“ Yur heaved a sigh, then continued in a more moderate tone: Never mind. I see it now. It’s some kind of Purpose thing. Above my pay grade. You should have just told me. He drew himself up and saluted.… Neal Stephenson
“ You’re going to fly a radioactive ice ball the size of the Death Star back here just as the shit is hitting the fan—then what? Neal Stephenson
“ You're a hacker. That means you have deep structures to worry about, too.Deep structures?Neurolinguistic pathways in your brain. Remember the first time you learnedbinary code?Sure.You were forming pa… Neal Stephenson
“ You should be a billionaire, Randy. Thank god you're not.Why do you say that?Oh, because then you'd be a highly intelligent man who never has to make difficult choices - who never has to exert his min… Neal Stephenson
“ Y.T. is maxing at a Mom's Truck Stop on 405, waiting for her ride. Not that she would ever be caught dead at a Mom's Truck Stop. If, like, a semi ran her over with all eighteen of its wheels in front… Neal Stephenson
“ Whenever serious and competent people need to get things done in the real world, all considerations of tradition and protocol fly out the window. Neal Stephenson
“ What’s the best way to calm down a scared kid, get them to go back to sleep? Tell them a story. Some shit about Jesus or whatever. Neal Stephenson
“ What is the moral of your play, Jack? Oh, it could be a number of things: stay the hell out of Europe, for example. Or: when the men with swords come, run away! Especially if they’ve got Bibles, too.… Neal Stephenson
“ What if the places you went and the things you encountered in your work were more interesting than what was available in the physical world around you? Neal Stephenson
“ What else can you tell us about this batna, Surendranath? I learnt it from English traders in Surat, said the befuddled Surendranath, It stands for Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement. Neal Stephenson
“ We don’t believe in anything as simple as metempsychosis—the movement of an individual soul from one body to another. That’s not what we mean by reincarnation at all. What Neal Stephenson
“ War did not just level, it plowed the field, raising the muck and sinking the stubble. Neal Stephenson
“ Unfortunately, this category of secret is itself so secret that it's very existance is secret, and he can't actually reveal it to anyone. Neal Stephenson
“ Trying to crack the code used on these sheets will be a perfect puzzle to fill the gaping void Neal Stephenson
“ This is why he hates business. He wants to tell everyone everything. He wants to make friends with people. Neal Stephenson
“ This is a terrible country for old people. You put them away in horrible buildings that are completely shut off from life, and then do everything possible to keep them alive. It is a very stupid syste… Neal Stephenson
“ They were assembling a rocket there. It was a big rocket. It all more or less made sense. There was no cargo too big to be barged up the Columbia River and then trucked the last few miles to Moses Lak… Neal Stephenson
“ These people are as happy as, say, Fraa Orolo. They get what they want: naked ladies on their wheels. He gets what he wants: upsight to the mysteries of the universe. Neal Stephenson
“ There is a certain kind of small town that grows like a boil on the ass of every Army base in the world. Neal Stephenson
“ Their openness would probably be career suicide in the atmosphere of Byzantine court-eunuch intrigue that is public life in the United States today. Neal Stephenson
