Ernest Cline Quotes & Sayings

Then she snapped her fingers and we were standing on Europa, discussing the possibility of extraterrestrial life beneath the moon's icy crust. I — Ernest Cline

So I'm supposed to believe you're one of those mythical guys who only cares about a woman's personality, and not about the package it comes in? — Ernest Cline

It suddenly occurred to me just how absurd this scene was: a guy wearing a suit of armor, standing next to an undead king, both hunched over the controls of a classic arcade game. — Ernest Cline

Knavery?" Art3mis said after she'd finished reading it. "Were you using a thesaurus when you wrote this? — Ernest Cline

Standing on the left side of the runway was my battle-worn X-wing fighter. Parked on the right side was my DeLorean. Sitting on the runway itself was my most frequently used spacecraft, the Vonnegut. Max had already powered up the engines, and they emitted a low, steady roar that filled the hangar. The Vonnegut was a heavily modified Firefly-class transport vessel, modeled after the Serenity in the classic Firefly TV series. The ship had been named the Kaylee when I'd first obtained it, but I'd immediately rechristened it after one of my favorite twentieth-century novelists. Its new name was stenciled on the side of its battered gray hull. I'd looted the Vonnegut from a cadre of Oviraptor clansmen who had foolishly attempted to hijack my X-wing while I was cruising through a large group of worlds in Sector Eleven known as the Whedonverse. The — Ernest Cline

Mr. Morrow, IOI owns this network ... " "Of course they do!" Morrow shouted gleefully. 'The own practically everything! Including you, pretty boy! I mean did they tattoo a UPC code on your ass when they hired you to sit there and spout their corporate propaganda? — Ernest Cline

The Great Recession was now entering its third decade, and unemployment was still at a record high. Even the fast-food joints in my neighborhood had a two-year waiting list for job applicants. — Ernest Cline

You'd be amazed how much research you can get done when you have no life whatsoever. — Ernest Cline

I've never really collected anything other than old Atari cartridges. I only had, like, 12 Atari games as a kid, so at some point in my 20s I decided I was going to own all of them. — Ernest Cline

These three words were always the last thing an OASIS user saw before leaving the real world and entering the virtual one: READY PLAYER ONE — Ernest Cline

One artificially intelligent supercomputer pretending to be a hostile alien race for the purpose of testing humanity's character? — Ernest Cline

Fincher, Kubrick, Lucas, Spielberg, Del Toro, Tarantino. And, of course, Kevin Smith. I spent three months studying every John Hughes teen movie and memorizing all the key lines of dialogue. Only the meek get pinched. The bold survive. You could say I covered all the bases. I studied Monty Python. And not just Holy Grail, either. Every single one of their films, albums, and books, and every episode of the original BBC — Ernest Cline

Listen," I said. "It really was luck. I've got a knack for classic arcade games. That's my specialty." I shrugged. "Stop hitting yourself like Rain Man, OK?" She — Ernest Cline

I've wanted to own a DeLorean since I was 10 years old, but it always seemed like a silly daydream. Like owning the 'A-Team' van or something. — Ernest Cline

Finally, I want to thank all of the writers, filmmakers, actors, artists, musicians, programmers, game designers, and geeks whose work I've paid tribute to in this story. These people have all entertained and enlightened me, and I hope that - like Halliday's hunt - this book will inspire others to seek out their creations. — Ernest Cline

I felt like I'd just been picked last for the world's biggest game of kickball. — Ernest Cline

I've been invited to speak at about 20 colleges. There's always this moment when I'm having dinner with the college president: 'Ernie, where'd you go to school?' — Ernest Cline

The only thing crazier than hallucinating a fictional videogame spaceship would be to blame it on a frosted breakfast pastry. — Ernest Cline

I don't know if the '80s were unique, but we certainly got original, groundbreaking stuff at the time with movies like 'Back to the Future' and 'Star Wars' - movies that became classics. — Ernest Cline

If there was a bright center to the universe, I was on the planet it was farthest from. — Ernest Cline

You and the other Sux0rz can all go fuck a duck. — Ernest Cline

Inside were long rows of blue teleportation booths. Their shape and color always reminded me of Doctor Who's TARDIS. — Ernest Cline

I burned through all of my extra lives in a matter of minutes, and my two least-favorite words appeared on the screen: GAME OVER. — Ernest Cline

