I have only your word for that." "Yes," the glass man said, "that's rather the point. There's going to have to be a lot more trust from this time for… - Alastair Reynolds

Grafenwalder shoots a sidelong glance at Ursula Goodglass, wondering what their marriage must be like. Clearly sex isn’t in the cards, but he doubts that it was ever the main interest in their lives. Games, especially those of prestige and subterfuge, are amongst the chief entertainments of the Rust Belt moneyed.

I'm not a bad man, Ilia. I'm just someone who knows exactly what needs to be done." "Like you said, always the most dangerous sort.

“Tell me, scientist to scientist, do you honestly think it will work?”
“We won’t know until we try,” Naqi said. Any other answer would have been politically hazardous: too much optimism and the politicians would have started asking just why the expensive project was needed in the first place. Too much pessimism and they would ask exactly the same question.