Space Opera Quotes & Sayings

The alien reached out her hands to hold Alex's tightly. "Please. Some of what I want to express, it may be difficult to locate the right words."

"Of course."

Pure alabaster eyes stared back at her. "Child, there is a hole in your mind. — G.S. Jennsen

When I wrote the opera, I made a deal with myself that for at least an hour a day I would work on it, even if it meant just sitting on my piano bench, staring into space and thinking about it. It's about keeping it regular, like your bowel movements - let's get real: it's your bodily artistic movements! It comes from the same place. — Rufus Wainwright

Celestials is a soapy space opera. Perhaps a spacey soap opera. — M.C. O'Neill

Good luck with the aliens, and if we survive this feel free to look me up on your next vacation."

"Good luck with the aliens? You are such a prick. — G.S. Jennsen

Her weight settled on her back foot as she crossed her arms over her chest and stared at him, now legitimately baffled.

"How delusional are you, aliens in your head notwithstanding? — G.S. Jennsen

In the corner of her eye she caught her daughter's shoulders drop as Alex exhaled with uncommon soberness. "So you trust me, and you understand that I will never do anything I think might hurt you."

Miriam stopped outside the armory and pivoted to her daughter. "Alex, what have you done? — G.S. Jennsen

If you can't be with the side you want, work to fix the side you're with. — C.T. Phipps

His vision blurred, his grip on the dash faltered and the cockpit lost definition. Then all the diati rushed back to him in its own shockwave.

The physical force slammed him against the cockpit half-wall. He gasped air into his lungs as a crimson aura throbbed above his skin. The world spun around him, and it occurred to him if he wanted to he could control it - not the spinning, but the world. — G.S. Jennsen

We want to know. We want to know who we are and what we are capable of.

I want to know.

And yet we were dragged into another war. Another seemingly inevitable and gruesome legacy passed down, along with soma. — Jeno Marz

If you love epic space opera, you shouldn't miss 'Interstellar'. — Annalee Newitz

When I think of war, I see blood. Pain and suffering. Nothing good comes from war.
But there is good. There will be an outcome. One side will find peace, solace. While the other will end in bitter loss.
There are two sides to the coin of war. — Hafsah Faizal

I have spent my life battling monsters. It was only in realizing that I was the monster, and choosing to destroy her, that I could save the world. — Kameron Hurley

Meanwhile here I am- Earthborn woman, a mere barbaric maula, geting deeper into Imperial Space with each passing light second. I should be trembling with fear, I suppouse.
No. Let the Emperor tremble. Laylah is here! — Robert Silverberg

Mia stood between the bed and the broken window, holding an active plasma blade at waist-height in front of her. A thick coat of blood stained the plasma nearly from hilt to tip, hissing as it dribbled from blade to floor.

"Are you all right?"

Mia gave her a wan, distant smile. "It's okay. I've done it before. — G.S. Jennsen

He had seen many criminals in his years in Division. Dangerous men and even more dangerous women. Small-time hucksters and savvy crime lords. Spies, gangsters, assassins, insurgents and wannabe-revolutionaries. True believers and soulless mercs willing to kill children for the right price. — G.S. Jennsen

It was killing him, seeing her this way. She was not meant to be uncertain, timid or fearful; the woman he knew exuded confidence so fiercely it might as well be a damn spiritual aura. He needed to fix this.

"It's time to adjust your perspective. You want to show the politicians on Earth they don't rule the galaxy? Well, let's show them. — G.S. Jennsen

So that's why I say 'never have anything you can't walk away from.' Especially a woman. For them, because this is a dangerous life we lead and you never know if or when it will blow back on those close to you."

"And for you, because trust me when I tell you there exists no greater perdition than the guilt of causing the death of someone you love. — G.S. Jennsen

It was something Ferdo said. We may not have it all, you and I, but we have more than is granted most men or women, he told me, and he was right. — Mary Brock Jones

Blood drummed in her ears and adrenaline coursed through her veins, driving her to move. To act. Her hands trembled against his chest.

