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Lois McMaster Bujold Quotes
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Lois McMaster Bujold is an American speculative fiction writer. She is one of the most acclaimed writers in her field, having won the Hugo Award for best novel four times, matching Robert A. Heinlein's record, not counting his Retro Hugo. Her novella "The Mountains of Mourning" won both the Hugo Award and Nebula Award. In the fantasy genre, The Curse of Chalion won the Mythopoeic Award for Adult Literature and was nominated for the 2002 World Fantasy Award for best novel, and both her fourth Hugo Award and second Nebula Award were for Paladin of Souls. In 2011 she was awarded the Skylark Award. In 2013 she was awarded the Forry Award. In 2017 she won a Hugo Award for Best Series, for the Vorkosigan Saga.

The bulk of Bujold's works comprises three separate book series: the Vorkosigan Saga, the Chalion Series, and the Sharing Knife series.

✵ 2. November 1949
Lois McMaster Bujold photo
Lois McMaster Bujold: 383 quotes8 likes

Lois McMaster Bujold Quotes

“Too late, he recalled Miles's dictum that the reward for a job well done was usually a harder job.”

Lois McMaster Bujold A Civil Campaign

Source: A Civil Campaign

“I've got forward momentum. There's no virtue in it. It's just a balancing act. I don't dare stop.”

Lois McMaster Bujold book The warrior's Apprentice

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, The Warrior's Apprentice (1986)

“Endure pain, find joy, and make your own meaning, because the universe certainly isn't going to supply it. Always be a moving target. Live. Live. Live.”

Lois McMaster Bujold

Vorkosigan Saga, Barrayar (1991)
Source: Cordelia's Honor
Context: Welcome to Barrayar, son. Here you go: have a world of wealth and poverty, wrenching change and rooted history. Have a birth; have two. Have a name. Miles means "soldier," but don't let the power of suggestion overwhelm you. Have a twisted form in a society that loathes and fears the mutations that have been its deepest agony. Have a title, wealth, power, and all the hatred and envy they will draw. Have your body ripped apart and re-arranged. Inherit an array of friends and enemies you never made. Have a grandfather from hell. Endure pain, find joy, and make your own meaning, because the universe certainly isn't going to supply it. Always be a moving target. Live. Live. Live.

“If the truth doesn't save us, what does that say about us?”

Lois McMaster Bujold book Diplomatic Immunity

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Diplomatic Immunity (2002)

“Cecil flashed a grin. "Quite. Plus your rather irritating habit of treating your superior officers as your, ah…" Cecil paused, apparently groping again for just the right word.

"Equals?" Miles hazarded.

"Cattle," Cecil corrected judiciously.”

Lois McMaster Bujold book The Vor Game

Source: The Vor Game

“Have you ever heard the phrase, Living well is the best revenge?"
"Where I come from, someone's head in a bag is generally considered the best revenge”

Lois McMaster Bujold

Source: CryoBurn

“Miles clutched Quinn's elbow. "Don't Panic."
"I'm not panicking," Quinn observed, "I'm watching you panic. It's more entertaining.”

Lois McMaster Bujold book Brothers in Arms

Variant: "Don't panic."
"I'm not panicking, I'm watching you panic. It's more entertaining."
Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Brothers in Arms (1989)

“Experience suggests it doesn't matter so much how you got here, as what you do after you arrive.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Barrayar (1991)

“And the Bastard grant us... in our direst need, the smallest gifts: the nail of the horseshoe, the pin of the axle, the feather at the pivot point, the pebble at the mountain's peak, the kiss in despair, the one right word. In darkness, understanding.”

Lois McMaster Bujold book Paladin of Souls

Source: Paladin of Souls (2003), p. 44

“The Imperial Service could win a war without coffee, but would prefer not to have to.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Captain Vorpatril's Alliance

Source: Captain Vorpatril's Alliance

“If you're trying to take a roomful of people by surprise, it's a lot easier to hit your targets if you don't yell going through the door.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Vorkosigan Saga, The Warrior's Apprentice (1986)
Source: Young Miles

“Not that I haven't leaped up into the blinding light of competence now and then. It's sustaining the altitude that defeats me.”

Lois McMaster Bujold A Civil Campaign

Source: A Civil Campaign

“[Koudelka] looked back, "You?! I know you! You trust beyond reason!"
[Cordelia] met his eyes steadily, "Yes, it's how I get results beyond hope, as you may recall.”

Lois McMaster Bujold A Civil Campaign

Source: A Civil Campaign

“Money, power, sex… and elephants.”

Lois McMaster Bujold book Memory

Source: Memory

“If power was an illusion, wasn't weakness necessarily one also?”

Lois McMaster Bujold A Civil Campaign

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, A Civil Campaign (1999)

“Children might or might not be a blessing, but to create them and then fail them was surely damnation.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Barrayar (1991)

“You try to give away what you want yourself.”

