# Quote — Alastair Reynolds, Chasm City

> I learnt the true meaning of what was euphemistically described as close-quarters combat. No line-of-sight particle-beam weapons now; no delayed-detonation nano-munitions. What close-quarters combat meant was something which would have been infinitely more recognisable to a soldier of a thousand years earlier: the screaming fury of human beings packed so close together that the only effective way to kill each other was with sharpened metal weapons: bayonets and daggers, or with hands around each other’s throats; fingers pressed into each other’s eye-sockets. The only way to survive was to disengage all higher brain-functions and regress to an animal state of mind.
>
> So I did. And in doing so, I learned a deeper truth about war. She punished those who flirted with her by making them like herself. Once you opened the door to the animal, there was no shutting it.

- Author: [Alastair Reynolds](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds.md)
- Book: [Chasm City](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/chasm-city.md)
- Page: 108
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alastair_Reynolds#Chasm_City_(2001)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/chasm-city/i-learnt-the

## More from this book

> “Is there anyone in Chasm City she hasn’t deceived?”
>
> “Possibly, somewhere, but only as an extreme theoretical possibility.”

p. 481 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/chasm-city/is-there-anyone.md)

> Evolution doesn’t greatly care about what happens to creatures once they’ve passed on their genetic heritage.

p. 332 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/chasm-city/evolution-doesnt-greatly.md)

> “Don’t tell me you aren’t the slightest bit curious, Norquinco.”
>
> “I hope you burn in hell, Sky Haussmann.”
>
> “I’ll take that as a yes.”

p. 562 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/alastair-reynolds/chasm-city/dont-tell-me-you.md)