Steven Barnes

"I’m damned tired of being needed. Being needed is just the flip side of being royally screwed."

"Definitions are just words, just labels. And once you label something, the label gets between you and the thing."

"And your life is ruined because you tried to do the Right Thing. Join the club honey—guess what, there are a few more of us out here who’ve had our brains beaten our with our own dreams."

"Hate comes from the past, fear from the future. Pain and pleasure are now, and therefore their own trap."

"“Don’t be afraid of dying. A Warrior lives with death, Aubry. Welcome it as an ally. All other fears are just fragments of death, forms of unbecoming. A fighter clings to life, and therefore cannot wi…"

"The price of chemical ecstasy was a dear one, paid in flesh and spirit."

"The world doesn’t give a damn what we feel or want. Only what we are, and what we do."