The heart of manipulation is to empathize without being touched.

When I began writing science fiction in the middle 60s, it seemed very easy to find ideas that took decades to percolate into the cultural consciousness; now the lead time seems more like eighteen months.

Sometimes terror and pain are not the best levers; deception, when it works, is the most elegant and the least expensive manipulation of all.

Politics may come and go, but Greed goes on forever.

Effective translation of natural languages comes awfully close to requiring a sentient translator program.

I say, let's learn more and then speculate.

Well, what do you know," Pham said. "Butterflies in jackboots.