Time vanished out from beneath her feet, one accelerating second at a time. — G.S. Jennsen

He made sure his tone remained casual. He was trying to keep his son unaware of the encroaching alien invasion for as long as he could, be it another day or another hour. Once innocence was lost it was never regained.

So he took his son fishing and strolled along the river and pretended as though the galaxy wasn't on fire. — G.S. Jennsen

From up here, the city below looked calm. Peaceful. Serene.

It was a lie.

Mia could feel the lie in her bones, in the foreboding creeping along the fine hairs on her skin. But mostly she could feel it in her head, where preparations were underway across Romane to meet the coming chaos. — G.S. Jennsen

Because we were the good guys. We were in the right. The universe looks out for people who act with honor in furtherance of an honorable cause. It must, or we never would have gotten this far as a species."

"We won - this little conflict and a thousand like it - because we were destined to win. The universe will allow no other outcome. — G.S. Jennsen

He steadied himself by resting one palm on her thigh and the other on the armrest, and rose to his knees. "I'll be damned."

"Possibly. But not today, I think. — G.S. Jennsen

He frowned. "Jedi aren't without emotion. We're allowed to grieve."
"Perhaps," Ventress allowed, "but somehow I don't think most Jedi try to drown the pain with alcohol and slam their fists on the table. — Christie Golden

He swallowed hard, annoyed at the sudden dryness in his throat. No reason to become all emotional about it now. He had already sold his soul for a chance at vengeance, and there was no getting it back. — G.S. Jennsen

Why?" Riko asked.
"For the war. We will hit them before they have a chance to hit us."
She was terrified. "What? No. We can't start a war."
Oshiro grinned. "Don't you see? The war has already started. We're going to end it. — Charles Nall

I thought carefully as I watched Eyuran treat Uncle Orewen's wounds. There is no one in their right mind who would assault a Danna, simply because the enemy of an individual becomes the enemy of the whole kennar. Kennar are usually related to each other, which would probably make the unlucky person the enemy of the entire Tue Dannan.

And Danna settle things the old way. — Jeno Marz

War makes monsters of us all. But what happens to those of us who no longer wish to be monsters? — Kameron Hurley

Glacier blue plasma rippled and sparked across the interior of the portal. "It seems keeping secrets is what you do."

"Secrets are merely the necessary means. Survival is the end goal. Survival of ourselves, survival of species who do not deserve to be eradicated from the universe. Survival of the universe itself."

"Survival's noble and all, but what good is it without the freedom to live as you choose?"

"A question you have the luxury to ask because you survive. — G.S. Jennsen

You're not going to fight me, Captain. This is the right call. You know it."
She marched me off the bridge and into the brilliant white passageway. "You think I'm just going to trust you'll let me go?" I asked, getting a painful nudge in the back.
"You don't have a choice." She was right about that. "Relax. I got your back, Cale."
"You've got a pistol in my back is what you've got."
"Just like old times."
Trust her? Well, shit. — Pippa DaCosta

Thing to know about the Reaches....It's always trying to kill you. Even the empty places between the stars."
Asher Corsair, Allies and Enemies: Rogues — Amy J. Murphy

There were things she wanted to say, but they were all jumbled up in her head and if she tried they'd come out backwards and mixed up and wrong.

There were things she needed to say, but she was hanging on by a fraying thread and feared if she tried the thread would break, sending her plummeting alone into the abysm.

There were things she would have to say, but they should wait for later. After. — G.S. Jennsen

She gazed at the bay of wrecked shuttles in dismay. The last of her adrenaline seeped away at the sight of the widespread destruction.

It occurred to her then, for perhaps the first time in this long nightmare, that she was going to die. — G.S. Jennsen

Anyone who tells you life has greater value when it comes with an expiration date is full of shit. Immortality is worth the fortunes of galaxies."

She regarded him too intently. "But it's not worth everything. You gave it up for your freedom."

His forced bravado faltered. That truth still petrified him today. "I did. — G.S. Jennsen

Caleb!" The sharp, forceful tone demanded he halt.

