Mur Lafferty > Quotes

“Strength is taking charge of your own destiny and not waiting on others to do so. You don’t have to swear and drink and beat people up and slay monsters. You’re allowed to cry and take care of children and cook and get your heart broken and dress up and date and get pregnant. But when decisions have to be made, a strong character makes them and doesn’t wait for someone else.”
― Mur Lafferty

“I should be writing ...”
― Mur Lafferty

“Extremist individuals live inside every single group on the planet. Devout followers from Christian to Muslim who kill in the name of God, down to people who perpetuate a cycle of abuse from parent to child. And do you know at what point they’re labeled as terrorists?”
Martini said, “When the government—”
“When the news reports it. The news can take a starving refugee and make them into an invading migrant. One of my Black ancestors was photographed carrying diapers over his head after a flood. They called him a ‘looter.’ A white man was photographed doing the same thing. They called him a ‘survivor.”
― Mur Lafferty, Six Wakes

“Politics is almost never violent toward the people who are actually making the political decisions.”
― Mur Lafferty, Six Wakes

“Get a degree in mechanical engineering, Hiro. Get a pilot’s license, Hiro. Learn meditation and hypnosis, Hiro. Slip your roommate out of prison, Hiro. Drive thousands of clones and humans around in space, Hiro. Sit on your butt for four hundred years, Hiro.’
That’s what they told me. Not once did they say, Get shot and chased and stabbed by crazed crewmates, Hiro!”
“To be fair, you were one of the people doing the chasing, crazed at the time too,” Maria said.
“Semantics,” he said.”
― Mur Lafferty, Six Wakes

“Self-preservation is one of the signs of sentient life.”
― Mur Lafferty, Six Wakes

“Mallory tried to do what she historically did at parties, which was gravitate toward a bookshelf and try to figure out her host’s personality by their book collection. After that, she planned on eavesdropping on conversations.”
― Mur Lafferty, Station Eternity

“I’m just wondering what our objective is, Lieutenant,” Han said. “What it always is, Cadet,” Bolandin said, a look of disbelief on his face. He looked as if Han had missed the first day of basic training. “To bring peace and prosperity to the planet. To install a regime loyal to the Emperor and eradicate the hostiles.” “But it’s their planet,” he objected. “We’re the hostiles.” The lieutenant got close to his face and squinted his eyes.”
― Mur Lafferty, Solo: A Star Wars Story: Expanded Edition

“It had taken her considerable time to reword the first-draft line that read “So you were fucking wrong, and I was right, and I hope you feel really bad about yourself because you’re a garbage person” into something polite, and she’d been proud of her attempt.”
― Mur Lafferty, Chaos Terminal

“Why does a prison planet need a queen? Shouldn’t it have a warden? Someone in security?” Xan asked, trying to imagine Tina as a prison guard. “Not everyone there is a criminal. It’s less a punishment and more a place to put people you don’t want,”
― Mur Lafferty, Chaos Terminal

“We brought you fire, dumbed it down so you could understand it,
but now you think it's magic, you're taking us for granted,
you used the very tech and platforms that we created,
to spit disgust and spread distrust of everything we've ever stated,
now we can research for years present our data in reams,
but if your mothers plumber's meth dealer sends you some memes,
despite the lack of proof you think they're just as valid as fact
so now we're forming a pact. We're going to take the fire back.”
― Mur Lafferty, Chaos Terminal

“You could be heroes and few would ever know. What does that feel like?”
― Mur Lafferty, The Voice of the Empire

“If vampires were so passionate and depicted as sexy beasts because they fed on life force, why were zombies not depicted as the scholars of the coterie world?”
― Mur Lafferty, The Shambling Guide to New York City

“You humans are exchanging wetness? That’s even grosser than you existing!”
― Mur Lafferty, Chaos Terminal

“You told us, in a way,” Ferdinand allowed. “But you forgot not every Gneiss will get your references, and not every alien will have it translated perfectly.” “I told you things were cuckoo,” Tina said. “How else can I make myself clear?”
― Mur Lafferty, Chaos Terminal

“...he felt as if he were trying to move a glacier with a frozen chicken.”
― Mur Lafferty, Playing for Keeps

“Phil pursed his lips over his fangs. "Are you in league with Public Works, do you have any history with zoëtism, fortune telling, or anyone in coterie society?"
-"Does a fing look swart to the zooloofills?"
Phil stared at her blankly. "I have no idea--"
-"Exactly," she interrupted. 'I don't know what you're talking about either.”
― Mur Lafferty, The Shambling Guide to New York City

“We’re all experiments, honey. I’m surprised you don’t know that yet.”
― Mur Lafferty, Chaos Terminal

“I’m so sick of that argument. I’ve been hearing it for centuries. Playing God. Wolfgang, we played God when people believed they could dictate their baby’s gender by having sex in a certain position. We played God when we invented birth control, amniocentesis, cesarean sections, when we developed modern medicine and surgery. Flight is playing God. Fighting cancer is playing God. Contact lenses and glasses are playing God. Anything we do to modify our lives in a way that we were not born into is playing God. In vitro fertilization. Hormone replacement therapy. Gender reassignment surgery. Antibiotics.”
― Mur Lafferty, Six Wakes

“You can face anything with your hair done and your eyes on,”
― Mur Lafferty, Station Eternity

“One of my Black ancestors was photographed carrying diapers over his head after a flood. They called him a ‘looter.’ A white man was photographed doing the same thing. They called him a ‘survivor.”
― Mur Lafferty, Six Wakes

“Are you going to eat her here, Mr. Rand, or should I prepare her to go?”
― Mur Lafferty, The Shambling Guide to New York City

“The strong survive, even if the strong are the ignorant sneaky ones.”
― Mur Lafferty, Chaos Terminal

“Paul lay in his room, letting the sick, glorious feeling of grease and carbohydrates carry him away. He wanted to think of nothing more than the feeling of his stomach, obscenely full for the first time ever.”
― Mur Lafferty, Six Wakes

“Oh, go on, try. Stephanie and Ferdinand are always telling me to appreciate others’ opinions, which I do when they match my own.”
― Mur Lafferty, Chaos Terminal

“MIGHT AS WELL RAISE MOOSHROOMS”
― Mur Lafferty, Minecraft: The Lost Journals: An Official Minecraft Novel

“The luxury of youth banished in the face of turmoil.”
― Mur Lafferty, Solo: A Star Wars Story

“Considering what bullets can do to spaceships, it’s probably good they didn’t give us guns,” Wolfgang said as he carefully stepped down another rung. “No, that’s not it,” Katrina said from above him. “The ship can withstand unavoidable pieces of space debris hit when we’re going hundreds of thousands of miles per hour. A bullet isn’t going to have that much force.” “Our tech can’t take a bullet, though,” he said. “Shoot one of those into a computer terminal and see how well we fly. Or breathe. Or eat.” “Point,” she said.”
― Mur Lafferty, Six Wakes

“Han reached into his jacket pocket and produced his two lucky golden dice attached by a chain.”
― Mur Lafferty, Solo: A Star Wars Story: Expanded Edition

“Principles are easy to have when you have a place to live and regular meals.”
― Mur Lafferty, Six Wakes