His parents had abdicated responsibility to an illusion. - Alastair Reynolds

You’ve been good to me, Inigo. But I really am like the weather. You can admire me, even love me, in your way, but I can’t love you back. To me you’re like a photograph. I can see right through you, examine you from all angles. You amuse me. But you don’t have enough depth ever to fascinate me.

Given the evidence at our disposal, only a fool would put any faith in the organic and the machine living harmoniously for the rest of time.

Is he going to be okay?" Svetlana asked. "He was dead, Svieta," Axford said patiently. "Anything else has to count as an improvement.