Maureen F. McHugh Quotes & Sayings

It's good to be loved. But it isn't enough. — Maureen F. McHugh

At Cuo, everyone will stare at me. And even though I know I'm not ugly any more I'm afraid to have them all look at me. They'll be thinking about my old face and comparing it to my new one. I don't want to be the old San-xiang anymore. — Maureen F. McHugh

In my experience ideology is a lot like religion; it's a belief system and most people cling to it long after it becomes clear that their ideology doesn't describe the real world. — Maureen F. McHugh

It's true that we are free to do whatever we want, even go to France on a whim. We can make any choice we want. We can do anything we want. We just have to not care about consequences. — Maureen F. McHugh

She had a theory that the fear of getting in trouble was what made her not as good a programmer and that, in fact, it was all linked to testosterone, and that was why there were more guy programmers than women. It was a very hazy theory, and she didn't like it, but she had pretty much convinced herself it was true, although she couldn't bear to think of sharing it with anybody, because it was a lot better to think that there were social reasons why girls didn't usually become code monkeys than to think there were biological reasons. — Maureen F. McHugh

History is sensitive dependent on initial conditions. You cannot predict the future. — Maureen F. McHugh

We do not want to be haunds, teacher. We just want the haunds to go elsewhere for easy prey. — Maureen F. McHugh

Wuxi Engineering Complex wasn't detailed by a team, it was detailed by one woman, using, of course, feedback from the departments that would be using the building." I gape. "Exactly," she says, smiling. "A team would not have constructed the building as a unit, but as a series of connected, but compromised and adjusted, ideas." "It can't be done. It had to have taken years." "It did take over two years, but it can be done. — Maureen F. McHugh

Government is big, we are small. We are only free when we slip through the cracks. — Maureen F. McHugh

One of her secret fantasies had been that, as a girl who could code, she would work in the one place where a geeky fat girl could get dates. It had not been entirely untrue. But as someone had pointed out to her in school, although the odds are good, the goods are odd. — Maureen F. McHugh

Staying married to one person was boring. She figured she was too complicated for that. Interesting people had complicated lives. — Maureen F. McHugh

I thought this life of thoughtful liberalism was my birthright, too. Before I understood that my generation was to be born in interesting times. — Maureen F. McHugh

Sydney did not believe in life after death, but in her experience, admitting this could lead to long and complicated discussions in which people seemed to think that since she did not believe in God or the afterlife, there was nothing to stop her from becoming an ax murderer. — Maureen F. McHugh

Children are a blessing. They are a happiness so sharp that it feels like pain. — Maureen F. McHugh