Michael McBride > Quotes

“He'd been crazy about her for more years than he cared to admit. Unfortunately, he knew nothing would ever come of it, so he would have to settle for proximity and hope that like a mold or a fungus, he would eventually grow on her.”
― Michael McBride, Burial Ground

“People shed their dead skin at a rate of forty thousand cells per minute. These dead cells form what we call a ‘skin raft,’ which floats on the air before settling to the ground, but they don’t last long, even under ideal conditions, let alone in this wind.”
― Michael McBride, Snowblind II: The Killing Grounds

“The former soldiers pledged allegiance to their bank accounts,”
― Michael McBride, Burial Ground

“They had been double-crossed in the act of double-crossing, which was probably what they should have expected from the start, especially knowing that the dead man at their feet was an American.”
― Michael McBride

“If there was one thing he’d learned in life, it was that either a man had honor or he didn’t. It was a choice one had to make. There was no such thing as situational integrity.”
― Michael McBride, Burial Ground

“Had people become so accustomed to not looking that they were no longer able to see?”
― Michael McBride, Condemned

“After once watching an accountant from Boise look straight down the barrel of his loaded rifle in an effort to figure out why it wasn’t firing, he figured out that stupidity was likely a terminal condition.”
― Michael McBride, Snowblind II: The Killing Grounds

“We had two dead white girls in a city that was six-sevenths black.”
― Michael McBride, Condemned

“there is nothing more powerful than belief, especially in a climate where people were basically willing to subscribe to any theory that placed them above their circumstances,”
― Michael McBride, Subhuman

“You believe me?” she said. “I thought for sure . . . I mean, I was certain you wouldn’t . . . ” “I kind of thought we’d grab some coffee or something on our first date, but skulking around under condemned ruins will work, too.” “What?” Her face flushed red beneath the coat of grime. “This isn’t a—” He offered his most disarming smile and a wink. She merely stared at him for a long moment before the corner of her mouth curled into a smirk. “Do you enjoy pushing people’s buttons or are you simply helpless against the urge?” “Depends on the person, I suppose.”
― Michael McBride, Predatory Instinct: A Thriller

“And so the Hopi came to accept that the price of living was that they must always be in the presence of death, and thus wasted none of their precious time in the sun worrying about something that was every bit as much a part of their lives as the air they breathed.” “I”
― Michael McBride, Subterrestrial

“This girl. The one in the picture. She was more animal than human.”
― Michael McBride, Snowblind II: The Killing Grounds

“I hated what this country had become and wanted nothing more than to hold up a mirror so its citizens could see it for what it truly was, not the Land of Opportunity for which our forefathers fought and died, but as the fascist regime that served to funnel the money upward from those most in need into the pockets of those who would see them all starve in the streets, the same men who took away their livelihoods and stranded them in a city rotting beneath their very feet.”
― Michael McBride, Condemned

“In order to get power and retain it, it is necessary to love power; but love of power is not connected with goodness but with qualities that are the opposite of goodness, such as pride, cunning, and cruelty. —Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy”
― Michael McBride, Predatory Instinct: A Thriller

“There can be no light without darkness, no calm without the storm, no peace without war. Others will come, as they always have, and it will be up to us to drive them back into the shadows so that the covenant can be renewed once more.”
― Michael McBride, Contagion

“There was no such thing as situational integrity.”
― Michael McBride, Burial Ground

“faith could only be stretched so far before people demanded an element of proof,”
― Michael McBride, Subhuman

“This is all my fault,” she finally said. “Believe me when I say that I only ever had the best of intentions. I never meant for any of this to happen. Everything just spiraled out of control, and now I don’t know how to fix it. Or even if I can.”
― Michael McBride, Chimera

“The population of Detroit in 1950 was 1.8 million people,”
― Michael McBride, Condemned

“Porter scooted around toward Sturm’s head and leaned down over her face. “You hang on. Do you hear me? Don’t you dare quit on me.” He kissed her on the forehead. Her skin was cold against his lips. He watched her eyes for any sign of acknowledgement, but saw none. There was a smear of blood on her cheek that almost looked like . . . “Back away!” the first paramedic shouted. “We need to get her on the rig right now!” Porter leaned closer. The girl hadn’t been going for Sturm’s throat or the blood gushing from her shoulder.”
― Michael McBride, Predatory Instinct: A Thriller

“There was truly something special about the instances when one’s eyes were opened to the magic of the Amazon basin.”
― Michael McBride, Burial Ground

“Bad things had a way of happening to people who opened their mouths in the Murder Capital of the United States.”
― Michael McBride, Condemned

“The law of intended consequences,” she said. “That’s what I call it anyway. When you look for what you expect to find, invariably you’ll find it.”
― Michael McBride, Contagion

“I can’t be racist if I’m a minority, can I?”
― Michael McBride, Condemned

“nonchalantly”
― Michael McBride, Chimera

“In losing his son, he had lost a part of himself as well. Where once his lust for adventure had resided, there was now only rage. The life that had given him so much through the years had in the end stolen back more than it had ever offered, leaving the scales tipped in cruel life’s favor. He was here to restore the balance.”
― Michael McBride, Burial Ground

“It was only a matter of time before we started dying.”
― Michael McBride, Sunblind

“. Small. Low to the ground. A wolf spider crawled from a crevice, its long spindly legs rippling toward him. Wiry filaments grew from its head and back. A reddish-brown fuzz framed its sickly black eyes.”
― Michael McBride, Spores: A Sci-Fi Horror Novel

“A biofilm that appears to produce a cloaking effect.”
― Michael McBride, Chimera

“Any good strategist knew that sacrificing a pawn was vastly preferable to risking the king. It was the whole reason armies had infantries.”
― Michael McBride, Predatory Instinct: A Thriller