Children of the Mind

I have had my interests diverted elsewhere for a few months, so I hadn't really read much fiction.  The last few days I indulged the pleasure of reading Orson Scott Card's "Children of the Mind", on the books in his Ender series.  I love his writing, and I thought I'd share some of my favorite quotes from the book, in hopes that I might peak someone else's interest, that they might find a love of his fiction also.  I give them no context, but most of them stand on their own OK.

"Please don't disillusion me.  I haven't had breakfast yet."

"I find out what I really want by seeing what I do. . .That's what we all do, if we're honest about it.  We have our feelings, we make our decisions, but in the end we look back on our lives and see how sometimes we ignored our feelings, while most of our decisions were actually rationalizations because we had already decided in our secret hearts before we ever realized it consciously."

"If one has to say, in an argument, 'I am intelligent! I do know things!' then one might as well stop arguing."

"It doesn't mean I'm not a real person because I can choose to give my life to someone else.  It doesn't mean I don't have any fight in me."

"Everyone dies.  Everyone leaves.  What matters is the things you build together before they go.  What matters is the part of them that continues in you when they're gone."

". . .the aiua of the mothertree was strong without ambition. . . .the mothertree aiua expected nothing from her children, loved their independence as much as she had loved their need."

"That's life.  It hurts, it's dirty, and it feels very, very good."

"And enough for me that when my hand touched your shoulder, you leaned on me; and when you felt me slip away, you called my name."

"That's what civilized people do--they avoid the circumstance that enrages them.  Or if they can't avoid it, they detach."

"I always felt such a pity for you humans because you could only think of one thing at a time and your memories were so imperfect and. . . .now I realize that just getting through the day without killing somebody can be an achievement."

"I've had your tears with mine, and you've had mine with yours.  I think that's more intimate even than a kiss."

" 'This emotion I'm feeling now, this is love, right?'

   'I don't know.  Is it a longing?  Is it a giddy stupid happiness just because you're with  me?'

   'Yes,' she said.

   'That's influenza,' said Miro. 'Watch for nausea or diarrhea within a few hours.' "

"We'll see that child be varelse on some days and raman on others.  On some days, we'll be good parents and some days we'll be wretched failures.  Some days we'll be desperately sad and some days we'll be so happy we can hardly contain it.  I can live with that."

"Changing the world is good for those who want their names in books.  But being happy, that is for those who write their names in the lives of others, and hold the hearts of others as the treasure most dear."

"The sweet-faced baby, eager for life.  Baby tears from the pain of falling down.  Laughter at the simplest things--laughter because of a song, because of seeing a beloved face, because life was pure and good for him then, and nothing had caused him pain.  He was surrounded by love and hope.  The hands that touched him were strong and tender; he could trust them all. . . .How I wish you could have kept on living such a life of joy.  But no one can.  Language comes to us, and with it lies and threats, cruelty and disappointment.  You walk, and those steps lead you outside the shelter of your home.  To keep the joy of childhood you would have to die as a child, or live as one, never becoming a man, never growing.  So I can grieve for the lost child, and yet not regret the good man braced with pain and riven with guilt, who yet was kind to me and to many others. . . ."

This actually isn't even my favorite of his books, but they are all well-worth reading.  I love all the stuff I've been reading the last few years---history, nonfiction, science and theory, etc--but there's just nothing quite like good fiction.  That wonderfully melancholy feeling of finishing a book and knowing it was good because, as you finished the last page and closed the cover, you felt like you'd just lost a friend.