Alan Wake II

"Back to the beginning. We all come to a story with hopes and expectations, looking for an answer. Sometimes, it would be better to live with that hope, without ever knowing the full story. In a horror story, there are only victims and monsters and the trick is not to end up as either. But, trapped by the genre, we are all ripped to pieces along the way. This is not the story I hoped it would be. This is not the ending I wanted. This story will eat us alive. This story is a monster. And monsters wear many faces."

"You can't make something out of nothing. Even in the Dark Place, where the rules hardly apply, it’s very complicated to make fiction come true."

"How many writers does it take to finish a story? One for each draft. It's the same writer, but at a different point in time."

"I dive to the bottom to find the answer, the map-- the map and the key and the compass is combined to form a door leading out! But how do you open a door that's not a door? At the bottom of an ocean that's not an ocean in a lake... that's not a lake?"

"I'm lost! I'm lost in the dark, drowning. I'm drowning... I'm drowning, no way out. There's no way out. Sinking deeper and deeper and deeper, this is hell. I'm in hell, I died. I wish I was dead, let me die, I just wanna sleep! Please, let me sleep! I'm so tired-- I just wanna go home, I've written so much. I write and I write, there's nothing left! It's all gone! I don't know how to write. All the words are gone, there's no more words, where'd they go? Did I eat the words? I don't recognize these words anymore. Are the words moving? Oh, God, this is familiar. Why is this familiar? I-- I've been here before. Have I said this before? I've read this somewhere. Where am I? Who am I? "Alan Wake". "Wake"? That's a strange name, "A. Wake," that sounds like a character's name! Did I-- What, did I-- I write that name up, I make that what-- name up? I don't wanna be a character, I-- I don't wanna be in this story, just write me out of the story!"

"How do you run from an idea? From a thought? From a story that lives in your head? You can't escape your fears. You carry your monsters with you. The devil on your back, it's in you. You're running right back to it -- a loop. I need to stop. Stop running. Stop writing. I won't write another word. It's too dangerous, only horror comes out of it. People get hurt. I will let the currents of this ocean wash me away."

"What the fuck?!"

"It's called "Return" because... we return."

"It's time someone gave me a straight answer here!"

"I was back exactly where I left. A dark forest outside Bright Falls. A gun in one hand, a flashlight in the other. Haunted by my own writing. Alice taken from me. I knew what I had to do. Stop the horror story from coming true. Stop the Dark Presence."

"I'd driven down this road before. Been driving on it forever."

"In 2010, I had dived in -- a leap of faith. For Alice. With no idea that the cost would be a nightmare worse than death. It had taken me thirteen years to get out. Now Alice was dead because of me. And I was gonna make that leap again, this time knowing the cost all too well. Another way to look at it: I had brought the Dark Place here with me. I never had gotten out. Maybe after this, I finally could. It was a fool's hope. I had no choice, I had to do it. It didn't make me any less terrified."

"[to Scratch] C'mon, you motherfucker! C'mon! Come home!"

"What if there's nothing waiting to be revealed? The play of shadows fooled us all; subterfuge to get our price of admission. Darkness, not as a monster, but as emptiness."

"We are none the wiser. No answers, no truths. The hero looks inside, is destroyed by what he sees, and is redeemed. Saga said we're both heroes. I'll pay that price, so will she. We are here to kill the monster. I pray nothing comes after this. Nothing but sleep."

"This is how we win. Is it too easy? What if this is still the Dark Place? Another dream to wake up from. Always coming back to the beginning. The memory of what came before burned away by this terrible realization. Maybe it's a mercy, forgetting. To know nothing when we loop around, back to--"

"It's not a loop; it's a spiral."

"A fictional poet once said "Beyond the shadow you settle for, there is a miracle, illuminated." I will not settle for a shadow. I will find the miracle, through the night. It's not just victims and monsters; I see now, there are heroes as well. We can find our way through the darkness. We will break through the surface and crash into the light."

"It has taken so. Long. The process to change reality is so delicate, to be true in just the right way and still find a way past our flaws. So many drafts. So many photographs. So many lives lived outside of time -- an eternity apart on the journey to finally arrive here"

"And so I return. With me, I bear the torch of knowledge. The light -- the miracle illuminated. The master of two worlds. No. The master of many worlds."

"[as The Writer, to Rose Marigold / The Waitress, delivered through a Billy Bass] It's me, your favorite writer whose voice you would recognize in your sleep! I'm in danger. Please, my number one fan, you're the only one who can save me!"

"[as The Writer, to Rose Marigold / The Waitress, delivered through a deer] I knew you, my number one fan, would never fall victim to my twisted brother's lies. His hatred for me is as inexplicable as the sunrise... and just as fiery. But I knew your heart would never waver. You're the only one who can save me. I believe in you."

"[to Jesse Faden / The Sibling] Hello, sister. I would like to tell you about a dream I had."

"Not a bad place to get murdered."

