Quotes From "All The Birds In The Sky" By Charlie Jane Anders

I hope it's the good kind of dilemma, " Reginald broke Patricia's reverie. "Whatever one you're on the horns of.".." I was just thinking, " she said. "There are so many scary problems in the world. Like, I was just reading that we could be seeing the last of the bees in North America soon. And if that happened, food webs would just collapse, and tons more people would starve. But suppose you had the power to change things? You still might not be able to fix anything, because every time you solve a problem you'd create another problem. And maybe all these plagues and droughts are nature's way of striking a balance. We humans don't have any natural predators left, so nature has to find another way to handle us.".." I am, as you know, a fan of nature, " said Reginald. "And yet, nature doesn't 'find ways' to do anything. Nature has no opinion, no agenda. Nature provides a playing field, a not particularly level one, on which we compete with all creatures great and small. It's more that nature's playing field is full of traps. Charlie Jane Anders

When the world turns chaotic, we must be the better part of chaos. Charlie Jane Anders

Do you think the occasional witch burning helps to weld society together? Charlie Jane Anders

A society that has to burn witches to hold itself together is a society that has already failed, and just doesn't know it yet. Charlie Jane Anders

Why would anybody be a Satanist, anyway? I don’t get it. You can’t believe in Satan without believing in God, and then you’re just picking the wrong side in a big mythic battle thing. Charlie Jane Anders

Loneliness was a full-body sensation, an anti-exhilaration, from his core outward. Charlie Jane Anders

Love was the most susceptible to random failure of all human enterprises. Charlie Jane Anders

That’s the definition of evil right there: not faking it like everybody else. Charlie Jane Anders

That’s the definition of evil right there: not faking it like everybody else. Because all of us crazy fuckers can’t stand it when someone else lets their crazy show. Charlie Jane Anders

What was worse, being crazy or being evil? Charlie Jane Anders

Self-awareness paradoxically requires an awareness of the other. Charlie Jane Anders

I don't actually think that ethics are derived from principles. At all." Patricia scooted a little closer again and touched his arm with a few cool fingertips. "I think that the most basic thing of ethics is being aware of how your actions affect others, and having an awareness of what they want and how they feel. And that's always going to depend on who you're dealing with. Charlie Jane Anders

And she felt like they, the two of them, right here, right now, could make something that defied tragedy. Charlie Jane Anders

Laurence felt a weird combination of shame and rage, as though he'd grown another new body part just in time to get punched in it. Charlie Jane Anders

Booze really was medicinal, after a near-death experience. Holding a drink in both hands and letting it corrode the topmost layer of his mouth and throat, Laurence felt a spiritual relationship with Bushmills. Charlie Jane Anders

He went to make coffee. Because when you have just heard about the possible transformation of the human race into feral monsters you need to be doing something with your hands and creating something hot and comforting for another person. Charlie Jane Anders