“ He had always admired his colleagues in the life and earth sciences who could hit the road on short notice with a fully stocked backpack and live rugged adventuresome lives in exotic locales. But he h… Neal Stephenson
“ He gazes up at the ceiling of the chapel through half-closed eyes and thanks God for having sent him what is obviously a German spy and an angel of mercy rolled into one adorable package. Neal Stephenson
“ He finds an open boulevard of water that leads inward to the Core. It has asort of pedestrian catwalk running along one side of it, pieced togetherhaphazardly, a seemingly endless procession of gangpl… Neal Stephenson
“ He arouses violent controversy among a loose flock of chickens that is straggling across his path, none of whom can seem to figure out how to get out of his way; they’re scared of him, but not mentall… Neal Stephenson
“ Has anyone you know ever been ritually mutilated because they were seen reading a book? Neal Stephenson
“ Half of the castle has, at one point or another, been burned down by a combination of Barbary corsairs, lightning bolts, Napoleon, and smoking in bed. Neal Stephenson
“ Got what? Pete Starling asked, over the video link. Am I missing something? No, Dinah said. We are just proceeding adaptively to leverage our core competencies. Neal Stephenson
“ Got himself fired for pulling a sword on an acknowledged perp. Slid it right through the fabric of the perp’s shirt, gliding the flat of the blade along the base of his neck, and pinned him to a warpe… Neal Stephenson
“ Getting through the intersection involves tracing paths through the parking system, many braided filaments of direction like the Ho Chi Minh trail. Neal Stephenson
“ For every human being who is born into this universe is like a child who has been given a key to an infinite Library, written in cyphers that are more or less obscure, arranged by a scheme — of which… Neal Stephenson
“ FORTRAN, BASIC, COBOL, LISP, Pascal, C, PROLOG, FORTH. You talk to the computer in one of these languages, and a piece of software called a compiler converts it into machine language. Neal Stephenson
“ Debbie insisted on following the rhythm of the waves. Typical duck-squeezer sex: slow, frustrating, in-tune with nature. Neal Stephenson
“ Da5id Meier, supreme hacker overlord, founding father of the Metaverse protocol, creator and proprietor of the world-famous Black Sun, has just suffered a system crash. He’s been thrown out of his own… Neal Stephenson
“ DMS is energetic and enterprising to a degree that from time to time leaves certain persons (e.g. those burdened with a petty fear of death or torture) uneasy (see my prior speculation as to possibili… Neal Stephenson
“ CosaNostra Pizza doesn't have any competition. Competition goes against the Mafia ethic. Neal Stephenson
“ By outward appearances, Cantabrigia Five was a video journalist. But it made sense that, in a world where no police or military action could be judged successful unless it looked good to ordinary pers… Neal Stephenson
“ At this point, Mrs. Disher stepped in to say, if you thought that was scary, look at how poor people lived in the late twentieth century. Indeed, after ractives told them about the life of an inner-ci… Neal Stephenson
