Novelists From The United States

"When a species fixates on the supernatural, it ceases to mature."

"I can’t help suggesting that a God who communicates through leukemia is at best deranged."

"I think you’re so full of shit you’ve got roses growing out of your ass."

"He smiled. Julie’s wedding, exquisite thought. Would his grandchildren be free of godhead? Was divinity a recessive trait?"

"She asked, “Do you believe science has all the answers?” “Huh?” “Science. Does it have all the answers?” “Everybody thinks he’s being oh-so-deep when he says science doesn’t have all the answers.” Done. All of it. Virginity gone, flesh ratified, mother spited, mission discovered—the gospel of empirical truth! Yes! Oh, yes! “Science does have all the answers,” said Howard, withdrawing. “The problem is that we don’t have all the science.”"

"What most people don’t realize is that something unprecedented has entered the world. Bang—science—and suddenly a proposition is true because it’s true, Julie, not because its adherents have the biggest churches or the grandest inquisitors or the most weeks on The New York Times bestseller list."

"“Myriad contradictory worlds,” lectured Professor Jerome Delacato, “forever splitting off from each other like branches on a tree, so that, somewhere out there, I am presently giving a lecture explaining how the many-worlds hypothesis cannot possibly be true.”"

"“I’m really interested in this stuff.” Julie rubbed a carton labeled ELEMENTARY PARTICLES. “Physics?” “Physics, biology, stars, everything.” Howard said, “Good for you. These days most people prefer to impoverish their minds with mysticism.”"

"“Actually, the answer’s quite simple.” Two red eyes floated in the mist. “Really? Tell me. Why does God allow evil?” The red eyes vanished, leaving only the lantern and the night. “Because power corrupts,” said Wyvern’s disembodied voice. “And absolute power corrupts absolutely.”"

"You wouldn’t like him. Major fanatic. Confuses migraine headaches with God."

"“I’ve been good, I’ve been bad—nothing gets her attention. What am I supposed to do, sacrifice a goat?” “Perhaps you should start a religion. You know—reveal your mother to the world.” “How can I reveal her when I don’t know what she’s like?” “Use your imagination. Everybody else does.”"

"The labels fascinated Julie—Cutty Sark, Dewar’s, Beefeater—each logo dense with staid print and Anglo-Saxon dignity, as if alcohol were really a type of literary criticism and not a leading cause of traffic fatalities and brain rot."

"“Right before bed, I spend twenty minutes in this place. Then I can sleep.” “You mean you simply sit here, staring at everybody’s pain? All you do is look at it?” “Uh-huh. Just like God.”"

"People are always asking, does God exist? Of course she does. The real question: what is she like?"

"“There’s something else, Beverly. I’m a minister of the Lord. This will be unusual for me, a kind of experiment.” “I know all about it, Reverend. You folks do more experimenting than Princeton’s entire physics department.”"

"What good is it having God for a mother if she never sends you a birthday card?"

"Murray held his daughter at arm’s length. “Does God...er, visit you?” “She doesn’t even whisper to me. I listen, but she doesn’t talk. It’s not fair.” God didn’t talk. The best news he’d heard since Gabriel Frostig announced his embryo. “Look Julie, it’s good she doesn’t talk. God asks her children to do crazy things. It’s good she doesn’t whisper. Understand?” “I guess.” “Really?” “Uh-huh. Where’d the crab go? Is he looking for his friends?” A profound weariness pressed upon Murray. “Yes. Right. His friends. It’s good God doesn’t whisper.”"

"What enormous potential for intermittent happiness the world offered."

"“Pop, do we have heaven?” he’d asked on the day he discovered the (dead) cat. “You want to know a Jew’s idea of heaven?” his father had replied, looking up from his Maimonides. “It’s an endless succession of long winter nights on which we get paid a fair wage to sit in a warm room and read all the books ever written...Not just the famous ones, no, every book, the stuff nobody gets around to reading, forgotten plays, novels by people you never heard of. However, I profoundly doubt such a place exists.”"

"He was a devout believer in the second chance. To the man who asked, “What’s the point of closing the barn door after the horse has been stolen?” Murray would answer, “The point is that the door is now closed.”"

"“Are we innately aggressive?” asked Aquinas. “Was the nuclear predicament symptomatic of a more profound depravity? Nobody knows. But if this is so—and I suspect that it is—then the responsibility for what we are pleased to call our inhumanity still rests squarely in our blood-soaked hands. The killer-ape hypothesis does not specify a fate—it lays out an agenda. Beware, the fable warns. Caution. Trouble ahead. Genocidal weapons in the hands of creatures who are bored by peace.” “I think I’m going to throw up,” said Brat. “But the fable went unheeded. And the weapons, unchecked. And then, one cold Christmas season, death came to an admirable species—a species that wrote symphonies and sired Leonardo da Vinci and would have gone to the stars. It did not have to be this way. Three virtues only were needed—creative diplomacy, technical ingenuity, and moral outrage. But the greatest of these is moral outrage.”"

"To George, Overwhite still seemed like a windbag, but he was obviously a resourceful and intelligent one, a windbag woven of the finest material."

