14 quotes
The unconscious is selective, when it learns what to listen for.
A Scanner Darkly (1977)
It sounds like they're saying passive life is good, he thought. But there is no such thing as passive life. That's a contradiction.
A Scanner Darkly (1977)
In this dark world where he now dwelt, ugly things and surprising things and once in a long while a tiny wondrous thing spilled out at him constantly; he could count on nothing.
A Scanner Darkly (1977)
Robert Arctor halted. Stared at them, at the straights in their fat suits, their fat ties, their fat shoes, and he thought, Substance D can't destroy their brains; they have none.
A Scanner Darkly (1977)
A psychologist said, “They used to talk about seeing only ‘reflections’ of reality. Not reality itself. The main thing wrong with a reflection is not that it isn't real, but that it’s reversed.”
A Scanner Darkly (1977)
Activity does not necessarily mean life. Quasars are active. And a monk meditating is not inanimate.
A Scanner Darkly (1977)
If I had known it was harmless
I would have killed it myself.
A Scanner Darkly (1977)
They wanted to have a good time, but they were like children playing in the street; they could see one after another of them being killed—run over, maimed, destroyed—but they continued to play anyhow.
A Scanner Darkly (1977)
I saw Substance D growing. I saw death rising from the earth, from the ground itself, in one blue field, in stubbled color.
A Scanner Darkly (1977)
It's a downer to tell anything to a kid. I once had a kid ask me, “What was it like to see the first automobile?” Shit, man, I was born in 1962.
A Scanner Darkly (1977)
Life in Anaheim, California, was a commercial for itself, endlessly replayed. Nothing changed; it just spread out farther and farther in the form of neon ooze. What there was always more of had been congealed into permanence long ago, as if the automatic factory that cranked out these objects had jammed in the on position.
A Scanner Darkly (1977)
Any given man sees only a tiny portion of the total truth, and very often, in fact almost … perpetually, he deliberately deceives himself about that precious little fragment as well. A portion of him turns against him and acts like another person, defeating him from inside. A man inside a man. Which is no man at all.
A Scanner Darkly (1977)
That life had been one without excitement, with no adventure. It had been too safe. All the elements that made it up were right there before his eyes, and nothing new could ever be expected. It was like, he had once thought, a little plastic boat that would sail on forever, without incident, until it finally sank, which would be a secret relief to all.
A Scanner Darkly (1977)
The pain, the cut in his scalp, so unexpected and undeserved, had for some reason cleared away the cobwebs. It flashed on him instantly that he didn't hate the kitchen cabinet: he hated his wife, his two daughters, his whole house, the back yard with its power mower, the garage, the radiant heating system, the front yard, the fence, the whole fucking place and everyone in it.
A Scanner Darkly (1977)