He is dangerous, he is beautiful, I could drown in his understanding.

As history shows us, when colonization is voluntary, people will self-select better than any testing system. It’s like those foolish attempts to control immigration to American based on the traits that were deemed desirable, when in fact the only trait that defines Americans historically is “descended from somebody willing to give up everything to live there.” Willingness is the single most important test.

I wonder sometimes if the motivation for writers ought to be contempt, not admiration.

Ender didn't like fighting. He didn't like Peter's kind, the strong against the weak, and he didn't like his own kind either, the smart against the stupid.

I realized that everything important in sci-fi showed up in the magazines first. It's the proving ground for new writers and new ideas.

The education that prepared me was my general education classes, which I tried to avoid when I was a stupid undergraduate, but which gave me the foundation of general knowledge that makes a career as a writer possible.

If only we were wiser or better people, perhaps the gods would explain to us the mad, unbearable things they do.