Stephen Baxter

We seem to be young, in a very old Galaxy. We're like kids tiptoeing through a ruined mansion.

When you get close enough to someone you're never really alone again.

Sometimes people say that we're living in the future, and time's up for science fiction, but I think that never will be, because science fiction really isn't about the future. It's about change and present-day concerns.

A brief life burns brightly.

I have a vision of a Galaxy overrun by mankind from Core to rim. Of four hundred billion stars each enslaved to the rhythm of Earth's day, Earth's year. I have a vision of a trillion planets pulsing to the beat of a human heart.

Well, don't stand about like that, man; if you're no use you're certainly no ornament. Bring that in and tell me what it says.

This is what I have learned, Malenfant. This is how it is, how it was, how it came to be.