The universe has resources of death which we have barely begun to pick at. - Algis Budrys

Nobody liked him. Nobody loved him—and this bothered him. But everyone kowtowed to him, and that, it seems, was what he held most precious.

It was understood on occasions of this sort that crew technicians are too busy to stay, since it had long ago been discovered that even one cameraman at a buffet was worth a horde of locusts, and tended to make awkward small talk.

You look like any other brainless jackanapes," he mused, "but apparently there's some gray matter left in your artfully coiffed skull after all.