S.E. Anderson > S.E.'s Quotes

“I lived in books more than I lived anywhere else.”
― Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane

“Love was the most susceptible to random failure of all human enterprises.”
― Charlie Jane Anders, All the Birds in the Sky

“You know... no matter what you do, people are going to expect you to be someone you're not. But if you're clever and lucky and work your butt off, then you get to be surrounded by people who expect you to be the person you wish you were.”
― Charlie Jane Anders, All the Birds in the Sky

“There is nothing I dislike more in the world than people who care more about ideology than they do about people.”
― Jon Ronson, So You've Been Publicly Shamed

“Sometimes, Don’t Panic does not apply.”
― S.E. Anderson, Starstruck

“Sally, are you really going to believe the word of a man who tried to kill you over the one who stopped him from doing so?”
― S.E. Anderson, Starstruck

“• Was there a handbook that could tell me what to do next? There were thousands of books that taught parenting; I was pretty sure there wasn't a self-help book about alien roommates. If there was, it was probably about abductees, not subletters.”
― S.E. Anderson, Starstruck

“My name is Sally Webber. I’m a human from Earth, a college dropout with no career ambition. I’m wearing a wig, and I really need to sit down, these heels are killing me. And I’m going to save my planet and everyone on it from complete annihilation.”
― S.E. Anderson, Starstruck

“Nothing's impossible. Everything's got screwed up probability ratios.”
― S.E. Anderson, Starstruck

“Some days, I was instructed not to pick up the phone at all. I would take down the messages left on the machine; bring them to my boss, who promptly ate them. Grisham had some odd habits. The part of my job that did not consist of answering phones revolved around making sure the world didn't know about them.”
― S.E. Anderson, Starstruck

“I've toppled empires. I can figure out how to get water to the right temperature.”
― S.E. Anderson, Starstruck

“Look, you can't take people off their planet willy-nilly. It's called alien abduction, and is frowned upon in the most respectable circles.”
― S.E. Anderson, Starstruck

“Try to stay longer, and your head will be the only part of you that makes it home.”
― S.E. Anderson, Starstruck

“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.”
― C.S. Lewis

“I once overheard a young white man at a book festival say to his friend, “Have you read the new Kureishi? Same old thing—loads of Indian people.” To which you want to reply, “Have you read the new Franzen? Same old thing—loads of white people.”
― Zadie Smith, Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays

“I remembered once, in Japan, having been to see the Gold Pavilion Temple in Kyoto and being mildly surprised at quite how well it had weathered the passage of time since it was first built in the fourteenth century. I was told it hadn’t weathered well at all, and had in fact been burnt to the ground twice in this century. “So it isn’t the original building?” I had asked my Japanese guide.
“But yes, of course it is,” he insisted, rather surprised at my question.
“But it’s burnt down?”
“Yes.”
“Twice.”
“Many times.”
“And rebuilt.”
“Of course. It is an important and historic building.”
“With completely new materials.”
“But of course. It was burnt down.”
“So how can it be the same building?”
“It is always the same building.”
I had to admit to myself that this was in fact a perfectly rational point of view, it merely started from an unexpected premise. The idea of the building, the intention of it, its design, are all immutable and are the essence of the building. The intention of the original builders is what survives. The wood of which the design is constructed decays and is replaced when necessary. To be overly concerned with the original materials, which are merely sentimental souvenirs of the past, is to fail to see the living building itself.”
― Douglas Adams, Last Chance to See

“April is the cruelest month, breeding
lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
memory and desire, stirring
dull roots with spring rain.”
― T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land

“Two hundred Romans, and no one’s got a pen? Never mind!"

He slung his M16 onto his back and pulled out a hand grenade. There were many screaming Romans. Then the hand grenade morphed into a ballpoint pen, and Mars began to write.

Frank looked at Percy with wide eyes. He mouthed: Can your sword do grenade form?

Percy mouthed back, No. Shut up.”
― Rick Riordan, The Son of Neptune

“Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

“But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
"Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad."
"How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn’t have come here.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

“He turned away, and suddenly she thought about the old children's story, where the stupid girl opens the box that God gave her, and all the evils of the world fly out, except Hope, which stays at the bottom; and she wondered what Hope was doing in there in the first place, in with all the bad things. Then the answer came to her, and she wondered how she could've been so stupid. Hope was in there because it was evil too, probably the worst of them all, so heavy with malice and pain that it couldn't drag itself out of the opened box.”
― K.J. Parker, Sharps

“And yet when unvaccinated people became ill with Covid, many of the people who claimed to have been appalled by their callousness talked about how maybe they didn’t deserve health care, or told bad jokes (which were not always jokes) about how perhaps Covid would rid the world of stupid people, or went as far as French president Emmanuel Macron, who said that unvaccinated people were not full citizens. We defined ourselves against each other and yet were somehow becoming ever more alike, willing to declare each other non-people.”
― Naomi Klein, Doppelganger: a Trip into the Mirror World

“She looked up at me. “Viva la revolución, Carl.”
― Matt Dinniman, The Butcher's Masquerade

“Donut took a breath and started to sing:
“Good girl, good girl, you’re a good girl, my princess.
“You’re like a root beer float. Oh yes, oh yes.
“I’d take it all back and never let you win. I wouldn’t do it all over again.
“I love you. I love you. I’m sorry, my princess.
“All eyes on me.
“All eyes on me.”
― Matt Dinniman, The Butcher's Masquerade

“Comets are like cats: they have tails, and they do precisely what they want.”
― David H. Levy, Comets: Creators and Destroyers