“Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.”

“Nobody talked much as the expedition crossed the moon. There was nothing appropriate to say. One thing was clear: Absolutely everybody in the city was supposed to be dead, regardless of what they were, and that anybody that moved in it represented a flaw in the design. There were to be no moon men at all.”

“To me, wanting every habitable planet to be inhabited is like wanting everybody to have athlete's foot.”

“Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.”

“There is a tragic flaw in our precious constitution, and I don't know what can be done to fix it. This is it: Only nut cases want to be president.”

“he predicted...that human slavery would come bac, that it had infact never gone away. he said that so many people wanted to come here because it was so easy to rob the poor people, who got absolutely no protection from the government. he talked about bridges falling down and water mains breaking because of no maintenance. he talked about oil spills and radioactive waste and poisoned aquifers and looted banks and liquidated corporations. "and nobody ever gets punished for anything," he said. "being an american means never having to say you're sorry.”

“Q: What is wrong with the world?A: Everybody pays attention to pictures of things. Nobody pays attention to things themselves.”