"Be sure to convict that chucklehead. He thinks a country’s Christianity is measured by the size of its thermonuclear arsenal."

"“It must have been hard converting your elders in the Pentagon to this view.” “Ever try stuffing a melted marshmallow up a wildcat’s ass? It can be done, but you have to like your job.”"

"The fission bomb was a costly mistress. Consider, your Honors. In 1979 this planet celebrated the International Year of the Child. Of the one hundred and twenty-two million children born that year, one of every ten was dead by 1982, and most died for lack of inexpensive food and vaccines. Yet in 1982 the world spent one trillion dollars on weapons. One trillion dollars!"

"“In the end Humankind destroyed the heaven and the earth,” Soapstone began... “And Humankind said, ‘Let there be security,’ and there was security. And Humankind tested the security, that it would detonate. And Humankind divided the U-235 from the U-238. And the evening and the morning were the first strike.” Soapstone looked up from the book. “Some commentators feel that the author should have inserted, ‘And Humankind saw the security, that it was evil.’ Others point out that such a view was not universally shared.”... Casting his eyes heavenward, Soapstone continued. “And Humankind said, ‘Let there be a holocaust in the midst of the dry land.’ And Humankind poisoned the aquifers that were below the dry land and scorched the ozone that was above the dry land. And the evening and the morning were the second strike.”... “And Humankind said, ‘Let the ultraviolet light destroy the food chains that bring forth the moving creature!’ And the evening and the morning—”... “And Humankind said, ‘Let there be rays in the firmament to fall upon the survivors!’ And Humankind made two great rays, the greater gamma radiation to give penetrating whole-body doses, and the lesser beta radiation to burn the plants and the bowels of animals! And Humankind sterilized each living creature, saying, ‘Be fruitless, and barren, and cease to—’”"

"For moral reasons, the young Reverend Peter Sparrow declined to join the Saturday night gatherings of the Erebus Poker Club. Gambling, he knew, was Satan’s third favorite pastime, after sex and ecumenicalism."

"“You want a motive, William? I’ve got a motive. Vengeance may not be a pretty word, but it’s what’s expected of us.” “Right!” said Sverre. “We owe it to all those millions of dead people to make more millions of dead people. Be careful how you rewrite strategic doctrine, General, or you’ll come out of this war without a single medal.”"

"Maybe I’ll end up on the fun side of her pants some day."

"Curse God, and die. To George it seemed like remarkably sage and relevant advice."

"Now we’re getting somewhere, George told himself, although he sensed that this situation would not endure."

"Gravestones, he knew, were educational media, teaching that life has limits: don’t set your sights too high."

"“What do you want out of life, Francis Lostwax?” Francis smiled. “To never hurt anybody again.” His lack of hesitation surprised him. “To feel clean.”"

"Naturally you expect the moral thing from me. But I’ve learned something, friend. Morals don’t count for a hell of a lot in this galaxy. I rank them somewhere between straight teeth and the ability to carry a tune."

"“Talo, it would appear that our sons are growing up.” She tut-tutted in mock solemnity. “And we always said, ‘It can’t happen here.’”"

"Father says don’t kill your principles just because the government is paying for the funeral."

"“As a race of scientists and thinkers,” she concluded, “we cannot claim with absolute certainty that Teot Yon’s personality is now beyond Heaven’s gates or inside Satan’s stewpot or about to enter the embryo of a bull. Some of us subscribe to the Afterworld Hypothesis, some to less cheerful views. We all know that as an empirical event Teot Yon’s existence is over, and it is time for his molecules to become air and ash and after that—where will his drifting pieces go and what new things will they help to form? Let the transformation begin!”"

"A second slash ended the monster’s misery. So, he thought, this is how my Earthling ancestors ran their affairs. This is how lands were won, empires expanded, insurrections resisted, prisoners taken, slaves kept, heretics converted, captives made loquacious. For the first time in his life, Minnix felt himself a part of history. History, he decided, was a terrible idea."

"Sneer, frown, and be miserable, for tomorrow you live."

"Often Burne found himself saying, “I don’t think you would make a very good soldier,” and with grating predictability he heard that he wouldn’t make a very good pacifist."

"“Zolmec,” said Nazra, “has always taught that the greatest words are ‘I could very well be wrong.’”"

"“That was a very pretty speech,” said Loloc, “but if it contained an answer to even one of my questions then I did not hear it.”"

"Every religion says war is evil, but one way or another they end up playing along."

"Like all good friends, they hated seeing their relationship lose its emotional innocence, its chastity of good will, and now that the thing was lost, now that searing statements had changed hands and left scars, neither looked forward to the future."

"Forgive me if I’m confusing you with logic."

"Nature may not be benign, but she is reliable."

"Like most visionaries, The Teller saw the distant future with optical-glass clarity, the intermediate future with beeswax clarity, and the immediate future with the clarity of dark glasses dipped in tar."

"Someday that man will be astonished to discover there’s a whole world marching along outside his buzzing head."

"Francis realized he was afflicted with what his father used to term “an erection of the curiosity organ.”"

"Tez always had warm feelings about paradoxes. It was the scientist in her."