"Actually, writers have no business writing about their own works. They either wax conceited, saying things like: 'My brilliance is possibly most apparent in my dazzling short story, "The Cookiepants Hypotenuse."' Or else they get unbearably cutesy: 'My cat Ootsywootums has given me all my best ideas, hasn't oo, squeezums?'"
— Connie Willis

"Why do only the awful things become fads? I thought. Eye-rolling and Barbie and bread pudding. Why never chocolate cheesecake or thinking for yourself?"
— Connie Willis

"There are some things worth giving up anything for, even your freedom, and getting rid of your period is definitely one of them."
— Connie Willis (Even the Queen & Other Short Stories)

"I learned everything I know about plot from Dame Agatha (Christie)."
— Connie Willis (The Winds of Marble Arch)

"Cats, as you know, are quite impervious to threats"
— Connie Willis (To Say Nothing of the Dog)

"When you're a writer, the question people always ask you is, "Where do you get your ideas?" Writers hate this question. It's like asking Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen, "Where do you get your leeches?" You don't get ideas. Ideas get you."
— Connie Willis

"The amazing thing is that chaotic systems don't always stay chaotic," Ben said, leaning on the gate. "Sometimes they spontaneously reorganize themselves into an orderly structure."

"They suddenly become less chaotic?" I said, wishing that would happen at HiTek.

"No, that's the thing. They become more and more chaotic until they reach some sort of chaotic critical mass. When that happens, they spontaneously reorganize themselves at a higher equilibrium level. It's called self-organized criticality."
— Connie Willis (Bellwether)