John Scalzi

Quotes

1. Unlike Agents Vann and Shane here, who are being wholly disingenuous, you might be speaking out of genuine ignorance and not just your usual levels of casual obstructionism.

   p. 40

2. 

   “I don’t know,” Davidson said. “Maybe it’s not about politics. Maybe these guys are just assholes.”

   “Seems the simplest explanation,” I said.

   p. 181

3. 

   You don’t win by getting through all your life not having done anything.

   p. 292

4. 

   “Why ‘threep’? Why ‘clank’? Slang happens.”

   p. 28

5. 

   I was pretty certain my dad was not up to no good, running for senator notwithstanding.

   p. 167

6. 

   He’s almost certainly planned for the contingency of being caught. He’s rich and he’s got more lawyers than some countries have people.

   p. 301

7. 

   “Do you believe that?” I asked.

   “It doesn’t matter whether I believe it or not,” Redhouse said.

   p. 135

8. 

   You are better at small talk than I am. That is not always a compliment.

   p. 296

9. 

   “That’s a nice speech, Trujillo,” Rybicki said. “It doesn’t make it true.”

   “General, at the moment, I wouldn’t place you as an authority on truth.”

   p. 274

10. 

    “I have drinks,” Hanson said, coming up behind Duvall.

    “Why, Jimmy,” Duvall said. “That makes you my new favorite person.”

    p. 23

11. 

    Empires of conquest don’t last, Administrator Perry. They hollow out from within, from the greed of rulers and the endless appetite for war.

    p. 195

12. 

    “Every creature has fear,” Jared said. “Even the non-conscious ones.”

    “No,” Boutin said. “Every creature has a survival instinct. It looks like fear but it’s not the same thing. Fear isn’t the desire to avoid death or pain. Fear is rooted in the knowledge that what you recognize as yourself can cease to exist. Fear is existential.

    p. 286