Joan Slonczewski

American microbiologist and writer

Joan Lyn Slonczewski (born in 1956) is an American microbiologist at Kenyon College and a science fiction writer who explores biology and space travel.

Joan Slonczewski in 2015

Quotes

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All page numbers from the hardcover edition published by Arbor House (book club edition)
  • A thousand fools believe a lie, and it’s good as truth.
    • Part 1, “Ashore” - Chapter 5 (p. 28)
  • She tended to keep her eyes half closed, as if full sight of the world’s absurdity might be too much to bear.
    • Part 2, “A Door Into Ocean” - Chapter 4 (p. 71)
  • “People fear stone,” Usha said, “because it contains never-life.”
    “Non-life? You mean, death?”
    “Nonsense,” she repeated vehemently. “What’s to fear about death? Death is natural. Stone is never-life.”
    Spinel took another tack. “If they fear it, then how come enough Sharers want it so the traders stock shelves full?”
    “How should I know? Why do Valans drink the toxic waste product of sugar-eating yeast?”
    • Part 2, Chapter 7 (p. 95)
  • Few fears are rational.
    • Part 2, Chapter 7 (p. 95)
  • A life postponed too long might never be lived.
    • Part 2, Chapter 9 (p. 111)
  • Of all the well-meant emotions pity is the cruelest to share.
    • Part 3, “When the Sea Swallows” - Chapter 3 (p. 128)
  • “Magic is nonsense.”
    “Magic is anything you don’t understand.”
    • Part 3, Chapter 3 (p. 128)
  • Usha had said that males were not all that different, just bigger outside to make up for what they lacked within.
    • Part 3, Chapter 4 (p. 134)
  • Death can be hastened but never shared.
    • Part 4, “Star of Stone” - Chapter 1 (p. 165)
  • There was no time for bitterness now: eat bitterness, and bitterness eats you.
    • Part 4, Chapter 11 (p. 204)
  • Death hastens those who hasten death.
    • Part 5, “Night of Cinnabar” - Chapter 1 (p. 217)
  • You are as responsible for what you let happen as for the actions you share.
    • Part 5, Chapter 6 (p. 239)
  • She watched the indigo sky, and the stars coming out tranquil as ever, as if this were any ordinary evening. Only humans knew what an evil time this was.
    • Part 5, Chapter 8 (p. 247)
  • If every planet in the Patriarchy refused to be ruled, we all would be free.
    • Part 6, “The Last Door” - Chapter 15 (p. 363)
  • “I can’t change what I am ovenight.”
    “Nor can I. And yet, one can’t stop changing, either.”
    • Part 6, Chapter 16 (p. 368)
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