“As a jailer, I never got to understand my charges. But when I became a bandit, I spent a lot of time being close to the lowliest of the low: criminals, the enslaved, deserters, men who had nothing to lose. Contrary to what I had expected, I found that they had a hardscrabble beauty and grace. They were not mean in their nature, but made mean by the meanness of their rulers. The poor were willing to endure much, but the emperor had taken everything from them.”

American science fiction and fantasy author

Kenneth Yukun Liu is an American science fiction and fantasy author. He has won multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards for his fiction, and 104 quotes are on the site under his name. His short fiction has appeared in a wide range of magazines and anthologies, including F&SF, Asimov's Science Fiction, Analog, Lightspeed, Clarkesworld, Reactor, Uncanny Magazine, and several Year's Best collections. His work is closely associated with speculative fiction in magazine and anthology form.