Lois McMaster Bujold book Memory

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Memory (1996)

“Poets speak of hope in ladies smiles, but give me a smirk any day, I say.”

Lois McMaster Bujold book Paladin of Souls

Source: Paladin of Souls

“You go on. You just go on. There's nothing more to it, and there's no trick to make it easier. You just go on.”

Lois McMaster Bujold book Memory

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Memory (1996)
Context: "You go on. You just go on. There's nothing more to it, and there's no trick to make it easier. You just go on."
"And what do you find on the other side? When you go on?"
"Your life again. What else?"
"Is that a promise?"
"It's an inevitability. No trick. No choice. You just go on."

“Do it for yourself. The universe will be around to collect its cut later.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Vorkosigan Saga, Mirror Dance (1994)

“The good face pain. But the great — they embrace it.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Vorkosigan Saga, Shards of Honor (1986)
Source: Shards of Honour

“Aren't family squabbles jolly fun? Bleeding ulcers run in my family, we give them to each other.”

Lois McMaster Bujold book Borders of Infinity

Vorkosigan Saga, The Mountains of Mourning (1989)
Source: Borders of Infinity

“I could take over the universe with this army if I could ever get all their weapons pointed in the same direction.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Vorkosigan Saga, Shards of Honor (1986)
Source: Shards of Honour

“I don't confuse greatness with perfection. To be great anyhow is…the higher achievement.”

Lois McMaster Bujold book Mirror Dance

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Mirror Dance (1994)

“Miles is… Miles; close to a force of nature, climbing up out of his own pages and escaping subordination to any opinion of mine.”

Lois McMaster Bujold

“Forward momentum only worked as a strategy if one had correctly identified which way was forward.”

Lois McMaster Bujold

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Komarr (1998), Chapter 16 (p. 268)

“Suicidal glory is the luxury of the irresponsible. We're not giving up. We're waiting for a better opportunity to win.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, Barrayar (1991)

“But when he’s cut, I bleed.”

Lois McMaster Bujold

Source: Shards of Honour

“Hunting hawks do not belong in cages, no matter how much a man covets their grace, no matter how golden the bars. They are far more beautiful soaring free. Heartbreakingly beautiful.”

Lois McMaster Bujold book The warrior's Apprentice

Source: Vorkosigan Saga, The Warrior's Apprentice (1986)

“It was hell to be so tired, and still care.”

Lois McMaster Bujold

Source: Shards of Honour

“He gave me no sign. I was never the sort to receive portents, or to delude myself that I had. Silence was always my portion, in return for my prayers.”

Lois McMaster Bujold

Source: World of the Five Gods series, Paladin of Souls (2003), p. 295

“I take it as a man's duty to restrain himself.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Vorkosigan Saga, Ethan of Athos (1986)

“Sometimes insanity is not a tragedy. Sometimes, it's a strategy for survival. Sometimes … it's a triumph.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Vorkosigan Saga, Mirror Dance (1994)

“You're so hopelessly monosexual, Miles.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Vorkosigan Saga, Borders of Infinity (1989)

“"Such a perilous concentration of demons would create chaos all around it."
"War gathers on these borders," said Ista. "A greater concentration of chaos I can hardly imagine."”

Lois McMaster Bujold

Source: World of the Five Gods series, Paladin of Souls (2003), p. 281

“Vorreedi stated dangerously, "I am not a mushroom, Lieutenant Vorkosigan."
To be kept in the dark and fed on horseshit, right. Miles sighed inwardly.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Vorkosigan Saga, Cetaganda (1996)

“Marriage was a lottery, and you drew your lot in late adolescence or early adulthood at a point of maximum idiocy and confusion.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Vorkosigan Saga, Komarr (1998)

“The cream pie of justice flies one way.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Vorkosigan Saga, The Vor Game (1990)

“And you could just watch men begin to see what he told them they were seeing, whether it was there or not.”

Lois McMaster Bujold

Source: World of the Five Gods series, The Curse of Chalion (2000), p. 433

“When a normal ensign looked at his commander, he ought to see a godlike being, not a, a… future subordinate. New ensigns were supposed to be a subhuman species anyway.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Vorkosigan Saga, The Vor Game (1990)

“I'm just dazzled by the glittering tinsel of neo-fascism.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Vorkosigan Saga, Brothers in Arms (1989)

“When you can see the colors of the feathers, you'll also understand how you can expand your borders to infinity.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Vorkosigan Saga, Borders of Infinity (1989)

“What you are is a question only you can answer.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Vorkosigan Saga, The Warrior's Apprentice (1986)

“"Just what kind of noose are you offering to put round my neck, here? Is this treason?"
"Worse," Cazaril sighed. "Theology."”

Lois McMaster Bujold

Source: World of the Five Gods series, The Curse of Chalion (2000), p. 333

“We don't just march on the future, we charge it.”

Lois McMaster Bujold Vorkosigan Saga

Vorkosigan Saga, The Vor Game (1990)