Andy Weir: I don't put politics in my writing. I hate that actually.
"Probably asking if Sallyās Diner served gluten-free vegan grass clippings or something."
"This is a single manās apartment with a single man eating a single manās meal. I donāt see anything feminine at all. Thereās nothing to suggest a woman in my life. Am I divorced? Gay? Either way, thereās no sign that children live here."
"So Iām a single man in my thirties, who lives alone in a small apartment, I donāt have any kids, but I like kids a lot. I donāt like where this is goingā¦"
"The situation was dire and deadly, but it was also the norm. Londoners during the Blitz in World War II went about their day as normal, with the understanding that occasionally buildings get blown up. However desperate things were, someone still had to deliver milk. And if Mrs. McCreedyās house got bombed in the night, well, you crossed it off the delivery list."
"Kids are smarter than most people think. And they can tell when a teacher actually cares about them as opposed to when theyāre just going through the motions."
"God knows we could do with more parents being engaged in their kidsā educations, but thereās a limit."
ā'You guys know about climate change, right? How our CO2 emissions have caused a lot of problems in the environment?' - 'My dad says thatās not real,' said Tamora.'"
"Thirty years. I looked out at their little faces. In thirty years theyād all be in their early forties. They would bear the brunt of it all. And it wouldnāt be easy. These kids were going to grow up in an idyllic world and be thrown into an apocalyptic nightmare."
"A modern nuclear plant can power an entire city for a year with the energy stored in just one kilogram of Uranium. Yes. Thatās it. The entire output of a nuclear reactor for a year comes from a single kilogram of mass."
"Evolution can be insanely effective when you leave it alone for a few billion years."
ā'Thatāsā¦! Dimitri, I want to hang out with you. Likeācan we hang out? Iāll buy you a beer. Or vodka. Or anything. I bet thereās an officersā club on this boat, right?' - 'It would be my pleasure.'"
"The Orlan-MKS2 is possibly the best EVA suit ever made."
"'Iāll write up a paper and send it along to the UN. We can form a committeeā' - 'No, I said weāll do it.ā Stratt stood up. 'Youāre with us now, Dr.Ā Lokken.'"
"Well, I say 'his hand,' but maybe itās her hand. Or some other pronoun I donāt have a word for. They might have seventeen biological sexes, for all I know. Or none. No one ever talks about the really hard parts of first contact with intelligent alien life: pronouns. Iām going to go with 'he' for now, because it just seems rude to call a thinking being 'it.'"
"The Blip-A control room probably has awesome-looking Braille-like readouts. Well, Iām sure itās way more advanced than that."
"ā'Because I have the U.S. Army,' she said. 'And thatās a damn fine army.'"
"I should be more culturally sensitive, but he threw shade when I talked to myself."
āAnd just like that another climate denier is born. See how easy it is? All I have to do is tell you something you donāt want to hear.ā
"I am a tree-hugging antiwar throwback to a bygone era of protest politics.ā
"'You are very heavy,' I say. I hope he doesnāt take that to mean Hey, fatty! Go on a diet!"
ā'Are they artificial intelligence of some kind?ā
Stratt asked. 'No,' said Lamai. āWe do not have time to develop a complicated neural network. This is a strictly procedural algorithm. Very complex, but not AI at all. We have to be able to test it in thousands of ways and know exactly how it responds and why. We canāt do that with a neural network.'"
"There are old Eridians out there who were alive when Columbus discovered (a bunch of people already living in) North America."
ā'I never would have thought a woman would be so sexist against women.' - 'Itās not sexism. Itās realism.ā She righted a strand of hair that had blown into her face. āMy guidelines were that all candidates must be heterosexual men.' - 'Why not all heterosexual women?' - 'The vast majority of scientists and trained astronaut candidates are men. Itās the world we live in. Donāt like it? Encourage your female students to get into STEM. Iām not here to enact social equality. Iām here to do whateverās necessary to save humanity.' - 'Still seems sexist.'ā
"I put my hand to my chest in mock surprise. 'Goodness me! DuBois appears to be black! Iām surprised you allowed it! Arenāt you afraid heāll ruin the mission with talk of rap music and basketball?'"
"I leaned to Dimitri. 'Are all Russians crazy?' - 'Yes,' he said with a smile. 'It is the only way to be Russian and happy at the same time.' - 'Thatāsā¦dark.' - 'Thatās Russian!'"
āAnd can you tell the goddamned corrupt government officials in North Africa to stay out of the way?ā
ā'That part will be easy,' she said. 'When this is all over, those governments will keep the blackpanels. Theyāll be the industrial-energy powerhouse of the world.'ā
āSee, there we go,ā he said. āSave the world and permanently lift Africa out of poverty while weāre at it.
ā'Why would New Zealand pay a bunch of money to help Africa?' I asked. 'Because weāre nice,' Redell said. 'Wow,' I said. 'I know New Zealand is pretty cool butā' - 'And it was going to be a New Zealandāowned company that charged for the power,' Redell said."
"We have an unspoken agreement that cultural things just have to be accepted. It ends any minor dispute. 'Do it my way because itās how I was raised,' basically. We havenāt run into anything where our cultures clashā¦yet."
āWeāre part of the ecology, Ms. Stratt. Weāre not outside it. The plants we eat, the animals we ranch, the air we breatheāitās all part of the tapestry. Itās all connected. As the biomes collapse, itāll have a direct impact on humanity.ā
"Itās Russian for 'vodka.' How do I know that? Because I spent months on an aircraft carrier with a bunch of crazy Russian scientists. I saw that word a lot."
"This screen is just three columns of white text on a black background. The left is all Chinese characters, the middle is Russian, and the right is English."
"We need to raise a strong, solid generation of survivors. Right now weāre soft. You, me, the whole Western world. Weāre the result of growing up in unprecedented comfort and stability."
"Do you think the United Statesāthe most powerful military force of all timeāis going to sit idly by while half their population starves? How about China, a nation of 1.3 billion people thatās always on the verge of famines in the best of times? Do you think theyāll just leave their militarily weak neighbors alone?ā
(this is a very superficial, implcomplete listing. everyone feel free to add on)