Harry Harrison

He squashed very nicely, thank you.

He saw suddenly⁠—with terrible clarity⁠—that to be a Winner was to be absolutely nothing. Like being the best flea, among all the fleas on a single dog.

The Old Man had that look of intense glee on his face that meant someone was in for a very rough time.

Crime is such a rarity now that the police really get carried away when they run across some.

Change is the lifeblood of mankind.

I have to browbeat, bribe, blackmail and bulldoze you thugs into doing a simple job.

Society had more rats when the rules were looser, just as the old wooden buildings had more rats than the concrete buildings that came later.

Dis is a place you need a good reason to visit and no reason at all to leave.

Welcome, O Goat-boy Grandson! This is your grandfather’s spirit speaking from paradise.

Today it is all or nothing. To save my own sanity I chose the nothing.

Just as dangerous, and equally deadly, is physically attacking a Winner of the Twenties.

A delightful prospect, eternity spent in a locked beacon with three blind lizards.

Nothing interests a customs man more than a suitcase full of unworn clothes.

There are some things that can’t sound gentle, no matter how gently they are said.

“Jokers,” I growled to myself. “Mars is full of jokers.”

Have one of these, diGriz, I believe they’re your brand.

Castaways at sea will drink their own urine in their need for water.

Nineport is not a city, it’s just a place where people stop.

The only men we can recruit to do the job are the ones who have already succeeded at it.

Then how does the man feel when he glances at the open books and sees only blank pages?