But love isn’t words. Love is the other. It grows within you. It holds you. it warms you. It is its own being. It is a power, like fire. It cares nothing for the woman who thinks she owns it. It cares nothing for the man who thinks he can replace it. If you fight it, it will sour and poison you. If you suppress it, it will only sink deeper and destroy you.

— Bruce Sterling, The Artificial Kid (1980)

This book started out like the Axe Cop kid made an omelette with A Clockwork Orange and cyberpunk curds. And then it became something else. Something altogether quite wonderful.

And here’s another favourite quote from a later chapter:

In any case, I still had my shotgun nunchuck.

Pretty sure Bruce Sterling is my new writing hero.