Quote

The human capacity for grief. It just isn't capable of providing an adequate emotional response once the dead exceed a few dozen in number. And it doesn't just level off - it just gives up, resets itself to zero.

Alastair Reynolds

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Alastair Reynolds
Age: 58
Born: 1966
Born: March 13
Astrophysicist
Author
Science Fiction Writer
Writer
Barry
Vale of Glamorgan
Wales
Alastair Preston Reynolds
Al Reynolds
voxish
Dead
Grief
Levels
Response
Numbers
Capacity
Reset
Doesn
Capable
Exceed
Human
Number
Adequate
Humans
Level
Dozen
Giving
Emotional
Providing
Gives
Zero

More quotes by Alastair Reynolds

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It looked like a biology lesson for gods, or a snapshot of the kind of pornography which might be enjoyed by sentient planets.
Alastair Reynolds
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Looking at where the planet is now, we could screw things up massively or we could wise-up on a species level and actually make things better. If I had to put my money where my mouth is, I think we'll wise up globally but there will still be outbreaks of local stupidity.
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It's an ancient technique known as lying, Khouri.
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A city's only ever three hot meals away from anarchy.
Alastair Reynolds
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At one time, the treatment for a certain kind of psychosis had been to push an ice pick up through the orbit of the eye, into the frontal lobe the ice pick was then stirred around until it reduced the problematic brain tissue to non-functioning porridge.
Alastair Reynolds
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Nightside, cities glistened in chains, and a spray of tinkertoy habitats girdled the planet. Gossamer starbridges reached from the equator towards orbit.
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I think I've reduced the amount of blood in my caffeine system to an acceptable level.
Alastair Reynolds
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I never wanted to be a writer I only ever aspired to be an science fiction writer. They'll tear that badge out of my cold dead hands.
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Victory loses its meaning without the memory of what you've vanquished.
Alastair Reynolds
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How did you . . . pass the time?’ Sunday asked. ‘You couldn’t just ching out of it, could you?’ ‘We had a different form of chinging,’ Eunice said. ‘An earlier type of virtual-reality technology, much more robust and completely unaffected by time lag. You may have heard of it. We called it “reading”.
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You worry that we're becoming monsters. Merlin, we already were monsters. You didn't make us any worse.
Alastair Reynolds
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Autocratic governments are masters of self-contradiction. They say one thing, do another.
Alastair Reynolds
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As the old saying went, the Manhattan Project wasn't built in a day. Or was that Rome? Something to do with Earth, anyway.
Alastair Reynolds
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It’s the people who don’t worry—those who never have any doubts that what they’re doing is good and right—they’re the ones that cause the problems.
Alastair Reynolds
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Enjoy it, kid. Enjoy feeling that you can make a difference.' Floyd flashed him a smile. 'It won't last for ever.
Alastair Reynolds
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Without risk in our lives, we're scarcely better than machines ourselves.
Alastair Reynolds
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I really struggle to pinpoint whether I became a scientist because I like science fiction, or did I gravitate to science fiction because I identified strongly with scientists.
Alastair Reynolds
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The cards always look different when it's your turn to play them loaded with subtly different possibilities.
Alastair Reynolds