Me, I don’t know if I was born a pessimist or had pessimism thrust upon me. What I do you know is that I’ve… — John Varley

By then I was sure the universe could no longer surprise me, nor interest me. I was wrong. It managed to do both in no more than ten minutes.

I hate inefficiency. You’d have to look a long long ways before you found a better example of it than the press conference.

“You see…when you get right down to it, I don’t believe you have my daughter. I won’t until I see her. And having seen her, I won’t believe I could lose her again.”

Sherman looked at him for a long time.

“The universe is, so far as I know, Doctor Mayer, indifferent to what you believe or disbelieve.”