Socialism and SF are the two most fundamental influences in my life. - China Miéville

My dad hates umbrellas," said Deeba, swinging her own. "When it rains he always says the same thing. 'I do not believe the presence of moisture in the air is sufficient reason to overturn society's usual sensible taboo against wielding spiked clubs at eye level.'

This is what makes the world, Ms. Lin. I believe this to be the fundamental dynamic. Transition. The point where one thing becomes another. It is what makes you, the city, the world, what they are. And that is the theme I’m interested in. The zone where the disparate become part of the whole. The hybrid zone.

And there aren't any." "Mmm," I said. "Awkward." "That's defeatist talk. I'll cobble something together. A scholar can never let mere wrongness get in the way of the theory.