"There’s not only one Violet Liu. It’s a common last name, common first name. There was another in my program, actually, a year ahead of me. I used to get her mail sometimes. One time I got her grades by mistake, that was—her grades were way better than mine. I know it’s stupid, but that always felt like a referendum on me, somehow. I met her a few times. She was taller, too. Less neurotic.
I’m not the best scientist out there. I’m not even the best scientist out there named Violet Liu."
— Violet, Episode One: Violet Liu
"Who are you."
"Same as anyone, a bundle of contradictions and regrets"
— Violet and Arkady, Episode One: Violet Liu
"Maybe a rational person wouldn’t take this risk. Maybe a rational person would opt for a quick death over whatever’s waiting for you at the end of this flightpath.
You want to think you are a rational person, but you’re not. You’re a scientist. And there is no greater expression of sheer stupid human hope than the study of science. We’re born groping around in the dark but science says, “We can understand this.” It says, “There’s something here to understand and this act of blindly reaching forward is worth it.” It says, “You could be devoting your entire career to what’s really a dead end and it's still worth it. You could be dismissed in your own lifetime, you could poison yourself with radiation, you could be executed. And it’s still worth it. More than your safety, more than your life, that divine earthly act of trying to understand.
Personally, I find that brand of optimism exhausting but if it wasn’t for science, we wouldn’t have deodorant or instant coffee, so."
— Arkady, Episode One: Violet Liu
