Michael Crichton

"At the earliest drawings of the fractal curve, few clues to the underlying mathematical structure will be seen."

"Let's be clear. The planet is not in jeopardy. We are in jeopardy. We haven't got the power to destroy the planet - or to save it. But we might have the power to save ourselves."

"Increasingly, the mathematics will demand the courage to face its implications."

"Details emerge more clearly as the fractal curve is re-drawn."

"The reason I ask," Malcolm said, "is that I'm told large predators such as lions and tigers are not born man-eaters. Isn't that true? These animals must learn somewhere along the way that human beings are easy to kill. Only afterward do they become man-killers."

"Inevitably, underlying instabilities begin to appear."

"Broadly speaking, the ability of the park is to control the spread of life forms. Because the history of evolution is that life escapes all barriers. Life breaks free. Life expands to new territories. Painfully, perhaps even dangerously. But life finds a way." Malcolm shook his head. "I don't mean to be philosophical, but there it is."

But we have soothed ourselves into imagining sudden change as something that happens outside the normal order of things. An accident, like a car crash. Or beyond our control, like a fatal illness. We do not conceive of sudden, radical, irrational change as built into the very fabric of existence. Yet it is.

"Flaws in the system will now become more severe."

"There is a problem with that island. It is an accident waiting to happen."

"You're going to engineer a bunch of prehistoric animals and set them on an island? Fine. A lovely dream. Charming. But it won't go as planned. It is inherently unpredictable, just as the weather is."

Houston: Scoop, Houston Projection Group has confirmed orbital instability and decay ratios are now being passed by the data trunk to your station.

Scoop: How do they look, Houston?

Houston: Bad.

Scoop: Not understood. Please repeat.

Houston: Bad: B as in broken, A as in awful, D as in dropping.