24
" Entertainments nearly always end with triumph or disaster—happiness achieved, or total, tragic defeat precluding any hope of it. But there is always more after the ending—always the next morning and the next, always changes, losses and gains. Always one step after the other. Until the one true ending that none of us can escape. But even that ending is only a small one, large as it looms for us. There is still the next morning for everyone else. For the vast majority of the rest of the universe, that ending might as well not ever have happened. Every ending is an arbitrary one. Every ending is, from another angle, not really an ending. "
― Ann Leckie , Ancillary Mercy (Imperial Radch, #3)
28
" Captain,” I said after ten steps, without breaking stride. “I do understand that this is the Genitalia Festival. But when you say genitalia, doesn’t that usually mean genitals generally? Not just one kind?” For all the steps I’d taken, and as far down the corridor as I could see, the walls were hung with tiny penises. Bright green, hot pink, electric blue, and a particularly eye-searing orange. "
― Ann Leckie , Ancillary Sword (Imperial Radch, #2)
31
" Ridiculous!" scoffed Anaander. "Translatir, ships and stations are not Significant beings, they are my property. I caused them to be built."
"I'm given to understand," said Translator Zeiat thoughtfully, "that most, if not all, humans are built by other humans. If that's a disqualification for Significance, then... no, I don't like that one bit."
"If I am just a possession," I put in, "just a piece of equipment, how could I hold any sort of command? And yet I clearly do. "
― Ann Leckie , Ancillary Mercy (Imperial Radch, #3)