“[He] was an insect wandering in the cathedral his mind had become.”

“He claimed that nearby gun thunder cleared the mind - but most everybody else agreed it made you daft.”

“They had been at the center of something vast, but as usual with the affairs of the Powers, no one knew quite what had happened, nor the result of the strivings."A Fire Upon the Deep”

“Though his invention worked superbly [...] his theory was a crock of sewage from beginning to end.”

“Ravna became a librarian. "The ultimate dilettante!" Lynne had teased.”

“Tycoon had a peddler's talent for using words to redefine reality.”

“Most civilizations had more fiction than they did real history.”