Science fiction has these obsessions with certain sciences - large scale engineering, neuroscience. Paolo Bacigalupi More Quotes by Paolo Bacigalupi More Quotes From Paolo Bacigalupi The main reason I want someone to read a story of mine is so they can enjoy it and feel like they got something interesting out of it. Paolo Bacigalupi storieswantinteresting Knowledge is always two-edged. For every benefit, there is hazard. For every good, evil. Paolo Bacigalupi hazardseviltwo Blood is not destiny. Paolo Bacigalupi destinyblood It's still a load. If there was balance, the soldier boys would all be dead, and we'd be sitting pretty in the middle of the Drowned Cities, shipping marble and steel and copper and getting paid Red Chinese for every kilo. We'd be rich and they'd be dead, if there was such a thing as the Scavenge God, or his scales. And that goes double for the Deepwater priests. They're all full of it. Nothing balances out. Paolo Bacigalupi citiessoldierboys The future looks a bit bleak to me. Paolo Bacigalupi bleakbitslooks Never beg for mercy. Accept that you have failed. Begging is for dogs and humans. Paolo Bacigalupi acceptingmercydog Laws are confusing documents. They get in the way of justice. Paolo Bacigalupi confusinglawjustice For me as a kid, reading cyberpunk was like seeing the world for the first time. Gibson's Neuromancer wasn't just stylistically stunning; it felt like the template for a future that we were actively building. I remember reading Sterling's Islands in the Net and suddenly understanding the disruptive potential of technology once it got out into the street. Cyberpunk felt urgent. It wasn't the future 15 minutes out - it was the future sideswiping you and leaving you in a full-body cast as it passed by. Paolo Bacigalupi technologyreadingkids Nothing so mystical. Human beings hunger for killing, that is all. It only takes a few politicians to stoke division, or a few demagogues encouraging hatred to set your kind upon one another. And then before you know it, you have a whole nation biting on its own tail, going round and round until there is nothing left but the snapping of teeth. Paolo Bacigalupi teethhatredtails Mahlia... understood Doctor Mahfouz and his blind rush into the village. He wasn't trying to change them. He wasn't trying to save anyone. He was just trying to not be part of the sickness. Mahlia had thought he was stupid for walking straight into death, but now, as she lay against the pillar, she saw it differently. She thought she'd been surviving. She thought that she'd been fighting for herself. But all she'd done was create more killing, and in the end it had all led to this moment, where they bargained with a demon ... not for their lives, but for their souls Paolo Bacigalupi doctorsfightingstupid I'm a chess piece. A pawn,' she said. 'I can be sacrificed, but I cannot be captured. To be captured would be the end of the game. Paolo Bacigalupi chess-gamechess-piecesgames I write at a standing desk, which has helped me be much more productive and solved some back problems, but mostly all my quirky habits have to do with procrastination and avoidance rather than with work. I'm slowly trying to stamp those out. Paolo Bacigalupi quirkyprocrastinationwriting I used to love reading, but since I've started writing, it's harder for me to immerse, because I spend so much time looking at how the story is structured and trying to see what the author is doing behind the curtain. Paolo Bacigalupi readingwritingtrying For pleasure, I'll read military sf, or Elmore Leonard capers, anything that's fast and fun. Otherwise, I mostly pick at books, without any clear focus. Paolo Bacigalupi militaryfunbook When I read, I'm either reading to learn, or I'm reading to switch off. Paolo Bacigalupi reading I like fast plots with things that explode. Paolo Bacigalupi plot Most of the news about the state of the environment is pretty ugly. This is frightening for me personally, but actually motivational for me artistically. Paolo Bacigalupi uglynewsenvironment Maybe because we're photosynthesizing we'll do more work outside. So our laptops will have to get rid of these damn glossy screens that have become so popular. And then we'll sit around outside, sucking up sun, getting fat and green, and surfing the net. Paolo Bacigalupi surfingwork-outgreen Economies are embedded inside ecosystems. Companies dependent on tourism, for example, are affected by low rainfall - there's less snow for skiers, and forest fires are more intense. Paolo Bacigalupi forestinsidemoresnow I am interested in agricultural corporations and how they function. The idea that they own the genetics of our food supply is a really compelling thing to me. Paolo Bacigalupi i-amownmefood
