34 Quotes by Kij Johnson

Never mind,' she said, 'I don't see the point of a God.''And I don't see much point in a cat.' the Kami replied.

She hadn’t loved Randolph Carter. He had been a man like many, so wrapped and rapt in his own story that there was no room for the world around him except as it served his own tale: the black men of Parg and Kled and Sona Nyl, the gold men of Thorabon and Ophir and Rinar; and all the women invisible everywhere, except when they brought him drinks or sold him food – all walk-on parts in the play that was Randolph Carter, or even wallpaper.

Reon Atescre of Sona Nyl had been slim and laughing-eyed, a lighthearted, fearless man who was not attracted to women, seeing her for what she was and not what he wanted her to be, and therefore an easy companion to her.

But he had loved her, or thought he did, and that had brought her, sputtering and gasping, above the surface of his self-regard. The dreamer’s sheen and the power of his passion had for a time attracted her, but in the end she had not wanted a life spent treading water in his story.

Because if something does go wrong, you’ll need what you’re feeling to matter, to someone somewhere, anyway.

Humans assign words to things and pretend the words are adequate.

The constant talking didn’t bother her, for cats use their voices to say ‘here I am, where are you?’ and this seemed to be the primary intention of most human conversation.

A fish is not seduced by bait. When it grows hungry, it eats whichever mosquito or dragonfly happens to be closest. If one is fortunate or destined, it is one’s bait that is closest at that moment. But it is chance that fish and bait are in the right places at the right time.

These cables will fail eventually, these stones will fall – but not the dream of crossing the mist, the dream of connection. Now that we know it can happen, it will always be here.