“Grief, she reminded herself, is almost always for the mourner's loss.”

“My needs are simple and few, thought Valentine. Food. Clothing. A comfortable place to sleep. And no idiots.But of course a world with no idiots would be lonely. If she herself were even allowed there.”

“Come on,” he said to Valentine one day. “Let’s fly away and live forever.”“We can’t,” she said. “There are miracles even relativity can’t pull off, Ender.”“We have to go. I’m almost happy here.”“So, stay.”“I’ve lived too long with pain. I won’t know who I am without it.”So they boarded a starship and went from world to world. Wherever they stopped, he was always Andrew Wiggin, itinerant speaker for the dead, and she was always Valentine, historian errant, writing down the stories of the living while Ender spoke the stories of the dead. And always Ender carried with him a dry white cocoon, looking for the world where the hive-queen could awaken and thrive in peace. He looked a long time.”

“Life is full of grief, to exactly the degree we allow ourselves to love other people.”

“The world is full of grief - to the exact degree we allow ourselves to love other people. (Mazer Rackham)”

“In a way she actually preferred Peter to other people because of this. He always acted out of intelligent self-interest.”

“I tell students that suspense comes, not from knowing almost nothing, but from knowing almost everything and caring very much about the small part still unknown.”