I used to think that cyberspace was fifty years away. What I thought was fifty years away, was only ten years away. And what I thought was ten years away... it was already here. I just wasn't aware of it yet.

Architects thrive after massive urban disasters. The abject collapse of East Berlin gave us the only city in Europe with a mighty host of Postmodern skyscrapers.

A security cam is one small part of a much larger universe of cams. The much larger effect, socially, politically and economically, is going to come from a much larger trend.

They used to be seen as insane or unthinkable acts of madmen. But if they take place they'll be called 'war' too. And there will still be no conventional war.

Now, for the first time, the President began to look genuinely powerful, even dangerous. This was a classic political coalition: it had worked in Medieval France. It was the long-forgotten bottom of the heap, allied with the formerly feeble top, to scare the hell out of the arrogant and divisive middle.

People in the Pentagon had colleagues killed and maimed by bin Laden. They're trying to find bin Laden and kill him and his cult. Naturally they consider that a legitimate thing to do, but they're having mixed success at the job.

The Bollywood distribution system is so corrupt that they have trouble making money off movies. So they sell shoes that an actress stepped in. If they turned up the amps some, maybe they could sell the actresses.

I do have two data identities. I have my name, Bruce Sterling, which is my public name under which I write novels. I also have my other name, which is my legal name under which I own property and vote.

Gene replacement therapy -- they tell me it really hurts.

It always hurts... It all hurts. Everything hurts. For as long as you can still feel it.

I like to get paid for doing basic research, so it's pleasant to write some nonfiction about it.

Your attitude determines your altitude. Your ambitions are bigger than life Of course. They must be. They encompass it.

Political people don't solve stuff -- not really. Political people are like guys in pop music.

It's going to be really interesting to see what the heroin market does in the next two years or so. One thing you can be pretty sure of. The Afghan peasants who grow poppies won't get rich. The money will end up in places like Dubai.

The future isn't just unwritten, it's unsearched.

Do you remember, Abelard... Once I told you that ecstasy was better than being God.
I remember.
I was wrong, darling. Being God is better.

History's kaleidoscope worked its permutations, its pace ever faster, approaching some unknown crescendo.

A dagger is the noble weapon of Brutus. Everyone understands that tyrants fall to daggers. A bomb is a sordid modern device with many complex working parts. Only engineers understand bombs.

I don't think there's much distinction between surveillance and media in general. Better media means better surveillance. Cams are everywhere.

You know what's truly weird about any financial crisis? We made it up. Currency, money, finance, they're all social inventions. When the sun comes up in the morning it's shining on the same physical landscape, all the atoms are in place.

The frontiers of the future will be the ruins of the unsustainable.