“He was a regulator first-class, which was another term for metalworker unskilled.”

“He was thinking about automated teller machines. The term was aged and burdened by its own historical memory. It worked at cross-purposes, unable to escape the inferences of fuddled human personnel and jerky moving parts. The term was part of the process that the device was meant to replace. It was anti-futuristic, so cumbrous and mechanical that even the acronym seemed dated.”

“The term itself—my life—is a desperate overstatement.”

“When I work, I'm just translating the world around me in what seems to be straightforward terms. For my readers, this is sometimes a vision that's not familiar. But I'm not trying to manipulate reality. This is just what I see and hear.”

“Any assault on the borders of perception is going to seem rash at first.”

“Love helps us develop an identity secure enough to allow itself to be placed in another's care and protection.”

“Shit is universal no matter which language.”