Quote by Neal Stephenson

““Sir, if you ask a Marine if he wants another cigarette, or if he’s ready, the answer is always the same, sir!””

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More by Neal Stephenson

“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 of work? How’s your Serbo-Croatian? What’s your position on the relationship between Oscan and Marrucinian?”

Neal Stephenson

“Other people - store clerks, burger flippers, software engineers, the whole vocabulary of meaningless jobs that make up Life in America - other people just rely on plain old competition. Better flip your burgers or debug your subroutines faster than your high school classmate two blocks down the strip is flipping or debugging, because we're in competition with those guys,…

Neal Stephenson

“It is what you don’t expect,” he’d said, “that most needs looking for.” “Do”

Neal Stephenson

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“...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

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“There was no way that these guys were going to let a bleeding, barefoot woman simply wander off alone into the streets. Two of them were already running toward her with hands reaching out in a manner that, in normal circumstances, would have seemed just plain ungentlemanly. What would have been designated, in a Western office, as a hostile environment…

Neal Stephenson

“Space and Time! Two minor omissions that no one is likely to notice," grumbled Newton.”

Neal Stephenson

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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

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“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. Scout’s honor.” “For us, living or dying is not the important thing,” Goto Dengo says. “Hey! Tell me something I didn’t fucking already know!” Shaftoe says. “Even winning battles isn’t important to you. Is it?” Goto…

Neal Stephenson

“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 one purpose only: so that you can make your way back to Paris and tell them the following: that the deed you are about to witness was done for a woman, whose name I will not…

Neal Stephenson

“You’ve probably heard the expression that the Industry feeds off of biomass, like a whale straining krill from the ocean.”

Neal Stephenson

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“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 his third mission of the night. His uniform is black as activated charcoal, filtering the very light out of the air. A bullet will bounce off its arachnofiber weave like a wren hitting a patio door,…

Neal Stephenson