Absurdist Fiction Quotes

“His hatred for all was so intense that it should extinguish the very love from which it was conceived. And thus, he ceased to feel. There was nothing further in which to believe that made the prospect of feeling worthwhile. Daily he woke up and cast downtrodden eyes upon the sea and he would say to himself with a hint of regret at his hitherto lack of indifference, 'All a dim illusion, was it? Surely it was foolish of me to think any of this had meaning.' He would then spend hours staring at the sky, wondering how best to pass the time if everything—even the sky itself— were for naught. He arrived at the conclusion that there was no best way to pass the time. The only way to deal with the illusion of time was to endure it, knowing full well, all the while, that one was truly enduring nothing at all. Unfortunately for him, this nihilistic resolution to dispassion didn’t suit him very well and he soon became extremely bored. Faced now with the choice between further boredom and further suffering, he impatiently chose the latter, sailing another few weeks along the coast , and then inland, before finally dropping anchor off the shores of the fishing village of Yami.”
― Ashim Shanker, Only the Deplorable

“As for myself: I had come to the conclusion that there was nothing sacred about myself or about any human being, that we were all machines, doomed to collide and collide and collide.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions

“I don't watch reality TV, my reality is tough enough.”
― Alisa Dana Steinberg, Text Me, A Tale of Love and Technology

“Ask anyone what that means, what it means to see a miracle, and they will say that it's something impossible, but they mean that a miracle is something formerly believed to be impossible that turns out not to be, not to be impossible, in other words, but possible after all. If this were really true, then miracles would be the most ordinary things in the world, the most uninspiring things in the world, and what can one expect from people who have never been anything but ordinary and uninspired.”
― Michael Cisco, The Traitor

“Long before the Theater of the Absurd, Woolrich discovered that an incomprehensible universe is best reflected in an incomprehensible story.

("Introduction")”
― Francis M. Nevins, Night and Fear: A Centenary Collection of Stories by Cornell Woolrich

“A Dead End Job is what happens when the tentacle-arm monkeys living in my brain get filtered into an urban fantasy novel.”
― Justin Alcala, A Dead End Job

“What I love about absurdist fiction is that it uses the supernatural, over-the-top circumstances and humor to explain the everyday. A Dead End Job reads playfully enough, but it covertly touches on mental health, corruption of power and the price of redemption. Oh, and it has like… one-thousand fart jokes.”
― Justin Alcala, A Dead End Job

“It's fortunate I have such a huge chip on my shoulder. I'm pretty sure it's the only thing keeping my feet on the ground.”
― Christopher J. Stockwell

“In a world that rarely adds up, absurdity might be the closest thing to truth. Then again, I’ve always been bad at math.”
― Delusional enough to write a novel

“Davai, come on!” Dmitry grumbled impatiently as his gaze drifted toward the inviting dinner on his plate: a delectable dish of Sibirskiye Pelmeni. These impeccably crafted Siberian-style meat dumplings, topped with a dollop of rich sour cream, looked as though they’d been plucked right out of a foodie’s well-curated Instagram feed. However, the promise of their rich flavor had been momentarily eclipsed by the drama of the recalcitrant television—an antiquity that usually served as Dmitry’s trusty portal to the world but today, for some reason, obstinately refused to fulfill its duties.”
― Luna M. Leon, Of Sturgeon and Carrie Bradshaw

“Meaning is optional.”
― jackie ll, Pointless

“A thought passed by. It didn't stop. I didn't chase it. Good balance.”
― jackie ll, Pointless

“Pointless but very much on purpose.”
― jackie ll, Pointless

“Gilbert Guttlebocker particularly enjoyed narratives that were so fantastic that they could not be believed without suspending one’s understanding of reality, such as that tall tale of the tiny little invisible thing that nearly blew up the whole world, commonly known as the Manhattan Project; or the strange story in which a man who had been dead for three whole days raised himself to life again, often called The Gospel; or that farcical legend in which liberal casino-owner Donald Trump became the arch-conservative president of the United States, also known as American History. You see, Gilbert, like many children his age, had such a powerful imagination that he actually believed these absurd narratives to be factual, and he longed for the day when he could be involved in a story equally beyond belief.”
― Benedict Ballyhoot, Gilbert Guttlebocker, Defender of Dragons