He found he had complied, but did not turn around. His voice sounded low and hoarse, likely because he couldn't breathe. "Alex, I can't. — G.S. Jennsen

Yes, she loved her ship more than she had loved him. But what she loved even more was what it gave her: freedom, and the key to the marvels of space. It gave her the stars, and she doubted she could ever love anything or anyone more than she loved the stars. — G.S. Jennsen

Do you love me?"

His voice rang flat in his own ears, deadened and weighted with the recognition there was only one chance, and a fool's chance at that — G.S. Jennsen

Expect an army of Vigil drones, nearly as a many Praesidis guards, a Machim ground detachment of super-soldiers and at least one Inquisitor. Oh, and security barriers everywhere. Possibly some of those mechs we met on Helix Retention, too. You Humans have kicked off a shitstorm of epic proportions."

Alex spread her arms wide in an exagerrated shrug. "It's one of our best skills. — G.S. Jennsen

He checked her over while mentally checking himself. "Environment suits sealed up. Breather masks in hand. Daemons. Blades. Transmitters. Healthy respect for the adversary - you've got that, right?"

One corner of her mouth curled up. "Absolutely. — G.S. Jennsen

His whisper continued to stream a silent cacophony of warnings, kill and damage reports and pleas for assistance.

He allowed himself two seconds to watch it and came away with the sense they were losing. Not lost and not soon, but losing. — G.S. Jennsen

What do you want me to do? Arrest them all?"

"When you can, absolutely."

"And when I can't?"

"Do whatever is necessary to remove their ability to act against us - against humanity."

"You mean kill them."

Her expression darkened in what he sensed was sorrow, but her shoulders rose. "If that's what it takes. — G.S. Jennsen

He wanted to grind every Federation world into dust beneath his boot as his army blazed a trail of blood and corpses all the way to Seneca.

He wanted to storm their inner sanctum and fire a laser into the skull of their Field Marshal while their Chairman watched, then fire a laser into the skull of their Chairman.

He wanted to burn their bodies on a pyre and carry the ashes back to Deucali and spread them on his mother's consecrated grave. — G.S. Jennsen

Above the curving arc of the planet, a mammoth explosion plumed crimson and charcoal then erupted in a starburst of crystaline white which for a microsecond shone brighter than a sun. For the briefest moment he allowed himself to entertain the notion that they might win this battle.

Then the real battle began. — G.S. Jennsen

You daughter is prudish?" There was a gleam of triumph in Helena Winter's face. Fee grimaced. Prudish? No, not that she could claim. Far too mild a word for what she felt. — Mary Brock Jones

Don't talk. Don't sputter out a solitary protest or it will be your last. Take me to them."

"Who the f**k are you?"

He palmed the man's forehead and slammed his skull against the wall. "I said don't talk, and you want to do as I say. I'm the one thing monsters like you and your kind fear. I'm what haunts your nightmares and hunts you in the darkness. — G.S. Jennsen

She settled back in the chair and draped one leg casually over the other, her hands coming to rest together on her knee.

"Arrest me. Torture me. Parade me about in the public square. You will have your prize catch. And you will lose everything. — G.S. Jennsen

Never ask a question if you don't know the answer.
- Rhett — Rowena Cherry

Individuals reacted in any number of ways to extreme stress and, relatedly, to impending death.

A non-negligible percentage of people reacted in a manner which could be summed up by, 'Screw it, I'm going out in style! — G.S. Jennsen

She didn't want to be the savior of humanity. She never had. She didn't want to be the vanguard - of destruction or salvation. What she had really wanted was to be a girl whose father lived to show her the stars.

Instead she had been left to wander them alone. Until she discovered someone who saw the stars as she did. — G.S. Jennsen

I may not have believed in lady luck, but I believed in her fucking sister, irony. That bitch was out to nail me to wall." ~ Caleb — Pippa DaCosta

Don't go getting offended my friend, I have much worse things to say to you.-Ad'Dam, Journey from Atremes — Riley Amos Westbrook

I wanted Red Rising to be the Cave from the Republic. The dark cradle in which you see shadows on the wall and you think you know existence. Then they get out of the cave, and shit look at those space ships and the feuds and the size of everything.

