Quote

The rule for finding plots for character-centered novels, which is to ask: 'So what's the worst possible thing I can do to *this* guy?' And then do it.

Lois McMaster Bujold

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Lois McMaster Bujold
Age: 75
Born: 1949
Born: November 2
Author
Novelist
Science Fiction Writer
Writer
Columbus
Ohio
Guy
Plot
Character
Findings
Thing
Finding
Rule
Novel
Worst
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Possible
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Novels

More quotes by Lois McMaster Bujold

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If you desire a man to tell you comfortable lies about your prowess, and so fetter any hope of true excellence, I'm sure you may find one anywhere. Not all prisons are made of iron bars. Some are made of feather beds.
Lois McMaster Bujold
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I am not a fate worse than death, dammit!
Lois McMaster Bujold
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You should have fallen in love with a happy man, if you wanted happiness. But no, you had to fall for the breathtaking beauty of pain.
Lois McMaster Bujold
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I am an atheist, myself. A simple faith, but a great comfort to me, in these last days.
Lois McMaster Bujold
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When you choose an action, you choose the consequences of that action. When you desire a consequence you had damned well better take the action that would create it.
Lois McMaster Bujold
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You couldn't be that good and not know it, somewhere in your secret heart, however much you'd been abused into affecting public humility.
Lois McMaster Bujold
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Only the saints would joke so about the gods, because it was either joke or scream, and they alone knew it was all the same to the gods.
Lois McMaster Bujold
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When you choose an action, you choose the consequences of that action.
Lois McMaster Bujold
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Honesty is the only way with anyone, when you'll be so close as to be living inside each other's skins.
Lois McMaster Bujold
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Real destiny takes everything-the last drop of blood, and strip out your veins to be sure-and gives it back doubled. Quadrupled. A thousand-fold! But you can't give halves. You have to give it all. I know. I swear. I've come back from the dead to speak the truth to you. Real destiny gives you a mountain of life, and puts you on top of it.
Lois McMaster Bujold
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The gods' most savage curses come upon us as answers to our own prayers. Prayer is a dangerous business.
Lois McMaster Bujold
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He's not too short. He's just... concentrated.
Lois McMaster Bujold
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Have you ever heard the phrase, Living well is the best revenge? Where I come from, someone's head in a bag is generally considered the best revenge
Lois McMaster Bujold
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Read, or you will be missing something extraordinary.
Lois McMaster Bujold
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It’s important that someone celebrate our existence, she objected amiably. People are the only mirror we have to see ourselves in. The domain of all meaning. All virtue, all evil, are contained only in people. There is none in the universe at large. Solitary confinement is a punishment in every human culture.
Lois McMaster Bujold
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When you give each other everything, it becomes an even trade. Each wins all.
Lois McMaster Bujold
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Some men just aren't cut out for paternity. Better they should realize it before and not after they become responsible for a son.
Lois McMaster Bujold
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All true wealth is biological.
Lois McMaster Bujold
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Well, what is a blessing but a curse from another point of view?
Lois McMaster Bujold
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It's an ancient and honorable term for the final step in any engineering project. Turn it on, see if it smokes.
Lois McMaster Bujold