“Even if you did drop into someone's consciousness, you'd have all their memories and desires and hang-ups right there in front of you. And as you say, in an eternity you'd get the chance to know everything once enough time had passed. You'd become unable to judge anyone.' 'You'd end up being completely compassionate,' I said. 'You wouldn't be able… — Scarlett Thomas Copy Share
I erased the thought from my mind, but I couldn't undo the fact that I'd had the thought in the first place. — Scarlett Thomas Copy Share Image
Real life is physical. Give me books instead. Give me the invisibility of the contents of books, the thoughts, the ideas, the… — Scarlett Thomas Copy Share Image
Over to my left is the big grey wall in front of the church. Are we the Thoughts of God? a poster… — Scarlett Thomas Copy Share Image
“Someone who has the delusion Glass, is made of, does not literally believe herself to be made of glass but rather feels fragile and… — Scarlett Thomas Copy Share Image
“Child, all books are magic. Just think,' he said, 'about what books make people do. People go to war on the basis of what they read in books. They believe in "facts" just because they are written down. They decide to adopt political systems, to travel to one place rather than another, to give up their job and go on… — Scarlett Thomas Copy Share
Living for ever would be like marrying yourself, with no possibility of a divorce. — Scarlett Thomas Copy Share Image
But I quite like the way you can talk about science without necessarily using mathematics, but using metaphors instead. — Scarlett Thomas Copy Share Image
“My mind now has a celebration party and a funeral going on in the same room.” — Scarlett Thomas Copy Share Image
You can't do science in a novel, but you can do philosophy. Or, if you're really lucky, you can manage to pose a question… — Scarlett Thomas Copy Share Image
“Even if you did drop into someone's consciousness, you'd have all their memories and desires and hang-ups right there in front of you. And as you say, in an eternity you'd get the chance to know everything once enough time had passed. You'd become unable to judge anyone.' 'You'd end up being completely compassionate,' I said. 'You wouldn't be able… — Scarlett Thomas Copy Share
I erased the thought from my mind, but I couldn't undo the fact that I'd had the thought in the first place. — Scarlett Thomas Copy Share Image
“They really do have nothing in common on paper, these people and him. But yet there are so many common reference points; even some unexpected ones. . . .they all want to be cool. And they're all scared but no good at showing it. . . . [t]hey all know how to act cool. after all, life's pretty scary most… — Scarlett Thomas Copy Share
“Aquinas wondered what would happen if God wanted to achieve universal resurrection. In other words, bringing everybody who had ever lived back to life at the same time. What would happen to cannibals, and the people they ate? You couldn't bring them all back at the same time, because the cannibals are made of the people they have eaten. You… — Scarlett Thomas Copy Share
“There's something romantic about it, of course, in the way only other people's lives can be.” — Scarlett Thomas Copy Share Image
