"I'm terribly sorry," she said, in a thin and lilting voice, "but it seems. . . ." Then she fell, a leaf dropping, onto the polished wooden floor.

Silhouette art has a long history in many cultures. From silhouette portraits popular in the 1700's to traditional cut paper art in China and Poland, it is a beautiful art form using the contrast of dark and light, shadows and illumination.

The idea of a wizard in a space station may seem strange or contradictory—even dangerous in its invocation of pure fantasy to describe one of the great pioneers of "hard" science fiction. But it is the role Clarke played most of his life: a mythologized figure of intellect and prescience, standing on the shadowy frontier of modern science.

One huge girder catapulted twenty blocks, pierced the roof of a subway tunnel and jackknifed the leading car of an eight-car train. Passengers were pulped. There had been sixty persons in that first car. There was nothing that could be called human in the wreckage.

The uselessness of time / at the end / of breakfast, bedtime, dinner and sunrise.