“I'll make my report as if I told a story, for I was taught as a child on my homeworld that Truth is a matter of the imagination.”

“the truth is a matter of the imagination”

“What is love of one's country; is it hate of one's uncountry? Then it's not a good thing. Is it simply self-love? That's a good thing, but one musn't make a virtue of it, or a profession...Insofar as I love life, I love [my country], but that sort of love does not have a boundary-line of hate. And beyond that, I am ignorant, I hope.”

“Ai taught me a Terran game played on squares with little stones, called go, an excellent difficult game.”

“The story is not in the plot but in the telling.”

“A scientist can pretend that his work isn't himself, it's merely the impersonal truth. An artist can't hide behind the truth. He can't hide anywhere.”

“The important thing is not the finding, it is the seeking, it is the devotion with which one spins the wheel of prayer and scripture, discovering the truth little by little. If this machine gave you the truth immediately, you would not recognize it.”