There are far too many people there for comfort. Birth control came late and is still being fought—if you can possibly imagine that. There are just t… - Harry Harrison

The final product is a man-plant-animal symbiote that is admirably adapted for survival on this disaster world. No emotions to cause complications or desires that might interfere with pure survival. Complete ruthlessness—mankind has always been strong on this anyway, so it didn’t take much of a push.”

We must be as stealthy as rats in the wainscoting of their society. It was easier in the old days, of course, and society had more rats when the rules were looser, just as old wooden buildings have more rats than concrete buildings. But there are rats in the building now as well. Now that society is all ferrocrete and stainless steel there are fewer gaps in the joints. It takes a very smart rat indeed to find these openings. Only a stainless steel rat can be at home in this environment.

The human race is gregarious, I knew that even though I had been denying it for years. I was going to keep on doing the loneliest job in the universe — only I wasn't going to be doing it alone.