambers, A Closed and Common Orbit

“You are all desperate for purpose, even though you don’t have one. You’re animals, and animals don’t have a purpose. Animals just are. And there are a lot of intelligent - sentient, maybe - animals out there who don’t have a problem with that. They just go on breathing and mating and eating each other without a second thought. But the animals like you - the ones who make tools and build cities and itch to explore, you all share a need for purpose. For reason . That thinking worked well for you, once.”
― Becky Chambers, A Closed and Common Orbit

“This might be one of the few basements in Southern California, but it was clearly being used the way Juan’s family used the garage.”
― Vernor Vinge, The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge

“Oh, Cousin,” replied Sphene. “We sit here arguing, we can hardly agree on anything, and then you go straight to my heart like that. We must be family.”
― Ann Leckie, Ancillary Mercy