# Quote — Ted Chiang, Exhalation

> “But I still feel like it’s my fault.”
>
> Dana nodded. “We like the idea that there’s always someone responsible for any given event, because that helps us make sense of the world. We like that so much that sometimes we blame ourselves, just so that there’s someone to blame. But not everything is under our control, or even anyone’s control.”

- Author: [Ted Chiang](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ted-chiang.md)
- Book: [Exhalation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ted-chiang/exhalation.md)
- Page: 299
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ted_Chiang#Exhalation:_Stories_(2019)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/ted-chiang/exhalation/but-i-still

## More from this book

> Humans have lived alongside parrots for thousands of years, and only recently have they considered the possibility that we might be intelligent.
>
> I suppose I can’t blame them. We parrots used to think humans weren’t very bright. It’s hard to make sense of behavior that’s so different from your own.

p. 233 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ted-chiang/exhalation/humans-have-lived.md)

> Let me always be inquisitive, but never be suspicious.

p. 249 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ted-chiang/exhalation/let-me-always.md)

> When the public interest is involved, finding out what actually happened is important; justice is an essential part of the social contract, and you can’t have justice until you know the truth.

p. 190 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ted-chiang/exhalation/when-the-public.md)