When one is the agent of order and civilisation in the universe, one doesn't stoop to negotiate. Especially with nonhumans. Ann Leckie More Quotes by Ann Leckie More Quotes From Ann Leckie Translator Dlique was saying, very earnestly, “Eggs are so inadequate, don't you think? I mean, they ought to be able to become anything, but instead you always get a chicken. Or a duck. Or whatever they're programmed to be. You never get anything interesting, like regret, or the middle of the night last week. Ann Leckie regret night mean The Romans have provided a lot of writers with a model for various interstellar empires, of course, and no wonder. The Roman Empire is a really good example of a large empire that, in one form or another, functioned for quite a long time over a very large area. And over all that time, there was all sorts of exciting drama - civil wars and assassinations and revolts and bits breaking off and being forced back in ... But I didn't want my future - however fanciful it was - to be entirely European. The Radchaai aren't meant to be Romans in Space. Ann Leckie space drama war To be Radchaai is to be civilised. Ann Leckie civilised Without feelings insignificant decisions become excruciating attempts to compare endless arrays of inconsequential things. It's just easier to handle those with emotions. Ann Leckie emotion decision feelings Thoughts are ephemeral, they evaporate in the moment they occur, unless they are given action and material form. Wishes and intentions, the same. Meaningless, unless they impel you to one choice or another, some deed or course of action, however insignificant. Thoughts that lead to action can be dangerous. Thoughts that do not, mean less than nothing. Ann Leckie choices wish mean What, after all, was the point of civilisation if not the well-being of citizens? Ann Leckie well-being wells citizens If there was anything any Radchaai considered essential for civilised life, it was tea. Ann Leckie civilised essentials tea It's the people without the money and the power, who desperately want to live, for those people small things aren't small at all. Ann Leckie small-things want people Things happen the way they happen because the world is the way it is. Ann Leckie happens way world Good necessitates evil and the two sides of that disk are not always clearly marked. Ann Leckie disk two-sides evil Let every act be just, and proper, and beneficial. Ann Leckie beneficial Or is anyone's identity a matter of fragments held together by convenient or useful narrative, that in ordinary circumstances never reveals itself as a fiction? Or is it really a fiction? Ann Leckie identity together ordinary Surely it isn't illegal here to complain about young people these days? How cruel. I had thought it a basic part of human nature, one of the few universally practiced human customs. Ann Leckie human-nature complaining people Falling didn't bother me. I could fall forever and not be hurt. It's stopping that's the problem. Ann Leckie hurt forever fall If you're going to make a desperate, hopeless act of defiance you should make it a good one. Ann Leckie desperate hopeless should Unity, I thought, implies the possibility of disunity. Beginnings imply and require endings. Ann Leckie disunity possibility unity The 'science' in 'science fiction' isn't just physics and engineering. It can also be linguistics, anthropology, and psychology. Ann Leckie just engineering physics science The Internet really lets people connect that wouldn't have in the past, and lets conversations happen and connections happen. Ann Leckie happen internet people past Junk food's not going anywhere. The specifics of what's being snacked on, and what's considered 'junk' and what's 'healthy' will change, of course, depending on what's available. Ann Leckie will being change food When I was a kid, I had no perception whatever that science fiction was supposed to be a boys' club. Ann Leckie whatever kid perception science
