Daryl Gregory Quotes & Sayings

A monster crosses over into the everyday world. The mortals struggle and show great courage, but it's no use. The monster kills first the guilty, then the innocent, until finally only one remains. The Last Boy, the Last Girl. There is a final battle. The Last One suffers great wounds, but in the final moment vanquishes the monster. Only later does he or she recognize that this is the monster's final trick; the scars run deep, and the awareness of the truth grows like an infection. The Last One knows that the monster isn't dead, only sent to the other side. There it waits until it can slip into the mundane world again. Perhaps next time it will be a knife-wielding madman, or a fanged beast, or some nameless tentacled thing. It's the monster with a thousand faces. The details matter only to the next victims. — Daryl Gregory

I walked downhill to the rental place, my backpack ten pounds heavier than it was this morning because of three huge textbooks: one on government from world history class; one from English class called Catastrophes of New England: 1650 to 1875; and a much-used book from my last class of the day, Non-Euclidean Geometry. The class was taught by Mr. Gint, a pale, balding man who barely looked at us. The entire class period he sat at his desk with a protractor and pencil, drawing pictures and muttering to himself. — Daryl Gregory

Hyperentrepreneurs that make even hardcore capitalists nervous. — Daryl Gregory

Startled awake. Ollie froze for a moment, staring in his direction. The kid scrunched his face and yawned like a bear. I said to Ollie, "It's still Bobby." "Right," she said. She unzipped the bag. There was no lock on the zipper, not even the tiny padlocks they — Daryl Gregory

Everything beautiful hurts. — Daryl Gregory

There was as much joy in surrendering free will as exercising it. — Daryl Gregory

Maybe everyone in the world was this inconsistent, this fragments. All we could see of each other
all we could see of ourselves
was a ragged person-shaped outline, a game of connect-the-dots without enough dots. — Daryl Gregory

The best aunts aren't substitute parents, they're co-conspirators. — Daryl Gregory

Rogue factories on the other side of the border, most of them also on Native American reservations, pumped out millions of cheap, untaxed, generic cigarettes a year. You couldn't blame the Indians. We took their land; they were giving us cancer. — Daryl Gregory

The question, then, was how long could a human being stay awake? Keith Richards could party for three days straight, but I wasn't sure if he counted as a human being. — Daryl Gregory

He wondered what the collective noun was for psychologists: a shortage of shrinks? A confession of counsellors? — Daryl Gregory

The human egg is a Mrs. Bennet, desperate to marry off her daughters ... It is a truth universally acknowledged that a sperm must be in want of a matching strand of DNA. — Daryl Gregory

Fayza leaned in, squinting, as if she didn't hear me correctly: one of the library of power moves that adults used to signal that other adults were fucking idiots. — Daryl Gregory

If this is what it's like to be human, he thought, no wonder the world is so fucked up. — Daryl Gregory

Drive safe, dress safe, live safe. Retreat to the safest place of all. — Daryl Gregory

He was upright, so was that holding up? — Daryl Gregory

Fantasy involves that which general opinion regards as impossible; science fiction involves that which general opinion regards as possible under the right circumstances. This is in essence a judgment call, since what is possible and what is not cannot be objectively known but is, rather, a subjective belief on the part of the reader. — Daryl Gregory

You're being parental', I said. 'Go find that squid'. — Daryl Gregory

We'd understood from high school on that it was Lew's job to make good grades, find a high-paying career, buy a two-story house in the suburbs, and generally become Dad. It was my job to fuck up. Occasionally this annoyed me, but most of the time I was comfortable with the division of labor. Lew's job was nearly impossible, and mine came naturally. — Daryl Gregory

Detroit, the kookiest damn city he'd ever visited. It was the first time he'd seen abandoned homes and decrepit skyscrapers alongside acres of fresh farmland, all part of some inner-city rejuvenation project to turn the industrial revolution inside out. Hell, maybe even white people would come back to the city. — Daryl Gregory

What I remember are tentacles. Tentacles and teeth. — Daryl Gregory

Sometimes you have to just act normal to make the world *be* normal. — Daryl Gregory

There was a scientist who did not believe in gods or fairies or supernatural creatures of any sort. But she had once known an angel, and had talked to her every day. — Daryl Gregory

