“The result is ... that there's no room left in the world for the weird – though plenty for crude, contemptuous, wisecracking, fun-poking imitations of it.”

“I don't think there's too much normal out there anymore. Though there's still plenty of average to go around.”

“Praise is infinitely divisible. Give it away every chance you get and there's always plenty left for you.”

“He was a master in the art of spreading boredom and playing the clumsy fool-though never so egregiously that people might enjoy making fun of him or use him as the butt of some crude practical joke inside the guild. He succeeded in being considered totally uninteresting. People left him alone. And that was all he wanted.”

“I guess I’m a little weird. I like to talk to trees and animals. That’s okay though; I have more fun than most people.”

“Misuse of reason might yet return the world to pre-technological night; plenty of religious zealots hunger for just such a result, and are happy to use the latest technology to effect it.”