A lot of what the 'Culture' is about is a reaction to all the science fiction I was reading in my very early teens.

In so much of politics you're not allowed to disagree with what's been agreed.

He knew all the answers. Everybody did. Everybody knew everything and everybody knew all the answers. It was just that the enemy seemed to know better ones.

My gratitude extends beyond the limits of my capacity to express it.

Most mainstream male fiction is littered with heroines, and female characters are basically so great, you want to fall in love with them.

The History Of The Universe In Three Words CHAPTER ONE Bang! CHAPTER TWO sssss CHAPTER THREE crunch. THE END

It looks perverted and wasteful to us, but then one thing that empires are not about is the efficient use of resources and the spread of happiness; both are typically accomplished despite the economic short-circuiting - corruption and favoritism, mostly- endemic to the system.