Quotes from John Scalzi

and now she was looking like a grenade went off in a drawer of metallic ribbons.

Unless this was the afterlife. But I doubted it was. I'm not much of a religious person, but most afterlives that I'd heard of were something more than a blank nothingness. If God or gods existed, and this was all they put together for eternal life, I wasn't very impressed with their user experience. So: probably alive.

It's why attractive people don't have to work as hard in school.

sooner or later, everything simply becomes daily life. When Haden's first struck, it was the most important news story of the century. Everyone knew it. Everyone felt it. But then it just… became part of the fabric of the American story, day in and day out.

So you would have me take the job simply to avoid something worse.

What the hell?" she asked, after a moment. "Lovely," Wilson said, looking at the display. "And by 'lovely,' I mean 'Oh, crap.

When things are hidden, there will always be people who object, and who will then go out of their way to preserve and store what is being hidden, so that someone can find it later, either intentionally or by simply stumbling over it. This is why I never tried to hide alternative takes of history. It makes them more attractive to future historians when you do. I smothered them under strata of official history instead." "Never hide, just overwhelm," Cardenia joked.

Wow, really?" I said, before I could stop myself. "I used the wrong word, didn't I," Davidson said, looking at me. "I can never remember if 'clank' or 'threep' is the word I'm not supposed to be using today.

Heads could be heavily customized, and a lot of younger Hadens did that. But for adults with serious jobs, that was déclassé, which was another clue to Schwartz's likely social standing.

I will, and this is a promise, kick your ass." "Have you ever kicked anyone's ass?" Hirsch asked. "Ever? You were always kind of a girly-girl." Lowen slugged Hirsch in the arm. "I've been saving my kick-assery up for a special occasion," she said. "This could be it. You should feel honored.

But there are deals, and there are promises. A deal you can make with anyone. A promise is something you make with someone you trust.

Although, honestly, watching authors fistfight is like watching geese play Jeopardy. There's a lot of honking and squawking but no one ever gets to what they're supposed to be doing.

Which one of you tased Dave?" The one directly in front of us asked. "That was me," Niamh said. "That was mean. He's new. Barely above an intern.

Don't fight it. Let yourself be eaten." "Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm finding your advice to be less than one hundred percent helpful

She said that we could all fuck ourselves with a rented dick. The same rented dick." "That's my mom," Kiva said.

Maybe it's just that no one knows how to conduct a real literary feud anymore, online or otherwise.

The diagnostics and modifications screens. Ugly and utilitarian, just like they have been since the very beginnings of visual user interface. They were beautiful.

It was clear that he didn't think Joshua was any great prize. But the same could be said of him; Al Bowen was one of those guys who looked like he had spent far too much of his life being a roadie for the Grateful Dead.

I'll do my best," Wilson said. "Your best got you stationed on the Clarke," Abumwe said. "Do better than that.

Knowing that we created the Interdependency for our benefit, and pretended it was something that benefitted everyone. It makes this collapse feel like it's the universe commenting on our choice.

I'm not a heroic hacker with magic code. I was a brain in a box. But I am a programmer. Or was. And I knew the system. I knew the software. And I had a plan. And a little bit of time before anyone was going to bother me again. So I got to work.

There is a certain type of person who feels like they must be armed at every moment of the day or else the world will come for them in some way. Back home, this is very much not a good way to live.

I am not Death. I am killing; I am the verb, I am the action, I am the performance.

some of your writer friends will do better than you, by whatever standard you decide "better" counts as. And you know what you should do? Be happy for them, you neurotic twit.