Screw you, Aech! And your dead grandma! — Ernest Cline

I have a thing for evil bald bad guys. The Kurgan is too sexy. — Ernest Cline

Some time later, she leaned over and kissed me. It felt just like all those songs and poems had promised it would. It felt wonderful. Like being struck by lightning. — Ernest Cline

If I was feeling depressed or frustrated about my lot in life, all I had to do was tap the Player One button, and my worries would instantly slip away as my mind focused itself on the relentless pixelated onslaught on the screen in front of me. There, inside the game's two-dimensional universe, life was simple: It's just you against the machine. Move with your left hand, shoot with your right, and try to stay alive as long as possible. — Ernest Cline

She used to make me wear earplugs at night so I wouldn't hear her in the next room, talking dirty to tricks in other time zones. — Ernest Cline

The Vonnegut was a heavily modified Firefly-class transport vessel, modeled after the Serenity in the classic Firefly TV series. — Ernest Cline

I was staring out the classroom window and daydreaming of adventure when I spotted the flying saucer. — Ernest Cline

Once they got finished slapping you with pay deductions, late fees, and interest penalties, you wound up owing them more each month, instead of less. Once you made the mistake of getting yourself indentured, you would probably remain indentured for life. A lot of people didn't seem to mind this, though. They thought of it as job security. — Ernest Cline

Shit!" I heard Diehl shout over the comm. "I just lost my gorram shields because I'm already out of frakkin' power!"
"Dude," Cruz said. "You shouldn't mix swears from different universes. — Ernest Cline

It is on!" Aech shouted into his comlink. "it is on like Red Dawn! — Ernest Cline

I tried to slip past her again, but she blocked my path and then stomped her foot down in front of me again, pretending like she was Gandalf and I was the balrog. — Ernest Cline

Cops pull me over just to get a better look. They never give me a ticket, even if I'm speeding, but they will ask to take pictures. — Ernest Cline

now had a cure for all forms of cancer, which had eradicated the disease in a matter of weeks. — Ernest Cline

But you do realize that nearly half the people on this planet are starving, right?" I detected no malice in her voice. She sounded like she genuinely believed I might not be aware of this fact. "Yes, I know," I said defensively. "The reason so many people are starving is because we've wrecked the planet. The Earth is dying, you know? It's time to leave. — Ernest Cline

Before long, billions of people around the world were working and playing in the OASIS every day. Some of them met, fell in love, and got married without ever setting foot on the same continent. The lines of distinction between a person's real identity and that of their avatar began to blur. It was the dawn of new era, one where most of the human race now spent all of their free time inside a videogame. — Ernest Cline

My mom once told me that my dad had given me an alliterative name, Wade Watts, because he thought it sounded like the secret identity of a superhero. Like Peter Parker or Clark Kent. — Ernest Cline

Humans were still just a bunch of bipedal apes, divided into arbitrary tribes that were constantly at war over their ruined planet's dwindling natural resources. — Ernest Cline

I'd spent my entire life overdosing on uncut escapism, willingly allowing fantasy to become my reality. — Ernest Cline

I knew Knotcher was trying to push my buttons. Unfortunately, he'd pushed the big red one first. — Ernest Cline

My characters are all kind of geek archetypes of people I've encountered at gaming and comic book conventions. — Ernest Cline

The OASIS lets you be whoever you want to be. That's why everyone is addicted to it. — Ernest Cline

Anorak" was a nickname Halliday had been given by a female British exchange student at his high school. — Ernest Cline

Since then, we'd used Street Fighter II to settle our disputes. — Ernest Cline

I was curled up in an old sleeping bag in the corner of the trailer's tiny laundry room, wedged into the gap between the wall and the dryer. — Ernest Cline

I'm sort of like Q in the James Bond films. Except, you know, I only get to hand out this one thing. — Ernest Cline

I was 7 years old when the '80s began and 17 years old when they ended, so it was an incredibly formative decade for me. — Ernest Cline

We'll do our best." "I know you will. — Ernest Cline

Everybody has this fond association with the car from Back to the Future, but most people have never seen one. I've seen people drive off the berm trying to take pictures. It ends up being dangerous. — Ernest Cline

Han will have that shield down,' " Aech quoted. " 'We've got to give him more time!' — Ernest Cline

It's chick flick disguised as a sword-and-sorcery picture. The only genre film with less balls is probably ... freakin' Legend. Anyone who actually enjoys Ladyhawke is a bona fide USDA-choice pussy! — Ernest Cline

