Mike Resnick Quotes

Look," said Chandler. "Either we've got free will or we don't. If we do, then we are doing the right thing. If we don't, then we can't do anything else, anyway. So what's the point of worrying about it?"
"Because we can stop right now if we decide to."
He smiled. "And how will you know that the Oracle didn't change her mind and choose a future in which we stopped?"
She wearily leaned back on the chair. "Where does it end?"
"Second guessing fate?" asked Chandler. "Never. That's why it's a good idea not to start.

A moral assassin," she said with an amused smile.
"Not everyone gets into this business because they like to kill people," he replied.
"Then why do you do it?"
"Because I find all forms of business distasteful," answered Chandler. "This one pays me enough so that I don't have to work very often.

“He has wealth, and fame, and security, and everything he ever wanted,” persisted Mr. Ahasuerus. “Why should he be unhappy?”
“Maybe because he’s got wealth and fame and security and everything he ever wanted,” replied the Dancer.

Gloria, the world—hell, the whole damned universe—is divided into just two groups: meat eaters and meat. It has been my experience that the former never feels sorry for the latter.

Did you find God, or did you buy Him off?"
"It's all a matter of viewpoint," answered Socrates. "I contribute thousands of credits to His churches and sing His praises every morning, and He pretty much protects me and helps take care of business. It's a mutually nourishing relationship.

There are no bad bounty hunters," replied Cain. "Just good ones and dead ones."
"Why did you become a bounty hunter in the first place?" asked Jacinto.
"When I realized that I wasn't going to make the galaxy a better place to live in in one bold stroke, I decided to try doing it one small step at a time."
"Have you ever regretted it?"
"Not really," replied Cain. "We all make choices; most of us get pretty much what we deserve.

She didn't kill him," explained the Iceman. "She could have saved him, but she chose not to. Legally it's not the same thing; morally it is.

You haven't changed at all, Carlos. You never trusted anyone or anything."
"Maybe that's why I'm still alive.

I've revised my opinion," he announced.
"About what?" asked Mr. Ahasuerus.
"About how long it's going to take Man to conquer the galaxy once he figures out how to travel to the stars." Flint took a long swallow of his beer and wiped his mouth off with a sweaty shirtsleeve. "I give us three weeks, tops." He paused again. "That's twenty days to decide whether it's worth the effort, and one afternoon to pull it off.

You've got quite a library. I don't think I've ever seen so many books in one place before."
"I like the heft and feel of a book," replied Santiago. "Computer libraries are filled with electrical impulses. Books are filled with words.

Somewhere along the way he learned the most important lesson of all, which was that a king with no heirs had better never turn his back on anybody.

The mind discerns and decides, and the heart vetoes. It is a very inefficient system.

Have you ever done anything, even once, with no thought of a return?" he asked.
"Yes."
"How old were you? Six?"
"Younger. And I immediately decided that there was no percentage in it.

Don't believe everything you hear," said the Mouse.
Ryan laughed again. "If I believed half of what I heard, I'd be dead and buried already.

“It is an honest wager on an honest fight between two evenly-matched masters of the fistic arts,” says Pedro.
“Who would have believed it?” says Benny.
“Believed what?” asks Pedro.
“You manage to cram five lies into an eighteen-word sentence,” answers Benny.