45 quotes
First-time novelists have a tough row to hoe. Our publishers don’t have a lot of promotional budget to throw at unknown factors like us. Mostly, we rise and fall based on word-of-mouth.
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (2003)
I enlisted my readers in the service of a grand experiment, to see how my book could find its way into cultural relevance and commercial success. The experiment worked out very satisfactorily.
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (2003)
Engineers are all basically high-functioning autistics who have no idea how normal people do stuff.
Eastern Standard Tribe (2004)
This is why I loved technology: if you used it right, it could give you power and privacy.
Little Brother (2008)
He was a pushy, self-righteous prig, but that didn’t mean he was wrong. Necessarily.
The Man Who Sold The Moon (2014)
The problem isn’t that the world has the wrong kind of sellers; it’s that it has the wrong kind of buyers. Powerless, diffused, atomized, puny, and insubstantial.
Petard: A Tale of Just Deserts (2014)
Abnormal is so common, it's practically normal.
Little Brother (2008)
No one should do a job he can do in his sleep.
Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town (2005)
Maybe it’s just an elaborate game of sound bites and kabuki gestures that are all calibrated to the precise sociopathic degree necessary to convey empathy and ethics without ever descending into either.
Petard: A Tale of Just Deserts (2014)
I'm of the opinion that science fiction writers suck at predicting the future. We mostly go around describing the present in futuristic clothes - (such as) Mary Shelley, Bill Gibson, and many others.
"All secrets become deep. All secrets become dark. That's in the nature of secrets."
Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town (2005)
There were only two reasons to call me after something like this: to confess his sins or to get revenge. And no one would ever mistake me for a priest.
Petard: A Tale of Just Deserts (2014)
The Bitchun Society has had much experience with restores from backup—in the era of the cure for death, people live pretty recklessly. Some people get refreshed a couple dozen times a year.
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (2003)
One form of math denial is the belief in the ability to make computers that prevent copyright infringement. Computers only ever work by making copies: restricting copying on the internet is like restricting wetness in water.
Larry poured himself a coffee. "I hate when they come in here with computers. They sit forever at their tables, and they don't talk to nobody, it's like having a place full of statues or zombies."
Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town (2005)
It was nice to think that the key to feeding nine billion people was to measure return on investment by maximizing calories and minimizing misery, instead of minimizing capital investment and maximizing retained earnings to shareholders.
The Man Who Sold The Moon (2014)
I lived long enough to see the cure for death; to see the rise of the Bitchun Society, to learn ten languages; to compose three symphonies; to realize my boyhood dream of taking up residence in Disney World; to see the death of the workplace and of work.
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (2003)
A tablet without software is just an inconveniently fragile and poorly reflective mirror, so the thing I want to be sure of when I buy a device is that I don't have to implicitly trust one corporation's judgment about what software I should and shouldn't be using.
It’s a bitch when someone reminds you of all the contradictions in your life, I know. Your discomfort doesn’t make what I’m saying any less true, though. Come on, you all know this is true. Late-stage capitalism isn’t reformable. It’s an idea whose time has passed.
The Man Who Sold The Moon (2014)
Here is how platforms die: First, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die. I call this enshittification...