Matthew Reilly Quotes & Sayings

The problem, as I see it, are the twin human creations of marriage and religion. It is marriage and religion that make copulation complex and hurtful. Marriage brings up notions of trust, cuckoldry and ownership, while religion makes certain kinds of intimacy sinful. — Matthew Reilly

Holy shit, she thought. The dragons are throwing cars at me! — Matthew Reilly

Come not between the dragon and his wrath. - William Shakespeare King Lear — Matthew Reilly

You don't like people?" Raf asked. "I don't like what people do to each other. — Matthew Reilly

Human fears are very often irrational constructs of the mind. — Matthew Reilly

When the President asks you to do something, you'd be surprised how keen you are to oblige, Syme said. — Matthew Reilly

To anyone who knows a writer, never underestimate the power of your encouragement. — Matthew Reilly

He began to understand why some people feared the dark so much. The sheer helplessness of not knowing what was right in front of you was terrifying. — Matthew Reilly

Sometimes you had to make the animals perform. — Matthew Reilly

The Legend of the Dragon Fairytales cleanse and sanitise what were once true stories. In fairytales, knights are chivalrous, clean-shaven and wear shining armour - when in truth they were swarthy, filthy rapists and thugs. Castles are bright and gay when in truth they were grim fortresses. If dragons were real, then in all likelihood they were not graceful, high-chested, noble creatures; rather they would have been dirty, ugly, reptilian and mean. From: The Power of Myth by Craig Ferguson (Momentum, Sydney, 2013) — Matthew Reilly

What people do in the name of religion is not necessarily religious. It often has baser reasons behind it. — Matthew Reilly

Zoos have always fascinated me. What child hasn't wondered what would happen if all the animals escaped from the zoo? Or what would happen if they got caught in an enclosure? — Matthew Reilly

That's not the whole of it. As with many other faiths - including our own Christian one - a small group of zealots have distorted Islam to further their own agenda. When many women took to imitating the fashions of the Prophet's wives, some Moslem men saw an opportunity to put all women under their thumb. They espoused foul laws like those allowing a man to beat his wife or force her into his bed. — Matthew Reilly

I think 'The Time Traveler's Wife' is one of the most brilliantly marketed books I have ever seen. — Matthew Reilly

Mother yelled, 'Christ, this is the craziest snatch'n'grab I've ever seen!'
'It's desperation over style, Mother.' He hurried over to the tail end of the suspended tanker truck, to the two cables that rose up from it to the rim of the massive moat.
'But did you have to destroy everything?' she shouted.
'I haven't destroyed everything yet. Hurry up, this isn't over! This way! — Matthew Reilly

In so many ways, Ascham thought, she was beyond her years - but in the presence of her father she became a little girl again. So confident and assured in private, now she moved with the stilted awkwardness of every twelve-year-old girl. Ascham's heart went out to her. — Matthew Reilly

Why buy books when you can read them online — Matthew Reilly

mmmm, space stuff — Matthew Reilly

. In the 19th century, Europe invaded and colonised Africa. In the 21st century, Africa invades and colonises Europe. — Matthew Reilly

When I started writing, I was reading people such as Tom Clancy or Michael Crichton, who did 'Jurassic Park,' which is possibly the most action-filled book you'll read, apart from mine, and I said to myself, 'Why aren't these guys doing big-scale action like you would see in a movie?' — Matthew Reilly

I read 'The Hobbit' only when I was an adult. I had a lot of friends, teenagers, who discovered reading through 'The Hobbit,' but it wasn't something that I discovered until later in life. — Matthew Reilly

Many humans live their entire lives without questioning the 'truths' they've been told. — Matthew Reilly

In fact, the name 'rook' derives from ruhk, the Persian word for chariot. Pawns were footsoldiers, bishops were elephants, knights were mounted cavalry, and speeding along at the edges of the board were the swift and deadly chariots. — Matthew Reilly

Hamish shrugged. It's all pretty cool and impressive ... if you never saw fucking Jurassic Park. — Matthew Reilly

The airliner-sized dragon blew apart in a monumental spray of blood and pulp. Great chunks of flesh the size of boulders rained down from the sky.
"The empire is striking back," Ambassador Syme observed, peering out the window beside CJ. — Matthew Reilly

Fairytales cleanse and sanitise what were once true stories. In fairytales, knights are chivalrous, clean-shaven and wear shining armour - when in truth they were swarthy, filthy rapists and thugs. Castles are bright and gay when in truth they were grim fortresses. — Matthew Reilly

One of the things I have come up against time and again in my career is the notion that because a book is easy to read it was somehow easy to write. — Matthew Reilly

I have both held and beheld unlimited power and of it I know but one thing. It drives men mad.'
- Alexander the Great — Matthew Reilly

So it is with Moslem women and their veils,' Michelangelo said. 'When they saw Muhammad's wives wearing veils, they sought to imitate them, and so now nearly all Islamic women wear veils even though there is no stipulation in their Holy Koran that they do so. — Matthew Reilly