It's hard to come right out and introduce people to a Space Opera. I wanted to lull them into one — Pierce Brown

Three men sat around a table. All were muscled and similarly greasy and easily identifiable as scum. As he breached the entrance all three were moving, drawing their own guns in surprise.

Only one got off a shot. — G.S. Jennsen

I've just written a very gritty, non-magical take on the King Arthur legend, 'Here Lies Arthur,' and I'm currently toying with some other historical ideas, as well as working with the illustrator David Wyatt on some sequels to my Victorian space opera 'Larklight.' — Philip Reeve

They sit in their soundproof rooms and issue tone-deaf edicts and call themselves controlling the world. And one day they ask you to die for them. — G.S. Jennsen

Maybe in this Star Wars world maybe subconsciously I was preparing myself. But I've just found all of my ideas I've been coming up with are big sci-fi things, and I wanted to do a big epic, a big space opera, and this is it. This is mine. — Mark Millar

I saw the Earth, yes. I saw the colors so magnificent, so vivid, so real. It was hope so large and round, green and blue. — Hafsah Faizal

What I wanted to do was drown something enormous, like a Star Trek or Star Wars kind of space opera-type thing, but actually make it about someone who was just married to the wrong guy, and that guy just happens to be this amazing dictator, and she has to get her kids as far away as possible from this guy. So something that could almost be a TV movie, if you'd ground it and set it in Wisconsin or something like that, but to give it this enormous setting. — Mark Millar

Sometimes we need to step away from our current reality in order to truly appreciate it. — L.E. Horn

Space opera, as every reader doubtless knows, is a pejorative term often applied to a story that has an element of adventure. Over the decades, brilliant and talented new writers appear, receiving great acclaim, and each and every one of them can be expected to write at least one article stating flatly that the day of space opera is over and done, thank goodness, and that henceforth these crude tales of interplanetary nonsense will be replaced by whatever type of story that writer happens to favor - closet dramas, psychological dramas, sex dramas, etc., but by God important dramas, containing nothing but Big Thinks. Ten years late, the writer in question may or may not still be around, but the space opera can be found right where it always was, sturdily driving its dark trade in heroes. — Leigh Brackett

Lieutenant Mortas is the black sheep of the family--I thought you knew that. — Henry V. O'Neil

A wispy murmur in the blackness. Blackness, where before there was only nothingness. It was dark, inky and thick, but there now existed the palpable sense of tangibility.

She gasped in alarm, but no sound came out of her throat.

"Where am I?," she shouted, but no words made it past her lips. — G.S. Jennsen

I'm not trying to be mean,' Casamir says.
'Intent doesn't always matter. — Kameron Hurley

God, she was beautiful. Hair a tangled mess, clothes torn, lips pale and swollen, skin streaked in dirt. And she was so damn beautiful and flawed and perfect. — G.S. Jennsen

How long you been in the infantry, sir? Anything under ten miles counts as 'almost there'. — Henry V. O'Neil

Alex peered behind her to see Noah fussing over a scrape on Kennedy's cheek. "Unless someone's bleeding to death, first aid will have to wait. You'll want to strap into the jump seats.

"This could get interesting, and that's before we get clear of the station. — G.S. Jennsen

He did not have time to wallow, to give a moment's thought to what may have happened to her or whether she was alive.

Turn into the punch, grab hold of the gun, leap into the arena. Attack.

He had to move. Now. — G.S. Jennsen

Reluctantly, we had already accepted every challenge at the moment we were born. And as long as we live, we have no right to give up. For we, or at least someone very similar to us, already died once, long ago in a faraway place. — Jeno Marz

Narrow, angular features, pouty lips and hatred-filled pale, washed-out blue irises glared back at him.

Caleb flashed the young man a malevolent smirk and readied his blade. "Jude Winslow, I presume. — G.S. Jennsen

It didn't take a synthetic mind to decipher Caleb Shepperd, just a human one." ~ #1001 — Pippa DaCosta

Personally, I could care less about how people chose their graves. What I do care about is that I don't want to be dragged along into one, especially by someone who has already lived their life to the fullest. — Jeno Marz

As soon as he had departed she directed her attention to the others.

