# Nova

- Author: [Samuel R. Delany](https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany.md)
- Quotes: 12
- Book page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/samuel-r-delany/nova

## Quotes

> Bear in mind that the novel—no matter how intimate, psychological, or subjective—is always a historical projection of its own time.

p. 116

> “I was born,” the Mouse said. “I must die. I am suffering. Help me. There, I just wrote your book for you.”

p. 156

> There are three types of actions: purposeful, habitual, and gratuitous. Characters, to be immediate and apprehensible, must be presented by all three.

p. 166

> The inevitable is that unprepared for.

p. 204

> The rich are always enamored of the ancient.

p. 169

> The captain is different too, Cyana. Before, the Roc flew under half a man, a man who’d only known victory. Now I’m a whole man. I know defeat as well.

p. 142

> You know, Mouse, I envy the captain. He’s got a mission. And his obsession precludes all that wondering about what other people think of him.

p. 158

> Don’t go chattering to the stars if you’re going to do it with your eyes closed.

p. 197

> Dull grown-ups and bright children form a particularly tolerant friendship.

p. 44

> Oh, for the rebirth of an educational system where understanding was an essential part of knowledge.

p. 26

> “What do you see, Captain?”
>
> “Two boys with hands locked for a fight. You see how one is light and the other is dark? I see love against death, light against darkness, chaos against order. I see the clash of all opposites under...the sun. I see Prince and myself.”
>
> “Which is which?”
>
> “I don’t know, Mouse.”

p. 119

> You can be bored with anything if you try hard enough.

p. 36