“Science fiction deals with improbable possibilities, fantasy with plausible impossibilities.”

“Fantasy is the impossible made probable. Science Fiction is the improbable made possible.”

“I wondered if it was possible to donate my body to science before I was actually dead. I wondered if a disease were to be named after me what the symptoms would be.”

“It's impossible to move through the stages of grief when a person is both dead and alive, the way Min is. It's like she's living permanently in an airport terminal, moving from one departure lounge to another but never getting on a plane. Sometimes I tell myself that I'd do anything for Min. That I'd do whatever was necessary for her to be happy. Except that I'm not entirely sure what that would be.”

“Science fiction is the art of the possible not the impossible.”

“That's all right! That's all right!' But for a minute or two it wasn't really. All feminine claws, he said to himself, are sheathed in velvet; but they can hurt a good deal if they touch you on the sore places of the defects of your qualities - even merely with the velvet. He added: 'Your mother works you very hard.”

“If life deals you prunes, make pastries! They are surprisingly delicious, but most won't even take the time to learn this.”