"In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is stoned to death."
— Joan D. Vinge

""Real power is control. Knowing that you can do anything...and not doing it only because you can." "
— Joan D. Vinge (The Snow Queen)

"There are two tragedies in life. One is never getting your heart's desire. The other is getting it."
— Joan D. Vinge (The Summer Queen)

"All medical men are voyeurs. Why else would they become doctors? Except for the sadists, of course, who simply enjoy the blood and the pain."
— Joan D. Vinge (The Snow Queen)

""I'm telling you, sonny, we got no city work available for a Summer — you can't handle machinery, you don't know the social codes; you got no experience." The posting clerk looked at Sparks over the sill of the tiny office window the way he might have looked at a backward child.
"Well, how can I get experience if no one'll hire me?" Sparks raised his voice, frowned as it beat back on his aching head.
"Good question." The clerk gnawed on a fingernail."
— Joan D. Vinge (The Snow Queen)

""I am only a cup that knowledge holds. It does not to knowledge matter how poor the cup is. It is the wisdom of those who drink of me that me wise makes. Fools make a sibyl foolish, wherever she is." "
— Joan D. Vinge (The Snow Queen)

""It doesn't matter. I'm not asking forever of you...just let me love you now." "
— Joan D. Vinge (The Snow Queen)

""'My gods or your gods, who know which are stronger?' That's why we honor them all - just in case. There are more cultures even than Gods in the Eight Worlds, and among them you'll find people who are willing to kill you, or each other, over any difference in belief or lifestyle or physical appearance you can imagine - and some you can't. They all think they're right. There's no Truth, Tammis, only differences of opinion.""
— Joan D. Vinge (The Summer Queen)

"'I love you,' he whispered again, wonderingly, as he understood at last how a lifetime together with someone that you loved could seem like an eternity, and yet not be long enough."
— Joan D. Vinge (The Summer Queen)

"Life scars us with its random motion, he thought. Only death is perfect."
— Joan D. Vinge (The Summer Queen)

"He is afraid, as suddenly he knows that he was afraid all along, that if he felt her body so close to him he would never let her go."
— Joan D. Vinge (The Summer Queen)

"Everything changes, today's tears are tomorrow's absurdities, after all."
— Joan D. Vinge (The Summer Queen)

"Don't worry. You're safe now. You've got nothing left to steal."
— Joan D. Vinge (Catspaw)

"I'm telling you, sonny, we got no city work available for a Summer — you can't handle machinery, you don't know the social codes; you got no experience." The posting clerk looked at Sparks over the sill of the tiny office window the way he might have looked at a backward child.
"Well, how can I get experience if no one'll hire me?" Sparks raised his voice, frowned as it beat back on his aching head.
"Good question." The clerk gnawed on a fingernail."
— Joan D. Vinge

""I'm telling you, sonny, we got no city work available for a Summer — you can't handle machinery, you don't know the social codes; you got no experience." The posting clerk looked at Sparks over the sill of the tiny office window the way he might have looked at a backward child.
"Well, how can I get experience if no one'll hire me?" Sparks raised his voice, frowned as it beat back on his aching head.
"Good question." The clerk gnawed on a fingernail."
— Joan D. Vinge

""I'm telling you, sonny, we got no city work available for a Summer — you can't handle machinery, you don't know the social codes; you got no experience." The posting clerk looked at Sparks over the sill of the tiny office window the way he might have looked at a backward child.
"Well, how can I get experience if no one'll hire me?" Sparks raised his voice, frowned as it beat back on his aching head.
"Good question." The clerk gnawed on a fingernail."
— Joan D. Vinge (The Snow Queen)