The danger would be going back, or staying still. The only way out was through. The past was ruins, but the present was still in play.

He wasn't surprised. He was used to this anticlimactic feeling, where by the time you've done all the work to get something you don't even want it anymore.

It's a terrible thing for a book, when you feel like you're supposed to like it.

The new Web is a very different thing. It's a tool for bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter. Silicon Valley consultants call it Web 2.0, as if it were a new version of some old software. But it's really a revolution.

We have reached the point where ignorance and neglect are the best we can hope for in a ruler.

A big silvery janitor. Penny, this can’t be how the universe works.” “In the Order we call it ‘inverse profundity.’ We’ve observed it in any number of cases. The deeper you go into the cosmic mysteries, the less interesting everything gets.

It's wonderful to play around with fantasy, because there are an amazing number of as-yet-unbroken rules out there.