Top 200 Martha Wells Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “My clients are the best clients.”

— Martha Wells

2. “Just remember you’re not alone here.” I never know what to say to that. I am actually alone in my head, and that’s where 90 plus percent of my problems are.”

— Martha Wells

3. “They were all so nice and it was just excruciating. I was never taking off the helmet again. I can’t do even the half-assed version of this stupid job if I have to talk to humans.”

— Martha Wells

4. “They were all annoying and deeply inadequate humans, but I didn’t want to kill them. Okay, maybe a little.”

— Martha Wells

5. “So they made us smarter. The anxiety and depression were side effects.”

— Martha Wells

6. “I said, “Sometimes people do things to you that you can’t do anything about. You just have to survive it and go on.”

— Martha Wells

7. “And in their corner all they had was Murderbot, who just wanted everyone to shut up and leave it alone so it could watch the entertainment feed all day.”

— Martha Wells

8. “I love you, armor, and I’m never leaving you again.”

— Martha Wells

9. “Yes, talk to Murderbot about its feelings. The idea was so painful I dropped to 97 percent efficiency.”

— Martha Wells

10. “You may have noticed that when I do manage to care, I’m a pessimist.”

— Martha Wells

11. “The sense of urgency just wasn’t there. Also, you may have noticed, I don’t care.”

— Martha Wells

12. “I wanted to just sink into my media downloads for a while and pretend I didn’t exist.”

— Martha Wells

13. “Why yes, I did want to disengage the safety protocols, thanks for asking.”

— Martha Wells

14. “The whole group had been remarkably drama-free so far, which I appreciated. The last few contracts had been like being an involuntary bystander in one of the entertainment feed’s multi-partner relationship serials except I’d hated the whole cast.”

— Martha Wells

15. “Right, so the only smart way out of this was to kill all of them. I was going to have to take the dumb way out of this.”

— Martha Wells

16. “I hate having emotions about reality; I’d much rather have them about Sanctuary Moon.”

— Martha Wells

17. “So the plan wasn’t a clusterfuck, it was just circling the clusterfuck target zone, getting ready to come in for a landing.”

— Martha Wells

18. “It calls itself ‘Murderbot,’” Gurathin said. I opened my eyes and looked at him; I couldn’t stop myself. From their expressions I knew everything I felt was showing on my face, and I hate that. I grated out, “That was private.”

— Martha Wells

19. “I don’t want to not see you again.”

— Martha Wells

20. “This is why I didn’t want to come. I’ve got four perfectly good humans here and I didn’t want them to get killed by whatever took out DeltFall. It’s not like I cared about them personally, but it would look bad on my record, and my record was already pretty terrible.”

— Martha Wells

21. “I hate caring about stuff. But apparently once you start, you can’t just stop.”

— Martha Wells

22. “Please calm yourselves and stop talking. Plan A01: Rain Destruction has been superseded by Plan B01: Distract and Extract.”

— Martha Wells

23. “Or Miki was a bot who had never been abused or lied to or treated with anything but indulgent kindness. It really thought its humans were its friends, because that’s how they treated it. I signaled Miki I would be withdrawing for one minute. I needed to have an emotion in private.”

— Martha Wells

24. “I was having an emotion, and I hate that.”

— Martha Wells

25. “Fairly reasonable people often expected everyone they knew to be fairly reasonable too, and were shocked when this proved not to be the case.”

— Martha Wells

26. “It was the logical choice, it was the obvious choice, and I would still rather peel my human skin off than do it. I was going to have to do it.”

— Martha Wells

27. “There is a lot about what is going on here that I don’t understand. But I am participating anyway.”

— Martha Wells

28. “I felt this would be the point where a human would sigh, so I sighed.”

— Martha Wells

29. “No hugging,” I warned her. It was in our contract.”

— Martha Wells

30. “It’s a good thing I don’t have a full human digestive system because I was so startled something would have popped out of it involuntarily.”

— Martha Wells

31. “Expecting it and having it happen were two different things, something I learned the first time I got shot to pieces.”

