Alastair Reynolds: Trending quotes (page 5)

“Maps had never really been his thing, even during his days under Scorpio in Chasm City. There, it had hardly mattered. Blood’s motto had always been that if you needed a map to find your way around a neighbourhood, you were already in trouble.”

Alastair Reynolds book Absolution Gap

Source: Absolution Gap (2003), Chapter 18 (pp. 255-256)

Way

“Just because something had spawned a myth did not automatically mean it had to contain anything of substance.”

Alastair Reynolds book Chasm City

Source: Chasm City (2001), Chapter 33 (p. 531).

“I don’t question your loyalty, Skade. I just wonder exactly what it is you’re loyal to.”

Alastair Reynolds book Redemption Ark

Source: Redemption Ark (2002), Chapter 29 (p. 540)

Question , Loyalty

““I don’t trust you.”
“Of course you don’t. I know I wouldn’t. And I’m not asking you to. I’m not putting you in a situation in which your trust of me is even remotely relevant. I’m just pointing a gun to your head and giving you orders.””

Alastair Reynolds book Chasm City

Source: Chasm City (2001), Chapter 26 (p. 424).

“His parents had abdicated responsibility to an illusion.”

Alastair Reynolds book Chasm City

Source: Chasm City (2001), Chapter 6 (p. 83).

Parent

“There was something about the cocksure confidence of that statement that gave Auger goose pimples. It was like an invitation to fate.”

Alastair Reynolds book Century Rain

Source: Century Rain (2004), Chapter 40 (p. 599)

Fate , Confidence

“She had almost dared ask, but was perhaps too fearful of hearing something she could not refute.”

Alastair Reynolds book Revelation Space

Source: Revelation Space (2000), Chapter 23 (p. 424).

Fear

“They screwed with democracy. I’m not going to lose much sleep when democracy screws them back.”

Alastair Reynolds book The Prefect

Source: The Prefect (2007), Chapter 1 (p. 6)

Democracy , Sleep

““Besides—we all know guns don’t kill people, do they?”
“No, it’s the small metal projectiles that generally do the killing,” Cahuella said, smiling.”

Alastair Reynolds book Chasm City

Source: Chasm City (2001), Chapter 19 (p. 315).

People , Smile

““Can I still wish you good luck?”
“You can wish me what the hell you like. It won’t make any difference. If it did, it would mean I hadn’t prepared well enough.”

Alastair Reynolds book Redemption Ark

Source: Redemption Ark (2002), Chapter 38 (p. 654)

Hell

““That’s how it went, wasn’t it Zebra?”
“It might,” she said. “If I happened to be colluding in your own delusions.””

Alastair Reynolds book Chasm City

Source: Chasm City (2001), Chapter 29 (p. 479).

““How long have we been friends, Dan?”
“I wouldn’t exactly call it friendship; more a kind of mutual parasitism.””

Alastair Reynolds book Revelation Space

Source: Revelation Space (2000), Chapter 7 (p. 166).

Friendship

“It was a numbers game, not a guaranteed method of avoiding being killed, but Clavain had been a soldier long enough to know that this was, ultimately, what most combat situations boiled down to.”

Alastair Reynolds book Redemption Ark

Source: Redemption Ark (2002), Chapter 25 (p. 452)

Game

“I was going to call it a mistake, but you could argue that there are no mistakes in war, only fortunate and less fortunate events.”

Alastair Reynolds book Revelation Space

Source: Revelation Space (2000), Chapter 10 (p. 220).

War

“No one ever took music away from me, but I’m damned if it ever sounds quite as good as it used to when I was twenty.”

Alastair Reynolds book Century Rain

Source: Century Rain (2004), Chapter 36 (p. 555)

Music

“In Clavain’s experience, it was the less comforting possibility that generally turned out to be the case. It was the way the universe worked.”

Alastair Reynolds book Redemption Ark

Source: Redemption Ark (2002), Chapter 23 (p. 413)

Way , Universe

““But of course, you don’t believe in the existence of sin, do you?”
“I believe in the existence of reckless stupidity,” Rashmika replied.”

Alastair Reynolds book Absolution Gap

Source: Absolution Gap (2003), Chapter 20 (p. 288)

Stupidity

“He had never lost that mingled combination of awe and terror that welled up in him when confronted by the routinely huge distances of space.”

Alastair Reynolds book Redemption Ark

Source: Redemption Ark (2002), Chapter 8 (p. 129)

“But sanity, Vasko decided, was like the pattern of lights he could see through his cabin window. In almost any direction the only way to travel was into darkness, and there was a lot more darkness than light.”

Alastair Reynolds book Absolution Gap

Source: Absolution Gap (2003), Chapter 7 (pp. 105-106)

Way , Travel , Light

““What happened?”
“Let’s just say my efforts to reprogram the weapon were not an unqualified success, shall we, and leave it at that?” She hated discussing failure almost as much as she hated the thing itself.”

Alastair Reynolds book Redemption Ark

Source: Redemption Ark (2002), Chapter 15 (p. 255)

Hate , Failure , Effort , Success