The story is everything, so it always begins with a story.And research is a kind of scaffolding built underneath the story as… — Neal Stephenson Copy Share Image
What writers of fantasy, science fiction, and much historical fiction do for a living is different from what writers of so-called literary… — Neal Stephenson Copy Share Image
But I'm not a small-literary-novel kind of guy, and once I'd developed the world in the first couple of hundred pages, I… — Neal Stephenson Copy Share Image
One of the problems, hanging out with me, is that I can turn any topic into a toxic horror story. I've lost… — Neal Stephenson Copy Share Image
“There are many people and many tribes, but only so many stories.” — Neal Stephenson Copy Share Image
We see everything from the narrator's point of view, so exposition about the world is limited to what impinges directly on him… — Neal Stephenson Copy Share Image
The mind knows...that there is an action principle that governs how the world evolves from one moment to the next - that… — Neal Stephenson Copy Share Image
I really am just trying to tell stories. But stories are often grounded in larger events and themes. They don't have to… — Neal Stephenson Copy Share Image
“I study dead languages for a living,” I said. “That’s why you hired me. Why should I be up to speed on your line… — Neal Stephenson Copy Share Image
“Other people - store clerks, burger flippers, software engineers, the whole vocabulary of meaningless jobs that make up Life in America - other people… — Neal Stephenson Copy Share Image
“It is what you don’t expect,” he’d said, “that most needs looking for.” “Do” — Neal Stephenson Copy Share Image
“...the insects here see you as a big slab of animated but not very well defended food. The ability to move, far from being… — Neal Stephenson Copy Share Image
“There was no way that these guys were going to let a bleeding, barefoot woman simply wander off alone into the streets. Two of… — Neal Stephenson Copy Share Image
“Space and Time! Two minor omissions that no one is likely to notice," grumbled Newton.” — Neal Stephenson Copy Share Image
See, the world is full of things more powerful than us. But if you know how to catch a ride, you can go places, — Neal Stephenson Copy Share Image
“Hey,” Shaftoe says, “if we surrender to you, you’ll kill us. Right?” “Yes.” “If you guys surrender to us, we won’t kill you. Promise.… — Neal Stephenson Copy Share Image
“My men think you are dead now, and won’t waste balls on you,” Jack said. “In fact I have let you live, but for… — Neal Stephenson Copy Share Image
“You’ve probably heard the expression that the Industry feeds off of biomass, like a whale straining krill from the ocean.” — Neal Stephenson Copy Share Image
“The Deliverator belongs to an elite order, a hallowed subcategory. He’s got esprit up to here. Right now, he is preparing to carry out… — Neal Stephenson Copy Share Image
Interesting things happen along borders - transitions - not in the middle where everything is the same. — Neal Stephenson Copy Share Image
