Mary Robinette Kowal Quotes

Mama! They must take ship. It is an island. One does not simply walk into Murano.

It's a hard thing to look at something you want and to know that the right choice is to turn it down.

And that's why you are a brilliant choice for pilot. Octogenarian Grandmother Paves Way for Humanity."

"You can't pave the stars. I'm not a grandmother. And I'm sixty-three not eighty."

"It's a figure of speech. The point is that you're a PR goldmine."

I had known that they asked me to helm this mission because of my age - it would be a lot to ask of someone who had a full life ahead of them. Maybe I was naive to think that my experience in establishing the Mars colony was considered valuable.

How can I explain the degree to which I resented being used for publicity? This wasn't a new thing by a long shot. My entire career has been about exploitation for publicity. I had known it, and exploited it too, once I'd realized the power of having my uniform tailored to show my shape a little more clearly. You think they would have sent me to Mars if it weren't intended to be a colony? I was there to show all the lady housewives that they could go to space too. Posing in my flight suit, with my lips painted red, I had smiled at more cameras than my colleagues.

I stared Garrett Biggs and his fork. "For someone in PR, you are awfully blunt.

...you must not depreciate the power of well-fitted breeches upon a lady's admiration.

The difference between fanfic and a "real" novel is that fanfic is honest about its inspiration.

There then passed a period of time in which Jane said many unutterable things.

It's not about adding diversity for the sake of diversity, it's about subtracting homogeneity for the sake of realism.

As the family sat in the drawing room after their nuncheon,

She sighed to cover her agitation. "You are insufferable." "I prefer 'inscrutable.'" He smiled, softening a little at her teasing tone, and because she had allowed the change of topic. "Inexplicable would be more accurate." "Inconceivable!" She rested her hand on her ever-increasing stomach. "Not any longer." He laughed and kissed her on the forehead. "I do not think that word means what you think it means." "Humph!" But Jane was delighted that she had managed to make him laugh.

Then Sister Aquinata abandoned the nonviolent methods and produced a rolling pin from somewhere.

Jane shared his sentiment, but was hard-pressed not to laugh at her husband's inventive turns of phrase - her favourite was "goat-licking amateur," followed closely by "mongrel's handmaiden.

Nathaniel and I'd made the decision not to have children. They aren't conducive to a life in space, you know? I mean there's the radiation, and the weightlessness, but more it was that I was gone all the time. I couldn't give up the stars… but I found myself wishing that we hadn't made that decision. Part of it was wishing that I had some connection to the next generation. More of it was wanting someone to share the burden of decision with me.

What happens after Nathaniel dies? What do I have left here? More specifically, how much will I regret not going on the Mission?

And if I'm in space, how much will I regret abandoning my husband to die alone?

I would say your passion, but that's part of being headstrong. Or your conviction, but that's related to being obstinate. Fearless, but that is a combination of both. Perhaps, then, I shall cite your love of Brussels sprouts.

I need to think about this."

"I know."

Then I closed my eyes and realized that I had to say no. It didn't matter how I felt about the trip or the chance to get back into space. The launch date he was talking about meant I'd have to go into training now. "I can't." I opened my eyes and stared at the wall where the publicity still of me and Nathaniel hung. "I have to turn it down."

"Talk to Nathaniel."

I grimaced. He would tell me to take it. "I can't.

If you don't know by now, you own me, heart, mind, body, and soul

Nothing today had done her any real harm, yet she felt as though her nerves had been flayed and left out for the tanner.