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Alastair Reynolds Quotes
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Alastair Preston Reynolds is a British science fiction author. He specialises in hard science fiction and space opera. He spent his early years in Cornwall, moved back to Wales before going to Newcastle University, where he read physics and astronomy. Afterwards, he earned a PhD in astrophysics from the University of St Andrews. In 1991, he moved to Noordwijk in the Netherlands where he met his wife Josette . There, he worked for the European Space Research and Technology Centre until 2004 when he left to pursue writing full-time. He returned to Wales in 2008 and lives near Cardiff. Wikipedia  

✵ 13. March 1966
Alastair Reynolds photo
Alastair Reynolds: 198   quotes 2   likes

Alastair Reynolds Quotes

““A splendidly inept thing,” Sylveste said, nodding despite himself.
“What?”
“The human capacity for grief. It just isn’t capable of providing an adequate emotional response once the dead exceed a few dozen in number. And it doesn’t just level off—it just gives up, resets itself to zero. Admit it. None of us feel a damn about these people.””

Alastair Reynolds book Revelation Space

Source: Revelation Space (2000), Chapter 15 (p. 323).

People , Feeling , Dead

“Don’t overestimate your familiarity with technologies you barely understand. It could be your undoing.”

Alastair Reynolds book Redemption Ark

Source: Redemption Ark (2002), Chapter 30 (p. 565)

Understanding

“She must have walked through life with men like him falling at her feet, squashing them underfoot like autumn leaves. It probably happened so often that all she noticed was that nice crunching sound.”

Alastair Reynolds book Century Rain

Source: Century Rain (2004), Chapter 21 (p. 357)

Life , Men , Autumn

“The Fascists got what they deserved,” Floyd said.
“My husband lived long enough to see those monsters come to come to power. He saw through their lies and promises, but he also knew that they spoke to something nasty and squalid in the human spirit. Something in all of us. We want to hate those who are not like us. All we need is an excuse, a whisper in the ear.”

Alastair Reynolds book Century Rain

Source: Century Rain (2004), Chapter 9 (p. 135)

Hate

“You seem upset by the fact that we’re hated and feared. It does give one pause for thought.”

Alastair Reynolds book Redemption Ark

Source: Redemption Ark (2002), Chapter 5 (p. 80)

Hate , Fear

“Volyova did not like planets at the best of times, and gas giants struck her as an unreasonable affront to human scale and frailty. In that respect, they were almost as bad as stars.”

Alastair Reynolds book Redemption Ark

Source: Redemption Ark (2002), Chapter 11 (p. 206)

Star , Time

““I feel as if I’m missing all the excitement.”
”In my experience,” Tunguska said, making himself a temporary seat, “excitement is always better when it happens to other people.””

Alastair Reynolds book Century Rain

Source: Century Rain (2004), Chapter 36 (p. 561)

People , Feeling

“The mere fact that there could be danger in this is fascination in itself; almost an incentive to push further. That’s how you feel, isn’t it? Every argument they could use against you would only strengthen your resolve. Because knowledge makes you hungry, and it’s a hunger you can’t resist, even if you know that what you’re feasting on could kill you.”

Alastair Reynolds book Revelation Space

Source: Revelation Space (2000), Chapter 26 (p. 452).

Hunger , Feeling , Knowledge

“I’ll survive,” Floyd said. “I’m a private detective. If I don’t get clouted on the head at least once a week, I’m not doing my job properly.”

Alastair Reynolds book Century Rain

Source: Century Rain (2004), Chapter 24 (p. 392)

“That would require an unprecedented leap of faith. I don’t do faith, Scorpio said.”

Alastair Reynolds book Absolution Gap

Source: Absolution Gap (2003), Chapter 33 (p. 515)

Faith

“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

“Is this a personal grudge or are you just psychotic?”

Alastair Reynolds

A Spy in Europa (p. 105)
Short fiction, Galactic North (2006)

Personality

“The one thing I never counted on was having luck on my side.
It was generally simpler that way.”

Alastair Reynolds book Chasm City

Source: Chasm City (2001), Chapter 13 (p. 209).

Way

“For whatever reason, I am now fully conscious. Perhaps all beta-levels are capable of this, or perhaps my sheer connectional complexity ensured that I exceeded some state of critical mass. I have no idea. All I know is that I think, and therefore I’m exceedingly angry.”

Alastair Reynolds book Revelation Space

Source: Revelation Space (2000), Chapter 18 (p. 364).

Idea , Thinking

“But when she tried to say something, the words always seemed trite and inadequate. Nothing measured up. When any moment might be their last, there was nothing she could ever imagine saying that had the necessary dignity to fill that instant. Silence was better. Silence had its own dignity.”