"I need a shielded containment box, radiation gloves and a micro welding torch. And a crescent wrench. — G.S. Jennsen

A practical way to travel between the stars is a must-have for space opera, and a sine qua non for our frequently vaunted future as a galactic society. — Seth Shostak

Science fiction is for real, space opera is for fun. — Brian W. Aldiss

There is nothing I fear more than someone without memory. A person without memory is free to do anything she likes. — Kameron Hurley

The Novoloume gazed in interest around the cabin. "So the whispers are true - Kats, SAIs and Humans have come to join with the anarchs in a quest to save us all."

Felzeor returned to Caleb's outstretched arm and leaned in to nuzzle his nose. "What a grand quest it's sure to be! — G.S. Jennsen

She skidded around a corner, slamming her shoulder into the wall and bouncing off of it without slowing.

Caleb?

Silence. Forty-six meters. A long stretch of hallway. She pushed faster, harder. Twenty meters.

She burst into the room in unison with a deafening crash of metal shearing metal. — G.S. Jennsen

What interested me was dance - the way that it was constructed with time-space constructions, and that it was abstract. I always thought: 'Why couldn't theater be that way? Or an opera?' — Robert Wilson

If humanity is annihilated because we were too busy squabbling with one another to manage a proper stand, we probably deserve the annihilation. — G.S. Jennsen

He pointed to the burning building as sirens heralded the approach of emergency personnel. "This is your job - this is your life. Blood and death and pain and vengeance and justice. And sometimes it sucks, but it's worth it."

Caleb sighed, but not in resignation. "I know this is the job, and it is worth it. But I refuse to believe it's my life. Not only and not forever."

Samuel pinched the bridge of his nose and waved dismissively with his other hand. "F***ing romantic. — G.S. Jennsen

Space opera has always given authors a way to include a vast array of ideas and concepts. The opportunities it provides are limitless. Long may it reign. — Peter F. Hamilton

She and Kennedy both dove for the power connector; Kennedy reached it first and yanked out the connection as Alex landed on her stomach beside it.

The air settled down until the fine hairs on her arm no longer stood on end. Alex dropped her forehead to the platform and started laughing. "Just like university, isn't it?"

"Almost - nothing's actually blown up yet. — G.S. Jennsen

You have business and pleasure to attend to. As an expert in both, allow me to advise you to put them aside for the next ten minutes. Why?

"Because the world is about to transform, and you will want to be able to say you saw it happen. The axes of our little universe are about to flip, and you'll want to get your magboots set. — G.S. Jennsen

The system is only as good as its leaders. When they fail - when the system fails - you better damn well hope I'm there to pick up the slack."

The man's glower lost some of its fervor. "No one appointed you humanity's protector."

"No one had to - and if you don't understand why that is, then you're not nearly the man I was told you are. I'm leaving now, and I'm going to assume we're done. But if you threaten me again, you had better bring help. — G.S. Jennsen

Crushed sandstone sifted through Caleb's fingers, insubstantial as dust. A breeze caught the debris mid-fall and spirited it away before it could join the ashes blanketing the ground.

He stopped in the middle of what had once been a street, his arms pulled in at his sides, his fists balled in barely restrained fury. — G.S. Jennsen

We - humanity - didn't come this far by being afraid. Explorers and visionaries have willingly headed off to certain death for thousands of years and by doing so brought us to where we are today. No one has ever told us 'no' and succeeded in making it stick for long.

We accede to these aliens' demands and we'll wither away. It may take centuries or even millennia, but we'll be so busy cowering in fear we'll forget to move forward.

I say we fight. — G.S. Jennsen

Nightside, cities glistened in chains, and a spray of tinkertoy habitats girdled the planet. Gossamer starbridges reached from the equator towards orbit. — Alastair Reynolds

People gravitated here for the open air, the prolific intoxicants and the visual treats. They made the deals here that were later played out elsewhere. They drank and got high. Sometimes they fought, not for money but for sport or grudge.

