Quotes from A. Lee Martinez

I'm sorry, Mr. Whiteleaf. I'm not going to let a monster eat me for minimum wage.

I want to explore what it means to be human, but not just the most extreme elements of humanity. The quiet moments. The times when the world isn't exploding, but we're still trying to determine who we are and how can we make this thing called life work. And I want to do it while writing about space squids and moon-eating monster gods.

She wore a pleated skirt, a white cotton blouse, and simple black shoes with knee high stockings. At the arc of each step, the skirt would rise to expose a few inches of her taut thighs. Neither Earl nor Duke could recall what Chad was wearing.

There are areas of New England, plenty of them, with quaintness to spare, with color-changing leaves and folksy folks full of folksy homespun wisdom accompanied by folksy accents

It's better to think the best of everyone and be wrong than assume the worst and be right.

Vance shook his head. "Philly, I love you, buddy. I do. But you're not my type." "I'm not?" "What? Are you insulted?" Philip was pondering that when the front door jingled.

Without limitations, how does one find satisfaction?

Do these robots looked armed? And I was talking to the dinosaur. Were you worried he would discuss me to death?

I stand corrected. Yours is a far superior arbitrary system of governance.

It was one of the marks of sentience, the ability to distinguish reality from fantasy and still indulge in fantasy. In other words: I lied, therefore I thought.

Heroes are carried on the backs of a thousand forgotten faces.

Most magic wasn't even magic. It just was.

Destiny was a hope found in the hearts of desperate men. But sometimes, if they believed strongly enough, desperate men could do great things.

The middle was where it was too easy to be lazy and cynical at the same time.

A bot had to find his own way, and I'd figured out that functioning for function's sake was pointless." - Mack Megaton

We all save ourselves child, even if we are fortunate enough to have help along the way.

We have to destroy the radioactive brain of Madame Curie.

Relations between Terra and Luna had been strained since the Lunans had eaten Neil Armstrong in 1960.

Danger was a part of questing. Perhaps some quests were dull and safe affairs. Go to the store. Pick up some eggs. Return henceforth with said eggs and thou shalt be rewarded with the sacred omelet of justice. Nobody wrote legends about that type of quest.

A sixth sense warned her that she was striking a Faustian bargain. Odd, since she wasn't sure what a Faustian bargain was. But it was something not to be taken lightly. She knew that.

The fate of the universe didn't rest in the hands of the giants. It could be found in the littlest things. Anything done well was a worthy accomplishment, whether it be unwrapping arcane secrets or sweeping halls, raising kingdoms from the ocean or washing dishes. All tasks, great or small, were of equal importance in the end. Without peasants, there could be no kings. Without soldiers, there was no army.

See, the way I got it figured, dying is sort'a like the thing that gives your life meaning. You may not want to get there, but, without it, you're just looking at a long, long road to nowhere.

I emitted an ultrasonic signal. The beast climbed off her and scampered to my side. "Good girl, Snarg." I patted her between the antennae, and she squeaked. Zala stood. "By the hidden moon, what is that?" "My pet ultrapede." "I wouldn't expect you to have a pet." "Snarg was a gift of the ambassador of the Undersphere. She's the fiercest ultrapede ever bred for the royal family. How could I turn down a gift like that?

Destroy knowledge?" I said. "The only point of existence, if there is one at all, is in the accumulation of the collective intelligence of the sentient beings of the universe." "Even dangerous intelligence?" "Intelligence is neutral. Application is everything." She sighed. "Says the evil genius." "Evil is a relative term.