“If you want to know the value of half a second, ask the person who came second in a sprint event at the Olympics.”

“Someone who doesn't make the (Olympic) team might weep and collapse. In my day no one fell on the track and cried like a baby. We lost gracefully. And when someone won, he didn't act like he'd just...”

“Even if all life on our planet is destroyed, there must be other life somewhere which we know nothing of. It is impossible that ours is the only world; there must be world after world unseen by us,...”

“Business or profession?''I guess you'd call me a writer.'No profession,' said the police car, as if talking to itself. The light held him fixed, like a museum specimen, needle thrust through chest.”

“Prediction is the business of prophets, clairvoyants, and futurologists. It is not the business of novelists. A novelists business is lying. The weather bureau will tell you what next Tuesday will ...”