John Birmingham > Quotes

“300 million people turned into jelly by The Wave and Rupert Murdoch wasn't one of them. There is no god.”
― John Birmingham, Angels of Vengeance

“When a parent dies, for those left behind it can feel as though half the sky has fallen. My father was the sheltering sky, and beneath his mild firmament no storm ever raged, no hard rain fell.”
― John Birmingham, On Father

“the rumor you most want to believe is the rumor you should be most skeptical of.”
― John Birmingham, Designated Targets

“an intriguing puzzle that diverted him from the unbearable burden of living. HIJMS”
― John Birmingham, Weapons of Choice

“Grief is an ocean, fathomless and wide, and on the surface its most impelling forces arrive in waves”
― John Birmingham, On Father

“The führer ordered the Second SS Panzer Corps moved up out of Le Mans. A moment later he countermanded the order. No one said anything.”
― John Birmingham, Final Impact

“The best lack all conviction while the worst are full passionate intensity,”
― John Birmingham, After America

“Plus, it’s an optimistic sort of music. People want that at the moment. Who needs death metal when you’ve got the Nazis?” They”
― John Birmingham, Final Impact

“Those men and women were not press-ganged into service. It was not just a choice for them. It was and remains a calling. And sir, no nation on earth can hope to survive long without people who will answer that call. No nation can hope to survive if it does not respect what they have offered and do the hard things that history sometimes asks of us. Sometimes, Mister President, there is no answer but blood.”
― John Birmingham, After America

“My Dearest Brother I hope you get this message, for I do not think we shall ever meet again. You will know by now that my ship has arrived here, but we were captured by the Germans during our incapacity after the Emergence… Jones frowned at the word, but having materialized in the Atlantic and been taken prisoner, Philippe would have used the Axis terminology without thinking. He read on. I have little time. I am watched so closely by the Nazis I could not send this message before now, and even now I cannot send it directly. I have encrypted a pulse to go out with the launch of the missiles on Hawaii. I can only pray it finds a Fleetnet node somewhere and eventually finds you. I have done what I can to impair the fascists’ plans but I fear it is not enough. There is no more time. When they discover what I have done my life will be forfeit, but I shall do what I can before the end. I do not know if you will ever see Monique again but if you do, please make her understand that I did not dishonor my family or the Republic. Vive la France. And good-bye, brother. Philippe”
― John Birmingham, Final Impact

“Do you have a particularly small penis, sir? Is that why you feel the need to compensate for your inadequacies with this behavior? If so, let me assure you, it didn’t work. You still have a very small penis, and now you look like an idiot, too.” De”
― John Birmingham, Weapons of Choice

“But living well is the best revenge, isn’t it,” she declared.”
― John Birmingham, Stalin's Hammer. A Novel of the Axis of Time: Includes the entire Rome, Paris and Cairo Sequence

“personal jihad,”
― John Birmingham, Final Impact

“RULER. Recognise. Understand. Label. Express. And Respond.”
― John Birmingham, THE COMPLETE BUT LITTLE BOOK ABOUT PROCRASTINATION: A SELF-HELP GUIDE TO BREAKING FREE OF YOUR BS.

“spoke of a gigantic whirlpool that had sucked two American carriers down to the very bottom of the Coral Sea. By the time that rumor had reached Takasuka’s ears, it had twisted itself into a perverse story that as you dropped down the funnel you could see old Viking raiders and the bones of Roman galleys on the gray floor of the seabed. He never failed to be amazed at the bullshit sailors were able to dream up. As”
― John Birmingham, Weapons of Choice

“of”
― John Birmingham, World War 3.2: The Axis of Time

“primitive planes that probably wouldn’t even get a safety clearance in her day. If this were a movie or a cheap, particularly stupid novel, it was the point at which she would call up Jan Zumbach and order him to get his crazy-arse Poles back to base. But”
― John Birmingham, Designated Targets

“Thank you,” said Himmler, who found the Windows file management system a diabolical confoundment. And they accuse me of crimes against humanity, he thought as he settled himself in at his desk. Wilhelm Gates, you are a beast, and your family will pay. His”
― John Birmingham, Final Impact

“Who needs death metal when you’ve got the Nazis?” They passed”
― John Birmingham, Final Impact

“Smith wiped grass and dirt from his butt and scowled at their surroundings as though they hadn't just escaped a fascist clusterfuckturducken of epic scale and infinite suckage.”
― John Birmingham, A Girl in Time

“And so you cannot back up. You go into harm’s way as true human beings. Just like our foe. Think now, if you should die, all of the words you have read, the places you’ve been, the knowledge and the wisdom you have gained, it will altogether vanish like a dream. Every note of music, every brushstroke of every painting, every q-bit, every sim, all that laughter, so many tears, and suddenly…nothing. Perhaps an earlier backup of another you does remain safely stored in some remote offline facility. Your memories of the Beijing Opera, the candomblé in Bahía, the dunes of al-Qudd, a walk down the grand avenues of Cupertino, the white nights of Putingrad, the call to prayer on the Habitat of Peace, a red supermoon over the Armadalen Sea, the crumbs of a pastry and the last mouthful of coffee in a tiny café in Trastevere, everything you have ever known, remembered, talked about, and everything you have left unspoken—it could all live again, I suppose. But would that be you, Doctor Saito? The you here with me? Right now?” The color had drained from her face. That was better. That was how people should react to encountering the”
― John Birmingham, The Cruel Stars

“As we are preparing to land the captain asks that you return your tray tables to the upright position, unfasten your seat belts, and jump out of the helicopter. We’d like to thank you for flying with the U.S. Navy, and hope you will choose to travel with us again in the future.” “The far fucking future,” added Harford. “Amen,” said Ivanov. As”
― John Birmingham, Weapons of Choice

“A rough plan executed immediately with maximum violence and intent wins over an elegant design hatched sometime next week.”
― John Birmingham, World War 3.1: A Novel of the Axis of Time

“Anyone who might have survived—even momentarily, by dint of having been entirely submerged—would have encountered the true meaning of hell, having been simultaneously flash-boiled, asphyxiated, and cooked from within as the blazing fuel–air mix penetrated all nonairtight objects. As”
― John Birmingham, Designated Targets

“Procrastination is a problem of focus.”
― John Birmingham, THE COMPLETE BUT LITTLE BOOK ABOUT PROCRASTINATION: A SELF-HELP GUIDE TO BREAKING FREE OF YOUR BS.

“General Chu Jianguo had his own favourite lesson from Sun Tzu’s Art of War, but he muttered only the first half to himself now. “Victorious warriors win first and then go to war.” He did not think it prudent to finish the aphorism. While defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.”
― John Birmingham, Zero Day Code

“a seat belt, smoke in public spaces, or “cross a public roadway while immersed in a virtual reality.” Not that much of that sort of thing went on just yet, anyway. Black”
― John Birmingham, Designated Targets

“The self is simply that warm single point of sentience around which the life of the universe gathers.”
― John Birmingham, The Cruel Stars

“Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill”
― John Birmingham, Designated Targets

“Breaking things and hurting people, thought Harry as he marched across the gravel. A cracking fuckin’ way for a bloke to earn a quid. Better than being chased around by those paparazzi cunts, at any rate. He”
― John Birmingham, Designated Targets