The collective sign of relief heaved on V-J Day ought to have inspired Hollywood to release a flood of “happily ever after” films. But some victors didn’t feel too good about their spoils. They’d seen...

Moreover, people have become accustomed to reading to escape as opposed to reading to think.

Sadie gave her head an exaggerated scratch. ‘Don’t come too close if you know what’s good for you, these nits are on steroids.

You’d be surprised what I can do with a butter knife.

An impersonal generation will take the place of Nature’s hideous system. In vast state incubators, rows upon rows of gravid bottles will supply the world with the population it requires. The family system will disappear;...

Not many people bothered to look for beauty beyond the greenhouses. They went about life with their heads down, just praying to get through the day, to feed themselves and their family. No one ever...

Before Sept. 11, the idea that Americans would voluntarily agree to live their lives under the gaze of a network of biometric surveillance cameras, peering at them in government buildings, shopping malls, subways and stadiums,...

The Suitors Ball is fast approaching and it’s a nasty reminder that my suitor will be chosen shortly. I feel sorry for the poor unfortunate guy, whichever one of them it happens to be.

Hate looks like everybody else until it smiles

So, in the end, above ground you must have the Haves, pursuing pleasure and comfort and beauty, and below ground the Have-nots, the Workers getting continually adapted to the conditions of their labour. Once they...

I can almost see the processes whirrling clunkily in his singularix, as his excited nervous system battled with his logic circuits.

What makes us the strongest tribe on the continent is the fact that a group that opposes these values–a group that would have mankind remain in the new dark ages–is permitted to grow, permitted to...

Freedom breeds uncertainty; uncertainty invites chaos.

Writing a novel is agony.

A fellow who once manipulated the money in your wallet but now curses the fellow who does.

Elijah blinked in dazzling sunlight and took a deep breath. The sweet-pepper scent of meadow grass told him immediately where he was. Winded, he skidded to a halt as the portal spat him out. Above...

I’m a wanted fugitive, and you’re an upstanding bachelor of the year!

He was digging in his garden–digging, too, in his own mind, laboriously turning up the substance of his thought. Death–and he drove in his spade once, and again, and yet again. And all our yesterdays...

If we keep punishing people for what their parents or their ancestors have done, the world as a whole can never move forward. Society will never grow.

This is the legacy of a compassionate bunch. Our fate now rests on the whims of men.

I’m already under the covers when he comes in. I watch as he takes off his shirt and jeans, and climbs into bed beside me. On any other occasion, the sight and feel of his...

I never thought it would get this bad. I never thought the Reestablishment would take things so far. They’re incinerating culture, the beauty of diversity. The new citizens of our world will be reduced to...

Everything was so much sharper without the Link fogging me–sights, sounds, smells. It was exhilarating and shocking and terrifying. I knew my emotions had grown too strong. They were dangerous to the Community. They were...

It helps if you don’t think of them as human. More than one officer has called this job pest control.

The world is not sliding, but galloping into a new transnational dystopia. This development has not been properly recognized outside of national security circles. It has been hidden by secrecy, complexity and scale. The internet,...

A defeat for humanity would be the failure to recognise the rights of two people who love each other.A defeat for humanity is that people accept such hatred and discrimination into their hearts.A defeat for...

Outside, even through the shut window-pane, the world looked cold.

Inside the room there sat a rocker, which she sat on, and which had rocked her while she sipped the beer, because in spite of herself she had become so giddy to have so quickly...

She looked up at him with dark, tragic eyes, and again he was struck by the illusion of beauty and innocence she presented. Instinct had him wanting to reach for her, to take her in...

In the year 2025, the best men don’t run for president, they run for their lives. . . .

You don’t have to keep living in a dystopia simply because you’re strong and noble enough to accept it.

His eyes met mine. Brown eyes. I couldn’t read anything and as he turned away I realised he didn’t intend to tell me anything either.

…they come to us, these restless dead,Shrouds woven from the words of men,With trumpets sounding overhead(The walls of hope have grown so thinAnd all our vaunted innocenceHas withered in this endless frost)That promise little recompenseFor...

I work my way through the rest of my dates, but I’m only there in body. The boys usually give up after the first hour; it’s difficult to have a conversation all by yourself. My...

The Light of humane minds is Perspicuous Words, but by exact definitions first snuffed, and purged from ambiguity; Reason is the pace; Encrease of Science, the way; and the Benefit of man-kind, the end. And...

Her life has seen little light. She is twelve years old but has a woman’s weathered poise. Her abyss-blue eyes have a piercing focus that some adults find unsettling. […] She has fired a gun...

You’re a kid. I didn’t know we taught kids manners anymore.

I’m just sorry. Sorry that there won’t be any more camping trips for kids or rock bands or even new books to read. No more movies or fresh bags of popcorn. It really sucks when...

The main element crucial for the survival of life is also a demon in disguise; it will snatch your life away as quickly as you were given it.

Nothing exists except through human consciousness

Utopian speculations … must come back into fashion. They are a way of affirming faith in the possibility of solving problems that seem at the moment insoluble. Today even the survival of humanity is a...

Wishing for something doesn’t mean you should have it, and saying something doesn’t necessarily make it true.

Yesterday, here in the middle of the City, I saw a wolf turn into a Russian ex-gymnast and hand over a business card that read YOUR OWN PERSONAL TRANSHUMAN SECURITY WHORE! STERILIZED INNARDS! ACCEPTS ALL...

I’ll go over again and again until I’ve finally crossed to where he is

My też musimy wypełnić nasze zadanie, co oznacza między innymi pilne oglądanie telewizji i śmierć w wieku 62 lat. A cała wolność, o której możemy marzyć, to fajka, parę dowcipów i trochę nadprogramowego pieprzenia. Nie...

My chest tightens to the point I fear my heart will suffocate from the pressure of it. Society’s standards are the total opposite from how I was raised. The boy who I thought to be...

Ask no guarantees, ask for no security, there never was such an animal.And if there were, it would be related to the great sloth which hangs upside down in a tree all day, every day,...

Gods have become like us, ergo, we have become like gods. And to you, my unknown planetary readers, we will come to you, to make your life as divinely rational and exact as ours.

It’s more eerie to be alone in a city that’s lit up and functioning than one that’s a tomb. If everything were silent, one could almost pretend to be in nature. A forest. A meadow....

Society can serve its citizens only to the extent that it knows them.