Escapist literature gets a bad rap. But I think escape is important for a lot of people in a lot of places.

It's an ancient and honorable term for the final step in any engineering project. Turn it on, see if it smokes.

If you're trying to take a roomful of people by surprise, it's a lot easier to hit your targets if you don't yell going through the door.

A hundred objective measurements didn't sum the worth of a garden; only the delight of its users did that.

They stared at her curiously, and she caught snatches of conversation in two or three languages. It wasn't hard to guess their content, and she smiled a bit primly. Youth, it appeared, was full of illusions as to how much sexual energy two people might have to spare while hiking forty or so kilometers a day, concussed, stunned, diseased, on poor food and little sleep, alternating caring for a wounded man with avoiding becoming dinner for every carnivore within range - and with a coup to plan for the end.

Some people grow into their dreams, instead of out of them.

I don't confuse greatness with perfection. To be great anyhow is the higher achievement.