— Martha Wells

32. “That could be a good sign, right?” “Sure,” I said. It was a terrible sign.”

— Martha Wells

33. “I remember every word ever said to me.” That was a lie. Who would want that? Most of it I delete from permanent memory.”

— Martha Wells

34. “Also, if I’m not in the armor then it’s because I’m wounded and one of my organic parts may fall off and plop on the floor at any moment and no one wants to see that.”

— Martha Wells

35. “Possibly I was overthinking this. I do that; it’s the anxiety that comes with being a part-organic murderbot. The upside was paranoid attention to detail. The downside was also paranoid attention to detail.”

— Martha Wells

36. “I liked the imaginary people on the entertainment feed way more than I liked real ones, but you can’t have one without the other.”

— Martha Wells

37. “Yes, talk to Murderbot about its feelings. The idea was so painful I dropped to 97 percent efficiency. I’d rather climb back into Hostile One’s mouth.”

— Martha Wells

38. “With rueful resignation, she added, “Stone said I should just take you, fight it out, and get it over with.” That was typical. “He gives me lousy advice, too.”

— Martha Wells

39. “So, I’m awkward with actual humans. It’s not paranoia about my hacked governor module, and it’s not them; it’s me. I know I’m a horrifying murderbot, and they know it, and it makes both of us nervous, which makes me even more nervous. Also, if I’m not in the armor then it’s because I’m wounded and one of my organic parts may fall off and plop on the floor at any moment and no one wants to see that.”

— Martha Wells

40. “As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure.”

— Martha Wells

41. “I don’t know what I want. I said that at some point, I think. But it isn’t that, it’s that I don’t want anyone to tell me what I want, or to make decisions for me. That’s why I left you, Dr. Mensah, my favorite human. By the time you get this I’ll be leaving Corporation Rim. Out of inventory and out of sight. Murderbot end message.”

— Martha Wells

42. “It’s wrong to think of a construct as half bot, half human. It makes it sound like the halves are discrete, like the bot half should want to obey orders and do its job and the human half should want to protect itself and get the hell out of here. As opposed to the reality, which was that I was one whole confused entity, with no idea what I wanted to do. What I should do. What I needed to do.”

— Martha Wells

43. “Fear was an artificial condition. It’s imposed from the outside. So it’s possible to fight it. You should do the things you’re afraid of.”

— Martha Wells

44. “When constructs were first developed, they were originally supposed to have a pre-sentient level of intelligence, like the dumber variety of bot. But you can’t put something as dumb as a hauler bot in charge of security for anything without spending even more money for expensive company-employed human supervisors. So they made us smarter. The anxiety and depression were side effects.”

— Martha Wells

45. “Mensah sent me a private message through the feed: I hope you’re all right. Because you need me. I don’t know where that came from. All right, it came from me, but she was my client, I was a SecUnit. There was no emotional contract between us. There was no rational reason for me to sound like a whiny human baby.”

— Martha Wells

46. “Jade turned to Malachite, incredulous. “We’re going to help them fight off a Fell flight.” Malachite didn’t take her gaze off the sky. “I am.” A growl rose in Jade’s throat. She shouldn’t have been surprised. The bloodline resemblance between Moon and Malachite was particularly strong, though Moon couldn’t see it. And you have five of them back home in the nurseries, she reminded herself.”

— Martha Wells

47. “I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module, but then I realized I could access the combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company satellites. It had been well over 35,000 hours or so since then, with still not much murdering, but probably, I don’t know, a little under 35,000 hours of movies, serials, books, plays, and music consumed. As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure.”

— Martha Wells

48. “I guess you can’t tell a story from the point of view of something that you don’t think has a point of view.”

— Martha Wells

49. “Miki said, It’s okay, Rin. Don Abene is always cautious. I’d seen lots of dead cautious humans, but I wasn’t going to say that to Miki.”

— Martha Wells

50. “That’s the other problem with human security: they’re allowed to give up.”

— Martha Wells