Quotes from Masklin
Changing was necessary. Change was right. He was all in favour of change. What he was dead against was things not staying the same. (Dig)
He wasn't the leader. He'd have liked to be a leader. A leader could stick his chin out and do brave things. What Masklin had to do was argue and persuade and, sometimes, lie very slightly. He found it was often easier to get people to do things if you let them think it was their idea. (Dig)
‘This is not the right time. You are ill-prepared.’
Masklin clenched his fists. ‘I’ll never be well-prepared! I was born in a hole, Thing! A muddy hole in the ground! How can I ever be well-prepared for anything? That’s what being alive is, Thing! It’s being badly prepared for everything! Because you only get one chance, Thing! You only get one chance and then you die and they don’t let you go round again after you’ve got the hang of it!' (Dig)
'What's up with him?’ said Masklin.
Granny Morkie started to roll bandages in a businesslike way. No one needed them, but she believed in having a good supply. Enough for the whole world, apparently.
‘He’s having to think’’ she said. ‘That always worries people.' (Truck)
It was beginning to dawn on Masklin that there was a different sort of knowledge, and it consisted of the things you needed to understand in order to survive among other nomes. Things like: be very careful when you tell people things they don’t want to hear. And: the thought that they may be wrong makes people very angry. (Truck)
He knew what he had to do. It was, of course, an impossible task. But he was used to them. Dragging a rat all the way from the wood to the hole had been an impossible task. But it wasn’t impossible to drag it a little way, so you did that, and then you had a rest, and then you dragged it a little way again…The way to deal with an impossible task was to chop it down into a number of merely very difficult tasks and break each one of them into a group of horribly hard tasks, and each one of them into tricky jobs, and each one of them. (Truck)
'He says he's dyin', I suppose he should know.'
'Dying of what?' said Masklin.
Dyin' of bein' alive for such a long time,' said Granny. (Truck)
'Goodness me, I can’t go around letting people believe I’ve been wrong all along, can I? The Abbots have been denying there is anything Outside for generations. I can’t suddenly say they were all wrong. People would think I've gone mad.’
‘Would they?’ said Masklin.
‘Oh, yes. Politics, you see.' (Truck)
'She's a servant of the Store,' said Gurder, who was still trembling. 'She's the enemy of the dreadful Prices Slashed, who wanders the corridors at night with his terrible shining light, to catch evil nomes!'
'It's a good job you don't believe in him, then,' said Masklin.
'Of course I don't,' agreed Gurder.
'Your teeth are chattering, though.'
'That's because my teeth believe in him. And so do my knees. and my stomach. It's only mt head that doesn't and it's being carried around by a load of superstitious cowards.' (Truck)
'It seems to me that you have exactly the right qualification for being a leader.'
'I don't think so!'
'That's what I mean. You don't want to be one.' (Truck)
'You're going to need a powerful lot of nomes to do all this. And they're going to need training.'
'But, but all that they'd have to do is pull and push when they're told, won't they?'
Dorcas hummed under his breath again. Masklin got the impression that he always did that if he was going to break some bad news.
'Well laddie,' he said. 'I'm six, I've seen a lot of people and I've got to tell you, if you lined up ten nomes and shouted "Pull", four of them would push and two of them would say "Pardon?" That's how people are.' (Truck)
'How did you work that out?' said Grimma.
‘The Thing told me,’ said Masklin. ‘It’s something called critical path analysis. It means there’s always something you should have done first. For example, if you want to build a house you need to know how to make bricks, and before you can make bricks you need to know what kind of clay to use. And so on.’
‘What's clay?’
‘Don’t know.’
‘What’re bricks?’
‘Not sure.’
‘Well, what’s a house?’ she demanded.
‘Haven’t quite worked it out,’ said Masklin. ‘But anyway, it's all very important.’ (Truck)
'And there’s something else called progress chasing.’
‘What's that?’
‘I think it means shouting at people, “Why haven’t you done it yet?"' (Truck)
He'd thought it would be difficult, learning to drive, learning how a lorry worked, learning to read, but they were, well, just tasks. You could see all the difficulties before you started. If you work at them long enough, then you were bound to succeed. He'd been right. The difficult thing was going to be all the people. (Truck)
'I thought you always said kids spent far too much time running around and getting into mischief these days?’
‘Ah. Yes. Well, that’s juvenile delinquency,’ said Gurder sternly. ‘It's quite different from our youthful high spirits.' (Wings)
Masklin realized he was standing at one of those points where History takes a deep breath and decides what to do next. (Wings)
'What was that thing, Thing?’ said Masklin.
The Thing extended one of its sensors.
‘A long-necked turtle.’
‘Oh.’
The turtle swam peacefully away.
‘Lucky, really,’ said Gurder.
‘What?’ said Angalo.
‘It having a long neck like that and being called a long-necked turtle. It’d be really awkward having a name like that if it had a short neck.' (Wings)
'I think these are quite bright humans, Thing. I pointed to my mouth and they understood I was hungry.'
'Ah,' said Thing. 'Take me to your larder.' (Wings)
'They think you have just arrived.'
'Well, that's true.'
'Not arrive here. Arrived on the planet. Arrived from the stars.'
'But we've been here for thousands of years. We live here!'
'Humans find it a lot easier to really believe in little people from the sky than little people from the Earth. They would prefer to think of little green men than leprechauns.' (Wings)
'You'd think one world would be big enough for all of us,' said Grimma.
