Wayne Gladstone > Quotes

“Don’t you realize the Internet is just a way for millions of sad people to be completely alone together?”
― Wayne Gladstone, Notes from the Internet Apocalypse

“There has not been a piece of technology designed to save labor that has not increased labor. Word processors allow you to do what your secretary used to do for you. The Internet, BlackBerries, iPhones, yes they keep you tethered, but that's not the main problem. It's that along with increasing personal productivity, they increase the expectation of productivity. It no longer becomes a bonus to do the work of one and a half men, but the norm. And then when everyone’s working at one hundred and fifty percent capacity, they can fire a third of the workforce and still maintain output.”
― Wayne Gladstone, Notes from the Internet Apocalypse

“They say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and I guess for some, that’s true. After all, pain makes you flinch. Your fingers form a fist, and that fist can become tighter and harder with each indignity suffered. Eventually, that fist might even get strong enough to punch down walls. But if you need your hand for something other than violence, if you want to unfurl those fingers to caress a loved one or comfort someone in need, and can’t, well then, you’re broken.”
― Wayne Gladstone, Agents of the Internet Apocalypse

“Truth is stranger than fiction. But it has terrible pacing problems.”
― Wayne Gladstone, Agents of the Internet Apocalypse

“You don’t know me. How dare you presume to know me? Are you really so arrogant to believe you can sum up a man by his online presence? I have memories and feelings that have never seen the glow of a computer screen. Ideas that have never set foot online.”
― Wayne Gladstone, Notes from the Internet Apocalypse: A Novel

“my life had devolved into a fluorescent haze of desktop Outlook/Internet Explorer/Excel screens by day followed by laptop Chrome/Facebook/Netflix nights.”
― Wayne Gladstone, Notes from the Internet Apocalypse: A Novel

“Keeping this journal causes tension as much as it calms it. The writing busies my hands and occupies my mind, but there’s something about the pen scratching against the thick textured paper that makes my words take on an uncomfortable weight. Online, words flow almost as quickly as thoughts without revision or purpose, the way they do when you’re alone or with someone who’s fallen in love with you.”
― Wayne Gladstone, Notes from the Internet Apocalypse

“Gladstone, how sad do you have to get before you stop making jokes?”
― Wayne Gladstone, Agents of the Internet Apocalypse

“A quanto pare sei l’indesiderabile numero uno”, commentò lei.
“È un riferimento a Harry Potter?” Oz scrollò le spalle.
“Vedi, io qui avrei scelto 1984”.
“Che intendi, tipo Goldstein?”
“Beh, sì. Sto persino scrivendo un libro...”
― Wayne Gladstone, Notes from the Internet Apocalypse

“Online, words flow almost as quickly as thoughts without revision or purpose, the way they do when you're alone or with someone who's fallen in love with you.”
― Wayne Gladstone, Notes from the Internet Apocalypse

“There has not been a piece of technology designed to save labor that has not increased labor,”
― Wayne Gladstone, Notes from the Internet Apocalypse: A Novel

“Has anything happened in Australia since the eighties? I mean, besides Nemo being reunited with his dad?”
― Wayne Gladstone, Notes from the Internet Apocalypse

“Losing the Internet has forced them to interact verbally instead of microblogging their lives, but a lot of them still talk in Tweets:
"Ugh! I'm standing in line at the post office."
"I'm not eating the crusts on my sandwich because apparently I'm five.”
― Wayne Gladstone, Notes from the Internet Apocalypse

“Well, reading Twitter’s a lot like staring at an ant farm,” Tobey explained while wiping some cheese from his mouth. “Except without all the productivity.”
― Wayne Gladstone, Notes from the Internet Apocalypse

“A tree that falls alone in the forest still makes a sound. It just wishes it didn’t.”
― Wayne Gladstone, Notes from the Internet Apocalypse: A Novel

“I stare at the flush two blankets bring to her cheek and try to divine her dreams.”
― Wayne Gladstone, Notes from the Internet Apocalypse: A Novel

“What’s the weather like outside?” I asked. “I don’t know. May? It’s May out.”
― Wayne Gladstone, Notes from the Internet Apocalypse: A Novel

“But the point is, the talking heads are wrong. The loss won’t bring back a simpler time. Only a search for something new to fill the void.”
― Wayne Gladstone, Notes from the Internet Apocalypse: A Novel

“Eh, geniuses, fools,” Margo said. “Everyone loves a good fart joke.”
― Wayne Gladstone, Reports on the Internet Apocalypse

“Magic is a cliche, but what do you call it when you enter a place and you can pretend you're anywhere and everywhere from the Mesozoic era to present day, provided you haven't killed every bit of childhood wonder with cynicism? It is magic. The kind that exists.”
― Wayne Gladstone, Notes from the Internet Apocalypse

“I don't even know who you are. I can't trust you. You're not real. Either of you. Fucking Internet people.”
― Wayne Gladstone, Notes from the Internet Apocalypse

“my life had devolved into a fluorescent haze of desktop Outlook/Internet Explorer/Excel screens by day followed by laptop Chrome/Facebook/Netflix nights. Two equally useless existences separated only by the F train.”
― Wayne Gladstone, Notes from the Internet Apocalypse: A Novel

“But music didn't make my mother nervous. She was more concerned about the agenda of women who thought it was a good idea to wear pastel, shoulder-padded suits while they all marched single file toward a better tomorrow.”
― Wayne Gladstone, Agents of the Internet Apocalypse

“In the age of hyper technology and cookie crumbs, you can only trust a man in a mask. Everyone else has too much to lose.”
― Wayne Gladstone, Notes from the Internet Apocalypse: A Novel

“don’t know if a God exists, but anyone who claims to be certain of His absence probably lacks humility more than faith.”
― Wayne Gladstone, Notes from the Internet Apocalypse: A Novel