A lot of kids owned their own interplanetary vehicles. School parking lots all over Ludus were filled with UFOs, TIE fighters, old NASA space shuttles, Vipers from Battlestar Galactica, and other spacecraft designs lifted from every sci-fi movie and TV show you can think of. — Ernest Cline

The once-great country into which I'd been born now resembled its former self in name only. It didn't matter who was in charge. Those people were rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic and everyone knew it. — Ernest Cline

At a game like this, a gifted human player could always triumph over the game's AI, because software couldn't improvise. It could either react randomly, or in a limited number of predetermined ways, based on a finite number of preprogrammed conditions. This was an axiom in videogames, and would be until humans invented true artificial intelligence. — Ernest Cline

The Facts were right there waiting for me,hidden in old books written by people who weren't afraid to be honest — Ernest Cline

It's cold as balls in here! — Ernest Cline

This human understands enough to know when he's being messed with. — Ernest Cline

Video games paid for my house. What am I saying? Go ahead and keep playing! — Ernest Cline

I notice when I'm at a party where I don't know anybody - even if I have nothing in common with somebody - we can still talk because we were raised by the same TV and cartoons and movies. — Ernest Cline

And you can bet that Galileo, Newton, and Einstein never would have made their discoveries if they hadn't first been able to clear their heads by slapping the salami (or "knocking a few protons off the old hydrogen atom"). The same goes for Marie Curie. Before she discovered radium, you can be certain she first discovered the little man in the canoe. It — Ernest Cline

We were all probably stuck here for the duration, on the third rock from our sun. Boldly going extinct. — Ernest Cline

Many of the gunters on the front lines took an involuntary step backward. A few others turned and ran for their lives. — Ernest Cline

I could barely believe myself. IOI had actually tried to kill me. To prevent me from winning a videogame contest. It was insane. — Ernest Cline

Now that everyone could vote from home, via the OASIS, the only people who could get elected were movie stars, reality TV personalities, or radical televangelists. — Ernest Cline

When I tried to access one of the other entertainment libraries, Vintage Movies, the system informed me that I wouldn't be granted access to a wider selection of entertainment options until I had received an above-average rating in three consecutive employee performance reviews. Then the system asked me if I wanted more information on the Indentured Employee Entertainment Reward Program. I didn't. — Ernest Cline

I was just starting out, trying to become a screenwriter, and I became the Austin slam champion three times. For a nerdy, kind of a socially awkward guy, that did wonders for my self esteem. — Ernest Cline

Any business that wanted to set up shop inside the OASIS had to rent or purchase virtual real estate (which Morrow dubbed "surreal estate") from GSS. Anticipating this, the company had set aside Sector One as the simulation's designated business zone and began to sell and rent millions of blocks of surreal estate there. City-sized shopping malls were erected in the blink of an eye, and storefronts spread across planets like time-lapse footage of mold devouring an orange. Urban development had never been so easy. — Ernest Cline

Arbogast had then assembled a dream team of creative consultants and contractors to help make his bold claim a reality, luring some of the videogame industry's brightest stars away from their own companies and projects, with the sole promise of collaborating on his groundbreaking new MMOs. That was how gaming legends like Chris Roberts, Richard Garriott, Hidetaka Miyazaki, Gabe Newell, and Shigeru Miyamoto had all wound up as consultants on both Terra Firma and Armada - along with several big Hollywood filmmakers, including James Cameron, who had contributed to the EDA's realistic ship and mech designs, and Peter Jackson, whose Weta Workshop had rendered all of the in-game cinematics. — Ernest Cline

I feel like I was hit by all of geek culture at once while I was growing up in the '70s and '80s. Saturday morning cartoons like 'Star Blazers' and 'Robotech.' Live action Japanese shows like 'Ultraman' and 'The Space Giants.' — Ernest Cline

What if they're using videogames to train us to fight without us even knowing it? Like Mr. Miyagi in The Karate Kid, when he made Daniel-san paint his house, sand his deck, and wax all of his cars - he was training him and he didn't even realize it! Wax on, wax off - but on a global scale! — Ernest Cline

You know you've totally screwed up your life when your whole world turns to shit and the only person you have to talk to is your system agent software! — Ernest Cline

Now, I have a new quest. A far more important one." "And that is?" "Revenge. — Ernest Cline

A river of words flowed between us. — Ernest Cline

She made me laugh. She made me think. She changed the way I saw the world. — Ernest Cline

