Imagine a permanent, shivering gloom, and never a moment without hunger, thirst and exhaustion. Imagine the constant fear of suffering illness or inj… - Alastair Reynolds

Charm was what he excelled at. If anyone sensed his underlying shallowness, they usually mistook it for well-hidden great depth of character, like misinterpreting a radar bounce.

Hallucination doesn’t preclude a rational response to that same hallucination.

But you seem so nonchalant about it all," Teal said.
Merlin pondered this for a few seconds. "Do you think being not nonchalant would make any difference? I don't know that it would. We're here in the moment, aren't we? And the moment will have its way with us, no matter how we feel about things."
"Fatalist."
"Cheerful realist. There's a distinction.