Dave

“Small talk, thinks Elf, is Polyfilla you fill cracks with so you don’t have to watch them widening.”
― David Mitchell, Utopia Avenue

“There are moments when the inner life actually “pays,” when years of self-scrutiny, conducted for no ulterior motive, are suddenly of practical use.  Such moments are still rare in the West; that they come at all promises a fairer future.”
― E.M. Forster, The Complete E. M. Forster Collection : 11 Complete Works

“All these beefy Caucasians with guns! Get enough of them together, looking for the America they always believed they’d grow up in, and they glom together like overcooked rice, form integral, starchy little units. With their power tools, portable generators, weapons, four-wheel-drive vehicles, and personal computers, they are like beavers hyped up on crystal meth, manic engineers without a blueprint, chewing through the wilderness, building things and abandoning them, altering the flow of mighty rivers and then moving on because the place ain’t what it used to be. The byproduct of the lifestyle is polluted rivers, greenhouse effect, spouse abuse, televangelists, and serial killers.”
― Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash

“There was no shortage of perspectives. The noosphere seethed with scenarios ranging from utopian to apocalyptic.”
― Peter Watts, Blindsight