I snorted. 'For a great sultan who is lord and ruler of all that he surveys, his English is lamentably poor. He can't even spell England properly.'
Still holding the note, Mr Ascham looked up at me. 'Is that so? Tell me, Bess, do you speak his language? Any Arabic or Turkish-Arabic?'
'You know that I do not.'
'Then however lamentable his English may be, he still speaks your language while you cannot speak his. To me, this gives him a considerable advantage over you. Always pause before you criticise, and never unduly criticise one who has made an effort at something you yourself have not even attempted. — Matthew Reilly

Convincing someone to believe something that was inherently unbelievable often meant getting that person to make a quick and easy comparison to something they already knew. — Matthew Reilly

Yo. Salt-and-Pepper. The name is Go-Go or Mr Go-Go, okay? — Matthew Reilly

A friend's loyalty lasts longer than their memory. Over the course of a long friendship, you might fight with your friend, even get angry with them. But a true friend will forget that anger after a while, because their loyalty to their friend outweighs the memory of the disagreement. — Matthew Reilly

I've been around long enough now that people who don't get into the outrageousness, the over-the-top stuff, they know not to buy my books anymore. — Matthew Reilly

A limitless supply of cheap labor might build you a new city every year, but it ultimately just makes you the factory floor for other countries' companies. — Matthew Reilly

There is no such thing as an "aspiring writer". You are a writer. Period. — Matthew Reilly

Myths arise from actual events, remarkable events that get talked about precisely because they are remarkable and which then get embellished in the retelling. — Matthew Reilly

His actions had saved three US cities from annihilation but only a few very high-ranking people knew it. Fairfax was just pleased he could still wear jeans and sneakers to work. — Matthew Reilly

A monster movie is only as good as the monster in it. — Matthew Reilly

There's an Oriental saying I like: If aggression meets empty space it tends to defeat itself. — Matthew Reilly

The myth of the dragon is a very peculiar one, precisely because it is a truly global myth. Giant serpents appear in mythologies from all over the world: China, Scandinavia, Greece, Persia, Germany, Central America, the United Kingdom, even Africa. There is no discernible reason for this. How could the myth of a large serpentine creature be so consistent across the ancient world? From: Dragons in History by Eleanor Lock (Border Press, London, 1999) — Matthew Reilly

I'm very good at plot. — Matthew Reilly

In 'Seven Ancient Wonders,' Jack West and his team break someone out of Guantanamo Bay. I'm not going to preach to people and say, 'Guantanamo Bay, bad', but I will have my hero go and break somebody out of it, and maybe people will think about it that way. — Matthew Reilly

I write about all manner of things: a guy fighting aliens in the New York State Library, Antarctica, Inca civilization in Peru, the Great Pyramid at Giza, and people often ask me, where do I get these ideas from? They come from reading widely, watching a lot of documentaries, and increasingly ,as I was able to, travelling around the world. — Matthew Reilly

You'd be surprised, you can do a lot more damage with your brains than with your fists. — Matthew Reilly

what would Scarecrow do! — Matthew Reilly

German-made Heckler & Koch MP-7 submachine guns with special compact M40 grenade launchers under the barrels. — Matthew Reilly

If dragons were real, then in all likelihood they were not graceful, high-chested, noble creatures; rather they would have been dirty, ugly, reptilian and mean. — Matthew Reilly

Fantasy enabled me to break the shackles and create a whole new level of 'the world is in danger' stakes. — Matthew Reilly

I imagine I'm a very unusual guy to date. You know, I've got toys on the shelves, and I've got the cars. — Matthew Reilly

Over twenty men died during the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, Dr Lynch. Does anyone regret that? No, all anyone sees is a marvel of its time, a great achievement in human ingenuity. — Matthew Reilly

I wasn't one of those kids who dreamed of writing novels when I was 8 or 12. I wanted to be a film director. I wanted to make big action movies. I loved movies like 'Die Hard,' 'Predator,' 'Aliens,' 'Raiders of the Lost Ark.' — Matthew Reilly

The Church's war against women occurred not under Christ - who by all accounts held women as equals to men - but through the writings of St Irenaeus and Tertullian, and that most cruel woman-hater of them all, St Paul, whose hostile views on women were unfortunately included in the Bible. But let me be clear, it is not only a Catholic problem; it is a Christian one: Martin Luther, the scourge of the old Church, shares its views on women. He once wrote: "Girls begin to talk and to stand on their feet sooner than boys because weeds always grow up more quickly than good crops." Weeds! Weeds! — Matthew Reilly

My first book, 'Contest,' had a guy fighting aliens in the New York Public Library. The second book, 'Ice Station,' and 'Temple' were present-day military thrillers. — Matthew Reilly

What I do is write books for an audience that thinks in a movie language. That's the way I think, and I also believe that not enough authors keep up with the audience. — Matthew Reilly