“Don’t tell me you aren’t the slightest bit curious, Norquinco.” “I hope you burn in hell, Sky Haussmann.”… — Alastair Reynolds

“Is there anyone in Chasm City she hasn’t deceived?”

“Possibly, somewhere, but only as an extreme theoretical possibility.”

Evolution doesn’t greatly care about what happens to creatures once they’ve passed on their genetic heritage.

The poor didn’t have them and so the rich flaunted them, the larger and more conspicuous the better.