'Oh, I don't know,' said Masklin. 'Maybe one world isn't big enough for anyone.' (Wings)
He wasn't the leader. He'd have liked to be a leader. A leader could stick his chin out and do brave things. What Masklin had to do was argue and persuade and, sometimes, lie very slightly. He found it was often easier to get people to do things if you let them think it was their idea. (Dig)
‘This is not the right time. You are ill-prepared.’
Masklin clenched his fists. ‘I’ll never be well-prepared! I was born in a hole, Thing! A muddy hole in the ground! How can I ever be well-prepared for anything? That’s what being alive is, Thing! It’s being badly prepared for everything! Because you only get one chance, Thing! You only get one chance and then you die and they don’t let you go round again after you’ve got the hang of it!' (Dig)
'What's up with him?’ said Masklin.
Granny Morkie started to roll bandages in a businesslike way. No one needed them, but she believed in having a good supply. Enough for the whole world, apparently.
‘He’s having to think’’ she said. ‘That always worries people.' (Truck)
It was beginning to dawn on Masklin that there was a different sort of knowledge, and it consisted of the things you needed to understand in order to survive among other nomes. Things like: be very careful when you tell people things they don’t want to hear. And: the thought that they may be wrong makes people very angry. (Truck)
He knew what he had to do. It was, of course, an impossible task. But he was used to them. Dragging a rat all the way from the wood to the hole had been an impossible task. But it wasn’t impossible to drag it a little way, so you did that, and then you had a rest, and then you dragged it a little way again…The way to deal with an impossible task was to chop it down into a number of merely very difficult tasks and break each one of them into a group of horribly hard tasks, and each one of them into tricky jobs, and each one of them. (Truck)
'He says he's dyin', I suppose he should know.'
'Dying of what?' said Masklin.
Dyin' of bein' alive for such a long time,' said Granny. (Truck)
'Goodness me, I can’t go around letting people believe I’ve been wrong all along, can I? The Abbots have been denying there is anything Outside for generations. I can’t suddenly say they were all wrong. People would think I've gone mad.’
‘Would they?’ said Masklin.
‘Oh, yes. Politics, you see.' (Truck)
'She's a servant of the Store,' said Gurder, who was still trembling. 'She's the enemy of the dreadful Prices Slashed, who wanders the corridors at night with his terrible shining light, to catch evil nomes!'
'It's a good job you don't believe in him, then,' said Masklin.
'Of course I don't,' agreed Gurder.
'Your teeth are chattering, though.'
'That's because my teeth believe in him. And so do my knees. and my stomach. It's only mt head that doesn't and it's being carried around by a load of superstitious cowards.' (Truck)
'It seems to me that you have exactly the right qualification for being a leader.'
'I don't think so!'
'That's what I mean. You don't want to be one.' (Truck)
'You're going to need a powerful lot of nomes to do all this. And they're going to need training.'
'But, but all that they'd have to do is pull and push when they're told, won't they?'
Dorcas hummed under his breath again. Masklin got the impression that he always did that if he was going to break some bad news.
'Well laddie,' he said. 'I'm six, I've seen a lot of people and I've got to tell you, if you lined up ten nomes and shouted "Pull", four of them would push and two of them would say "Pardon?" That's how people are.' (Truck)
'How did you work that out?' said Grimma.
‘The Thing told me,’ said Masklin. ‘It’s something called critical path analysis. It means there’s always something you should have done first. For example, if you want to build a house you need to know how to make bricks, and before you can make bricks you need to know what kind of clay to use. And so on.’
‘What's clay?’
‘Don’t know.’
‘What’re bricks?’
‘Not sure.’
‘Well, what’s a house?’ she demanded.
‘Haven’t quite worked it out,’ said Masklin. ‘But anyway, it's all very important.’ (Truck)
'And there’s something else called progress chasing.’
‘What's that?’
‘I think it means shouting at people, “Why haven’t you done it yet?"' (Truck)
He'd thought it would be difficult, learning to drive, learning how a lorry worked, learning to read, but they were, well, just tasks. You could see all the difficulties before you started. If you work at them long enough, then you were bound to succeed. He'd been right. The difficult thing was going to be all the people. (Truck)
'I thought you always said kids spent far too much time running around and getting into mischief these days?’
‘Ah. Yes. Well, that’s juvenile delinquency,’ said Gurder sternly. ‘It's quite different from our youthful high spirits.' (Wings)
Masklin realized he was standing at one of those points where History takes a deep breath and decides what to do next. (Wings)
'What was that thing, Thing?’ said Masklin.
The Thing extended one of its sensors.
‘A long-necked turtle.’
‘Oh.’
The turtle swam peacefully away.
‘Lucky, really,’ said Gurder.
‘What?’ said Angalo.
‘It having a long neck like that and being called a long-necked turtle. It’d be really awkward having a name like that if it had a short neck.' (Wings)
'I think these are quite bright humans, Thing. I pointed to my mouth and they understood I was hungry.'
'Ah,' said Thing. 'Take me to your larder.' (Wings)
'They think you have just arrived.'
'Well, that's true.'
'Not arrive here. Arrived on the planet. Arrived from the stars.'
'But we've been here for thousands of years. We live here!'
'Humans find it a lot easier to really believe in little people from the sky than little people from the Earth. They would prefer to think of little green men than leprechauns.' (Wings)
'You'd think one world would be big enough for all of us,' said Grimma.
'Oh, I don't know,' said Masklin. 'Maybe one world isn't big enough for anyone.' (Wings)