They were the desperate and the daring, the lost and the searching. Tonight, they were his audience. Tomorrow, they would be his front line. — G.S. Jennsen

Her pulse raced, pounding in her ears above the howling wind. A wave of dizziness crashed over her with the rapid flood of adrenaline. She gasped in a breath. "Don't let go. — G.S. Jennsen

The universe is not ordered, and it will not become so simply because one wishes it. The universe is chaos made manifest. The military does a fine job of creating an illusion of structure, of dependable rules to provide an answer for every situation.

"But it is only an illusion, one which on its best days holds the chaos at bay. — G.S. Jennsen

It felt somehow comforting to return to the sparkling lake tucked into the mountains on Portal Prime. But why, when everything about Mesme made her the antithesis of comfortable?

Because here was where desperation had become hope. Where helplessness had become purpose. — G.S. Jennsen

Ever since 1980, sci-fi has generally been more Bladerunner than Star Wars. People talk about Star Wars being the most influential movie of all time and creating the blockbuster along with Jaws and that sort of thing, but really there's not been a space opera that anyone can go and see. — Mark Millar

The woman's gaze sent chills racing down his spine. The diabolical, aberrantly predatory arch of her lips curdled his blood. Seriously, his blood must be curdling back at the lab right now.

"Nice illusion. I'm definitely feeling the evil vibe here."

She stood and rounded the desk with perfect grace. "There is no illusion. Explain yourself quickly now, before I grow bored by your presence and dispense with it. — G.S. Jennsen

I have known many true connoisseurs, with excellent tastes that range across the humanities and the culinary arts
and they never fail to have a fatal effect on my self-esteem. When I find myself sitting at dinner next to someone who knows just as much about novels as I do but has somehow also found the mental space to adore and be knowledgeable about the opera, have strong opinions about the relative rankings of Renaissance painters, an encyclopedic knowledge of the English civil war, of French wines
I feel an anxiety that nudges beyond the envious into the existential. How did she find the time? — Zadie Smith

Eyuran," I addressed his Node. "What was in this one?"

He came closer and studied the huge case, which was easily twice the height of an adult Danna and had body slots for some kind of gear.

"I don't know for sure. I haven't seen this before. It resembles a gearbot sarx, but those are usually larger. Must be a new, compact model." Observing the empty sarx, a wave of bad feelings came over me.

"I also saw some of the weapon crates with broken locks."

"If someone is operating a gearbot, a bunch of guns will be the least of our worries. A hull repairer can't even begin to compete with the power of an assault exomachine." He looked around and frowned. "By the way, the whole hull repairer rack is empty. Counting the one you took out, we should have seven more roaming somewhere on the ship. — Jeno Marz

Your wonderful mind has a matching body," I heard Eyuran whispering into my ear through a thick veil of bliss, and found myself laying on my side, my spouse behind me, his hot palm slowly caressing my thigh, up and down. "So it's good to give your body the nice treat it is demanding so explicitly." His finger slid down my spine, making me tremble. "It wants and needs to be satisfied," his low voice soaked into my skin. — Jeno Marz

I'll ask you to look at the ships arrayed against you and consider what weaponry they might possess. Weaponry strong enough to crack your hulls? I know what weaponry you bring to bear, and I assure you it will not crack ours.

"Are you willing to risk the lives of thousands under your command to find out? Are you willing to risk your own life?"

The silence hung across space like a shroud.

"This is not over, Admiral Solovy."

"That is the first true thing you've said today. — G.S. Jennsen

I don't know how much of a market there is for space opera. Just because it's in the movies doesn't mean magazines are buying it. — Octavia E. Butler

'Floating Worlds,' published in 1975 and the lone science fiction novel by acclaimed historical novelist Cecelia Holland, was unique in being completely devoid of the usual pulp influences present in much space opera up to that time. — Pamela Sargent

Guilt ripped into her like a rusty, serrated knife. It took up residence in her soul, settling in and getting comfortable so it could saw away ragged pieces of flesh and leave her to bleed. — G.S. Jennsen