Alastair Reynolds book Century Rain

Source: Century Rain (2004), Chapter 37 (p. 573)

Imagination , Silence

““Tanner, are you insane?”
“Very probably several kinds of insane,” I said. “But I’m afraid it doesn’t change anything. I’m perfectly happy with my current delusional system.””

Alastair Reynolds book Chasm City

Source: Chasm City (2001), Chapter 27 (p. 454).

Change , Happiness

“The simple fact was that she no longer hated them as a matter of principle. It was also a source of shameful amazement that she could ever have wasted so much energy on groundless prejudice, when acceptance and tolerance would have been the easier, even the lazier, course.”

Alastair Reynolds book Century Rain

Source: Century Rain (2004), Chapter 36 (p. 567)

Hate

“All machines knew what would happen to them when their masters lost faith in their infallibility.”

Alastair Reynolds book Absolution Gap

Source: Absolution Gap (2003), Chapter 5 (p. 75)

Faith

“Clavain had been a soldier. He had killed more people than he could remember, even though those days had been a long time ago. It was really a lot less difficult to do when you had a cause to believe in.”

Alastair Reynolds

Glacial (p. 102)
Short fiction, Galactic North (2006)

People , Time

“Why was it never good news that put problems into perspective? Why did it always take another set of problems?”

Alastair Reynolds book Century Rain

Source: Century Rain (2004), Chapter 14 (p. 219)

Problem

“I had never understood mathematics with any great agility, but now I sensed it as a hard grid of truth underlying everything: bones shining through the thin flesh of the world.”

Alastair Reynolds book Diamond Dogs

Diamond Dogs, Chapter 11 (p. 135)
Short fiction, Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days (2003)

Truth , World , Mathematics , Sense

““Tell me, scientist to scientist, do you honestly think it will work?”
“We won’t know until we try,” Naqi said. Any other answer would have been politically hazardous: too much optimism and the politicians would have started asking just why the expensive project was needed in the first place. Too much pessimism and they would ask exactly the same question.”

Alastair Reynolds book Diamond Dogs

Turquoise Days, Chapter 2 (pp. 240-241)
Short fiction, Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days (2003)

Optimism , Question , Thinking

“I imagine you feel insignificant,” Sajaki said, almost as if he had been listening in on the conversation. “Well; you’re justified in feeling that way. You are insignificant. That’s the majesty of this place. Would you choose it any other way?”

Alastair Reynolds book Revelation Space

Source: Revelation Space (2000), Chapter 34 (p. 523).

Way , Feeling , Imagination

“Charm was what he excelled at. If anyone sensed his underlying shallowness, they usually mistook it for well-hidden great depth of character, like misinterpreting a radar bounce.”

Alastair Reynolds book Century Rain

Source: Century Rain (2004), Chapter 4 (p. 42)

Sense

“By and large these attempts to rewrite history were not taken seriously, but it was disconcerting to hear that they had gained even a toehold.”

Alastair Reynolds book Chasm City

Source: Chasm City (2001), Chapter 30 (p. 490).

History

“The Jugglers store patterns, but they seldom show any sign of comprehending actual content. We’re dealing with a mindless biological archiving system, a museum without a curator.”

Alastair Reynolds book Diamond Dogs

Turquoise Days, Chapter 1 (p. 177)
Short fiction, Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days (2003)

“Clavain saw it all with sudden, heart-stopping clarity: all that mattered was the here and now. All that mattered was survival. Sentience that bowed down and accepted its own extinction—no matter what the long-term arguments, no matter how good the greater cause—was not the kind of sentience he was interested in preserving.”

Alastair Reynolds book Redemption Ark

Source: Redemption Ark (2002), Chapter 38 (pp. 663-664)

Heart

“Personally,” Scorpio said, “I think it’s time to stop thinking chivalry and start thinking artillery.”

Alastair Reynolds book Absolution Gap

Source: Absolution Gap (2003), Chapter 19 (p. 272)

Thinking , Time , Personality

““It’s all in the fine print. You should read it sometime.”
“When I’m gripped by existential boredom,” Khouri said, “I might try it.””

Alastair Reynolds book Revelation Space

Source: Revelation Space (2000), Chapter 2 (p. 51).

Reading

“Everything looked utterly normal, exactly as Thalia had expected save for the absence of a rampaging mob.”

Alastair Reynolds book The Prefect

Source: The Prefect (2007), Chapter 14 (p. 198)

“They had been in love, desperately in love, but the universe cared nothing for the vicissitudes of the human heart.”

Alastair Reynolds book Redemption Ark

Source: Redemption Ark (2002), Chapter 31 (p. 586)

Love , Universe , Heart

“She’d walked a delicate line with commendable skill.
But sometimes the best case wasn’t good enough.”

Alastair Reynolds book The Prefect

Source: The Prefect (2007), Chapter 18 (p. 290)