If there were other civilizations out there, why would they ever want to make contact with humanity? If this was how we treated each other, how much kindness could we possibly show to some race of bug-eyed beings from beyond? — Ernest Cline

That was a giant ball of fail. What now? — Ernest Cline

My favorite video game of all time is called 'Black Tiger'. It's a Capcom Dungeons and Dragons game from 1987. I have the actual arcade version sitting in my office. — Ernest Cline

Several paragraphs of dense text began to scroll across the screen, an unreadable blur of legalese outlining all the details of enlistment. It would have taken hours to read it all, and then I still probably wouldn't have understood a word of it. — Ernest Cline

1977 - Star Wars is released on 5/25/77. Highest grossing movie in history. First wave of brainwashing in prep for invaders arrival? — Ernest Cline

Nebraska," I said. "What's in Nebraska?" "A top-secret Earth Defense Alliance base. — Ernest Cline

No giant two-headed hermaphrodite demon unicorn avatars were allowed. Not on school ground, anyway. — Ernest Cline

You don't need to sell me on anything, Wade," she said. "You're my best friend. My favorite person." With — Ernest Cline

He died when he was only nineteen years old. I was still a baby at the time, so I didn't remember him. Growing up, I'd always told myself that was lucky. Because you can't miss someone you don't remember.
But the truth was, I did miss him. — Ernest Cline

I was watching a collection of vintage '80s cereal commercials when I paused to wonder why cereal manufacturers no longer included toy prizes inside every box. It was a tragedy, in my opinion. Another sign that civilization was going straight down the tubes. — Ernest Cline

All the intervening layers slipped away, and I lost myself in the game within the game. — Ernest Cline

The single window had once provided a view of the Columbus skyline, but I'd spray-painted it completely black a few days after I moved in. I'd decided that everything outside the window was a distraction from my quest, — Ernest Cline

I didn't think anyone would anticipate this move, because it was so clearly insane. — Ernest Cline

The bastard even refused to watch E.T.! Who doesn't love E.T., I ask you? — Ernest Cline

I'd programmed and dropped in a few back-to-back flicks starring Gamera, my favorite giant flying turtle. — Ernest Cline

You could shove it up your ass and pretend you're a corn dog.
COURTESY VIOLATION-RESPONSE MUTED-VIOLATION LOGGED — Ernest Cline

WarGames had been one of Halliday's all-time favorite movies. Which was why I had watched it over three dozen times. — Ernest Cline

Steven Spielberg making a Ready Player One movie is going to change the course of human history as pertains to how quickly virtual reality is adopted. He's going to shows the whole world the potential of VR, which is one of the reasons I think he's doing it. Once you have to compose for 360 degrees, and a movie is different every time you watch it depending on where you choose to look, it's like the dawn of a new era. — Ernest Cline

You're going to turn it into a fascist corporate theme park where the few people who can still afford the price of admission no longer have an ounce of freedom. — Ernest Cline

You see, ever since the first day of kindergarten, I had been hoping and waiting for some mind-blowingly fantastic, world-altering event to finally shatter the endless monotony of my public education. I had spent hundreds of hours gazing out at the calm, conquered suburban landscape surrounding my school, silently yearning for the outbreak of a zombie apocalypse, a freak accident that would give me super powers, or perhaps the sudden appearance of a band of time-traveling kleptomaniac dwarves. I — Ernest Cline

Listen," he said, adopting a confidential tone. "I need to tell you one last thing before I go. Something I didn't figure out for myself until it was already too late." He led me over to the window and motioned out at the landscape stretching out beyond it. "I created the OASIS because I never felt at home in the real world. I didn't know how to connect with the people there. I was afraid, for all of my life. Right up until I knew it was ending. That was when I realized, as terrifying and painful as reality can be, it's also the only place where you can find true happiness. Because reality is real. Do you understand?" "Yes," I said. "I think I do." "Good," he said, giving me a wink. "Don't make the same mistake I did. Don't hide in here forever. — Ernest Cline

This avatar appeared inside a huge virtual call center, inside a virtual cubicle, sitting at a virtual desk, in front of a virtual computer, wearing a virtual phone headset. I thought of this place as my own private virtual hell. — Ernest Cline

I spent most of my childhood welded to my Atari 2600, until I got my first computer, a TRS-80. — Ernest Cline

You were born at a pretty crappy time in history. And it looks like things are only gonna get worse from here on out. — Ernest Cline