Divine essence?' I said. 'Hey, I'm Fat Boy, I'll possess a guy and make him eat ten pounds of chocolate in one sitting! Yeah, that's divine, that's fucking deep, that's like ... ' I couldn't think what that was like. It was like something, though. — Daryl Gregory

Pretending to be normal made life so difficult. — Daryl Gregory

You remember Ernest Angley? TV healer. He'd slap people's foreheads - whap! - and they'd flop over, quivering like fish." She hooted in laughter. "I used to love watching him. It was like professional wrestling for Baptists. — Daryl Gregory

Jesus, he 's blogger," Pax said. "Arrest him, Deke. — Daryl Gregory

Was it possible that they could both be so unknown to themselves? — Daryl Gregory

Every other writer's process is sort of vaguely scary and appalling. — Daryl Gregory

As I sat there in the pew during the altar call, I suddenly understood that if I didn't surrender to Him I would go to Hell when I died. It wasn't Hell itself that scared me - or not just Hell. It was the idea that my mother was going to Heaven without me. — Daryl Gregory

That morning, while Mom had fought with Grandpa, Aunt Sel had asked me to bring her a glass of wine - it was nine in the morning - and when I'd delivered it she'd handed me a ten dollar bill and said, I dislike children, but I do appreciate decent service. — Daryl Gregory

The doctor unfurled her wings into Maximum Righteousness Mode. The flaming sword was in her hand. She pointed with it like the archangel casting us out of the garden. Get your ass back there! — Daryl Gregory

The rabbit is already in the hat. Do not clap for fucking Tinkerbell. Believe nothing. — Daryl Gregory

I will admit to fucking a zucchini when I was in high school. For years I thought I was a vegesexual. — Daryl Gregory

Everyone develops a tolerance to happiness. — Daryl Gregory

God gets the easiest performance reviews. — Daryl Gregory

For the first time in his life, Stony felt it. It ran like a hot wire, up from his spine, to the base of his skull. His mouth opened on its own.
He wanted to bite. He wanted to bite hard. — Daryl Gregory

We're different from other people, she'd said. We only feel at home when we're a little bit afraid. — Daryl Gregory

Perhaps that's a smile on Delia's face-but Delia's half skull turns every expression into a leer. She says, Your uncle had a talent, kid. He made families wherever he went. — Daryl Gregory

Just curious? That's a bullshit phrase."
"It's a simple question. How long - "
"No, it's a signal that bullshit is about to follow. It's the hat that bullshit puts on before it goes out to get the paper. — Daryl Gregory

Look, you can't think of a person like it's one thing, one 'I' that decides everything. The brain is a collective, a huge number of all these thinking modules. It doesn't make a decision, it arrives at one. — Daryl Gregory

I need that printer," I said. "And the precursor — Daryl Gregory

Love at first sight is a myth, but thundering sexual attraction at first sight is hard science. — Daryl Gregory

"I might be entertaining the idea of tamping down my nihilism. Just a bit. Not because life is not meaningless - I think that's inarguable. It's just that the constant awareness of its pointlessness is exhausting. I wouldn't mind being oblivious again. I'd love to feel the wind in my face and think, just for minute, that I'm not going to crash into the rocks."
"You're saying you'd like to be happy. — Daryl Gregory

The rhythm of breath may have been our first language. — Daryl Gregory

I've always been a sucker for the beautiful and the batshit. — Daryl Gregory

So this made-up religion
"
"I didn't say made-up. I said brand new. 'Made-up religion' is redundant. — Daryl Gregory

Even peasants can build a cathedral. — Daryl Gregory

She believed that people were captains of their own destiny. He agreed, as long as it was understood that every captain was destined to go down with the ship, and there wasn't a damned thing you could do about it. — Daryl Gregory

A BS in any neuroscience without a master's or PhD was a three-legged dog of a degree: pitiable, adorable, and capable of inspiring applause when it did anything for you at all. — Daryl Gregory

Everyone in the class turned. On one of the tables, a frog had started to smoke, and the limbs were twitching spasmodically. Dr. Herbert rushed over, clapping his hands. "It's alive!" he cried. — Daryl Gregory

He twirled a finger, the universal symbol for roll down your window
universal despite the fact that no one had manually rolled down a window in twenty years. — Daryl Gregory