"It's for us... the text is about us."

"With dead men coming alive, the word "ritual" starts to have more weight behind it."

"It's not true. It's just a fucking story, it's not true!"

"I neglected my family for my job. I was too thrilled by the cases, the mysteries. I liked how dangerous the work was. And now that danger has destroyed my family. It killed my daughter!"

"My life -- my family -- is just part of a book! Another white asshole deciding what I get to do, how I get to do it. I'll never be free of this story! From him!"

"This is our ending. You're not the only one deciding these things anymore."

"Something about morgues, they always cheer me up."

"I'd love to blame this on a mass hallucination caused by inhaling volcanic gas, but we both know that's bullshit. This was supernatural."

"Alan Wake. My name comes up, your books come up, you come up. I've read them. There are echoes of my life in there that makes me feel like someone's been watching me."

"I've only been lost once in my life... the years I spent with my ex-wife."

"I'm a goner. Swell. A shadow crawling under my skin. In my head. Call my ex, tell her I'm sorry. Terminal Case Casey."

"It is a spiral."

"Is it over? Anderson?"

"You're not gonna get what you want. You think you know -- you don't know shit. You don't really wanna know. You're gonna get what's coming to you."

"The rain tried to wash away the sins of this city. Hm. But some sins, the evidence of the crimes committed, could never be erased. Not by the rain. Or any amount of therapy from Dr. Jack Daniels. It remained, bruises under my skin like tattoos. Bruises in my soul. Scar tissue on my heart. The rain never stopped falling. And I never stopped drinking."

"They say God made us in His image. Just like us, He is an uncaring, cruel son of a bitch. Having made it in Heaven, He doesn't want us there- dirtying up all that nice white upholstery. And He doesn’t want to reach down to help us, he gets his kicks just binge watching us struggling, hurting, killing, dying- screwing it up again and again. Lazily stirring it up when things threaten to get too placid. This city is only here to satisfy his sick voyeuristic pleasures."

"I was dead tired. I just wanted it to be over. It was all my fault. Sometimes, I'd forget the pain was there. Like it was the way you were supposed to feel. I was not in a dark place — I was the dark place, the source of it all, the vessel. Me and the writer... we were the same."

"There wasn't enough alcohol in this city to drown the memories of this nightmare, but I'd damn well try. This case would never be closed, I had more questions now than at the start, the irony of being trapped in a postmodern detective story. I felt watched, the eyes of an unseen audience on me. I wanted to turn to the hidden camera and tell them to fuck off- but I didn't know where to look to break the fourth wall. There would always be another case for Casey. A million stories in this dark city. The night opened up to welcome me. I walked into her arms. Roll credits."

"[released at the end of the Night Springs DLC as a tribute to James McCaffrey] Chasing the murder cult made me feel like I was caught in a loop. Every time I thought I was getting closer, things shifted around, and I realized I was further away than ever before. Instead of answers, I only got more questions. The name of the cult and the masks they wore kept changing. The deeper into the dark depths I got, peeling off the layers of this case like the ocean zones from twilight to midnight to abyssal to the deepest trenches, the closer I felt to going mad."

"After this, I'm sure we'll all be eagerly awaiting the culmination of this Hero's Journey trilogy of yours! A book called "Return", perhaps..."

"All this talk of meta narratives has me expecting to disappear once this scene ends."

"You keep opening doors. Peeking in. Reaching through to get what you want, and that puts you in my path."

"The next time we meet, the circumstances will be very different. And you would do well to return the favor by playing your part... or stay out of my way, Mr. Wake."

"Night Springs. A special place -- a shifting space, existing in a countless number of parallel realities. Sometimes a quaint, small town. Sometimes, a hulking metropolis. Different every time we set upon the road that leads us there. And yet, like a half-remembered echo of a fading dream, always familiar to us. These are the stories that take place there. Awe-inspiring. Macabre. Terrifying, heartbreaking, nail-biting, absurd... and thrilling. Sometimes, all of these things at once. A haunting new season of mind-bending episodes written by Alan Wake. I am your host, Warlin Door, and I will see you soon in... Night Springs."

"A fan. The dictionary definition of the work is: "An enthusiast. A fervent devotee. An abbreviation of... 'fanatic'." What comes across to an outsider as a dangerous obsession, or even madness, is something... entirely different from the point of view of the fan herself. To be a fan... is a joyous existence, one filled with the happiness that stems from knowing, with utter clarity, the purpose of your life. But what if that purpose could be more still? If you could be lifted out of the flock as your idol's chosen one? The only one who could decipher his secret messages? Hm... What lengths would you go to save the object of your obsession in... Night Springs? Tonight's cult-classic episode: "Number One Fan"."

"A fan and the object of her joy come together against a world trying to keep them apart. A happy ending, for some. But is happiness, like beauty, all in the eye of the beholder? Where is the line between fandom and fixation? One can never tell in... Night Springs."