# Quote — William Gibson, The Peripheral

> “I used to play in a game, because I needed the money…It was a hobby for them. Rich fucks. They bet on who’d win.” She was staring at Netherton.
>
> All his glibness, all his faithful machinery of convincing language, somehow spun silently against this, finding no traction whatever.
>
> “But if it’s a game, why did someone send those men to kill us? How’d you know the winning number in the lottery, Mr. Netherton?"
>
> “This isn’t…your world.”
>
> “So what is it?”
>
> “The future,” said Netherton, feeling utterly ridiculous. On impulse, he added the year.
>
> “No way.”

- Author: [William Gibson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-gibson.md)
- Book: [The Peripheral](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-gibson/the-peripheral.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Jackpot_trilogy#The_Peripheral_(2014)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-gibson/the-peripheral/i-used-to-play

## More from this book

> “You’re used to telepresence, then,” Lev said.
>
> “We call it getting a haircut,” Flynne said, giving him a look as she got to her feet, “back in frontier days.”

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-gibson/the-peripheral/youre-used-to-telepresence.md)

> Conner was in the garden, on hands and knees, snarling at Gordon and Tyenna. They were facing him, side by side, as if ready to spring, their musculature looking even less canine than usual, their stiff tails in particular. Carnivorous kangaroos, in wolf outfits with Cubist stripes.
>
> “What’s he doing out there?” Netherton asked.
>
> “I don’t know,” said Lev, “but they love it.”
>
> Now the two creatures lunged at Conner simultaneously. He fell between them, flailing, wrestling with them. They were making a high-pitched, repetitious coughing sound.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-gibson/the-peripheral/conner-was-in-the.md)

> “Ash imagines you a conservative,” Lowbeer said, “or a romantic, perhaps. She sees your distaste for the present rooted in the sense of a fall from grace. That some prior order, or perhaps the lack of one, afforded a more authentic existence.”
>
> “I simply imagine things were less tedious,” Netherton said.
>
> “I personally recall that world, which you can only imagine was preferable to this one,” she said. “Eras are conveniences, particularly for those who never experienced them. We carve history from totalities beyond our grasp."

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/william-gibson/the-peripheral/ash-imagines-you.md)