Quotes from Ernest Cline

Once we reached the edge of the Be-Free Forest, we entered Holden's Field—a large, flat, open field of rye, perched precariously on the edge of the Cliffs of Salinger, a place where I had completed several different book-report quests at several different grade levels. I had also played countless games of tag in this field, with other kids from around the world. Kids I had never met and would never meet in the real world, with usernames that they had probably changed long ago.

The Copper Key awaits explorers In a tomb filled with horrors But you have much to learn If you hope to earn A place among the high scorers

If you do this, you'll be personally responsible for the extinction of the human race." I went ahead and did it anyway.

Three hidden keys open three secret gates Wherein the errant will be tested for worthy traits And those with the skill to survive these straits Will reach The End where the prize awaits

When I played the classics, I did so with a determined sort of reverence.

The weapon had a built-in timer that would prevent it from firing for another twelve hours (a "cooling-off period") (...).

I didn't know how to connect with the people there. I was afraid, for all of my life. Right up until I knew it was ending. That was when I realized, as terrifying and painful as reality can be, it's also the only place where you can find true happiness. Because reality is real. Do you understand?

could still visit them anytime I pleased, because there was a highly accurate OASIS re-creation of the Portland Avenue Stacks just as I remembered them, constructed from photos and video of the real location taken before the bombing. It was now a popular OASIS tourist attraction and school field-trip destination.

rolling around in broken glass in my birthday suit.

The real van that I'd used as my hideout had been extracted from the junk pile and airlifted to Columbus, so it could be put on display in the GSS Museum.

Halliday once said that he preferred to pretend the other Indiana Jones films, from Kingdom of the Crystal Skull onward, didn't exist. I tended to agree.)

Our records also show that you are currently unemployed and have therefore been classified as impecunious. Under current federal law, you are now eligible for mandatory indenturement.

What's up?" "The opposite of down

as had the graffiti spray-painted in red on one of the corridor walls: THE CAKE IS A LIE.

ONI technology is also going to save hundreds of millions of lives," I say self-righteously. "By preventing the spread of all sorts of infectious diseases—like the flu pandemic

Unlike their real-world counterparts, most of the OASIS public school teachers seemed to genuinely enjoy their job

Maybe it was just as I had always secretly feared: The apple had fallen right next to the Crazy Tree.

Ray seemed to subsist primarily on a diet of high-fructose junk food and old videogames.

The once-great country into which I'd been born now resembled its former self in name only. It didn't matter who was in charge. Those people were rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic and everyone knew it. Besides, now that everyone could vote from home, via the OASIS, the only people who could get elected were movie stars, reality TV personalities

Most users chose to run a "voyeur channel," which was like being the star of your own twenty-four-hour reality show. Hovering virtual cameras would follow your avatar around the OASIS as you went about your day-to-day activities.

Og gave the Sega Ninja cabinet an awkward pat, as if it were an unfamiliar Labrador. Then he shoved both his hands into his pockets and grinned at me like a lovestruck idiot. He looked as if his pupils might change into cartoon hearts at any second.

On the floor, directly underneath my suspended haptic chair, was my Okagami Runaround omnidirectional treadmill.

I should be thanking you. I haven't had this much fun in decades!

Rush had been Halliday's favorite band, from his teens onward. He'd once revealed in an interview that he'd coded every single one of his videogames (including the OASIS) while listening exclusively to Rush albums. He often referred to Rush's three members—Neil Peart, Alex Lifeson, and Geddy Lee—as "the Holy Trinity" or "the Gods of the North.