For me as a kid, reading cyberpunk was like seeing the world for the first time. Gibson's Neuromancer wasn't just stylistically stunning; it felt like the template for a future that we were actively building. I remember reading Sterling's Islands in the Net and suddenly understanding the disruptive potential of technology once it got out into the street. Cyberpunk felt urgent. It wasn't the future 15 minutes out - it was the future sideswiping you and leaving you in a full-body cast as it passed by.

Politics is ugly. Never doubt what small men will do for great power.

When you were alone in the rising ocean, you grabbed whatever raft passed by.

The future looks a bit bleak to me.

They’d blame a castoff just for breathing. You could be good as gold and they’d still blame you.

We write dust epitaphs for our vanquished enemies and watch them blow away in the desert wind.

If I cared for human approval, I would have been dead long ago.