Nicole

“The Mandate is very into polar binaries, it’s in all their rhetoric. “What?” they’d say. “You don’t want this unpleasant circumstance we’re forcing on you? Then you’re obviously in favour of this absurdly exaggerated opposite we’ve just invented.”
― Adrian Tchaikovsky, Alien Clay

“Any oppressive system needs an element of arbitrary punishment just to keep people properly on their toes.”
― Adrian Tchaikovsky, Alien Clay

“the hardest thing about sacrifice is not knowing if it’ll be worth it. What’s the point in taking the bullet if the person behind you in the charge loses heart, dithers, runs away? You may as well have stayed at home. You only have one life after all. It can be very hard to know when to throw it away.”
― Adrian Tchaikovsky, Alien Clay

“They want very specific answers from science. Black and white answers to complex questions. Everything sorted into predetermined boxes.”
― Adrian Tchaikovsky, Alien Clay