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Quotes from Stations of the Tide — Michael Swanwick

born 1950 United States

← All quotes by Michael Swanwick

14 quotes

Everyone dies—the rearrangement of when is a matter of only statistical interest.

Stations of the Tide (1991)

Indeed, what is magic but impossible science?

Stations of the Tide (1991)

Money can always be traced. It leaves a trail of slime behind it wherever it goes.

Stations of the Tide (1991)

You don’t hide information by destroying it. You hide it by swamping it with bad information.

Stations of the Tide (1991)

A magician does not send messages, you know—he orchestrates reality.

Stations of the Tide (1991)

Be grateful. I’ve taught you a valuable lesson. Most people never do learn exactly how much they will do to stay alive.

Stations of the Tide (1991)

Tyranny always has its rationale.

Stations of the Tide (1991)

You will study bioscience control, that ought to be useful—it will teach you the folly of thinking you can go against your genetic inheritance, for one thing.

Stations of the Tide (1991)

“Did you experience hallucinations or illusions?”
“What’s the difference?”
“An illusion is a misreading of actual sensory data, while a hallucination is seeing something that isn’t there.”

Stations of the Tide (1991)

The bureaucrat was sensitive to this kind of friction. It arose wherever the moving edge of technology control touched on local pride.

Stations of the Tide (1991)

It was a scream straight from the toad buried at the base of the brain, that ancient reptile that wants everything at once, delivered to its feet and set ablaze.

Stations of the Tide (1991)

Time was a flickering gray fire constantly consuming all things, so that what appeared to be motion was actually the oxidation and reduction of possibilities, the collapse of potential matter from grace to nothingness.

Stations of the Tide (1991)

The announcers sounded giddily excited. Their faces flushed, their eyes bright. Natural disasters did that to people, made them feel significant, reassured them that their actions mattered.

Stations of the Tide (1991)

“I would appreciate it if just this once you would make the effort to curb your negativism.”
“I have to say what I think. That’s what I’m being paid for, after all.”
“A very common delusion.”

Stations of the Tide (1991)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Michael Swanwick (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.