Maberry Quotes & Sayings

I don't want to kill you and you don't want to be dead. — Jonathan Maberry

Stabbing is for suckers who want to die. — Jonathan Maberry

I'm self-aware enough to know that I have a somewhat fractured personality. Not exactly multiple personality disorder, but clearly there were different drivers at the wheel depending on my mood, and depending on my needs. Over — Jonathan Maberry

Value is relative," said the saint. "A man with his house on fire and a man dying of thirst each place a different value on a glass of water. — Jonathan Maberry

This one looks good," said Chong over breakfast the next morning.
Benny read out loud from the paper. "'Pit Thrower.' What's that?"
"I don't know," Chong said with a mouth full of toast. "I think it has something to do with barbecuing."
It didn't. — Jonathan Maberry

I'd put two .45 slugs in him from fifteen feet. Pretty much does the trick. If it doesn't then your only logical ammunition upgrade is Kryptonite. But — Jonathan Maberry

One of the most delightful parts of being a writer is connecting with people via social media. I devote ten minutes out of every writing hour to Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and other sites. I don't use assistants for that. It's me and all of my friends, fans, readers, and colleagues on the crazyboat. — Jonathan Maberry

Generosity could be as contagious as the zombie plague as long as enough people were willing to be carriers. — Jonathan Maberry

Okay," I said slowly, "but what the hell would you mate a horse with to get a unicorn, because I don't see horses and narwhales doing the dirty boogie. — Jonathan Maberry

We're each alone inside our heads, some more so than others. — Jonathan Maberry

Hell's a-coming and we all gotta learn to play the blues. (347) — Jonathan Maberry

I write every day. Most weekdays, I write about ten hours a day. That doesn't mean eight hours of surfing the Net or watching videos on YouTube. I park my butt in a chair and write ... I learned that writer's block is a myth created by people who don't have, or understand, a writing process. — Jonathan Maberry

How deep inside your own heartbreak do you have to fall before there's no outward sign of life? — Jonathan Maberry

I don't ever want to live in a world where something like mercy ... or maybe it's compassion ... is the wrong choice. — Jonathan Maberry

And that made him wonder if a person who is forced into bad situations over and over again when they're too weak or helpless to do anything about it will eventually make bad choices of their own simply because they've become habituated to them. — Jonathan Maberry

When giant violent albino penguins are the least extraordinary issue of the day, then your day has slipped a gear. — Jonathan Maberry

'Bad Blood' tells the story of Trick, a teenage slacker on the losing side of a fight with cancer. When he's attacked by a vampire, he figures it's game over. Except that the chemo drugs in Trick's blood poison the vampire. — Jonathan Maberry

Every single zom, every man, woman and child, no matter how decayed or how frightening they are, no matter how dangerous they are - they were all once real people. They had names, and lives, and personalities, and families. They had dreams and goals. They had pasts and they thought they had futures, but something came and took that away from them. — Jonathan Maberry

You can learn much about an enemy when you watch him win. We will watch and learn . . . and plan. — Jonathan Maberry

Chong said, 'Do yourself a favor, Morg. Next time you're staring at a girl's boobs, look up. You'll be shocked to learn it, but there's going to be a face up there. Nose, mouth, eyes. And behind the eyes is an actual person. — Jonathan Maberry

Closure isn't closure until someone's ready to close the door. — Jonathan Maberry

The real world was never cool enough for anyone to accept a costumed supervillain. Which — Jonathan Maberry

A HUMAN ELEMENT is an elegant and haunting first novel. Unrelenting, devious but full of heart. Highly recommended. — Jonathan Maberry

He knew that these creatures were dead, that they were reanimated echoes who wore the disguise of the people they had once been, but Tom's words rang in his mind. They used to be people. How could he strike them? How could he hurt them? Children, women, old people. Lost souls. — Jonathan Maberry

But the colonel said and did nothing as the seconds splintered off the clock and fell like debris on the floor. — Jonathan Maberry

Boy, there are people who conquered half the world, slaughtered whole populations, wiped cultures off the face of the planet, and you know what history calls them? Heroes! Kings, presidents, champions, explorers. You think America was settled by white men because the Indians invited us her? No, we took this land because we were stronger, and that's how every page of human history is written. It's just our nature. We're a predator species, top of the food chain. Survival of the fittest is written in our blood, it's stenciled on every gene of our DNA. The strong take and the strong make, and the weak are there only to help them do it. End of story. — Jonathan Maberry

He'd never much cared for the need to believe one people were better than another. One on one, most of them seemed all right. It was only when you gathered any of them in groups they tended to be stupid. — Jonathan Maberry

The world's clock had run down, and haste was irrelevant. — Jonathan Maberry

Guilt and rage, hatred and fear were pathways to weakness and clumsy choices. — Jonathan Maberry

Sometimes there aren't words, Benny knew. Sometimes there are hurts so deep that they exist in a country that has no spoken language, a place where all landscapes are blighted and no sun ever shines. Benny had left his footprints in the dust of that place. — Jonathan Maberry

His specialty was interrogation. Imagine it, gentlemen. Being strapped to a table so that you are entirely at the mercy of a monster such as this. A person who delights in your pain. A person to whom your screams are more delicious than a lover's whisper. A creature who knows how to keep you alive while he skillfully and meticulously deconstructs those things that define you as human? — Jonathan Maberry

You crazy or something?" growled Zucco. "It's come up in therapy. — Jonathan Maberry

That's when I got the first real tingle of warning. Small, but serious. The smart thing to do would have been to simply end the call. No goodbyes, no polite refusals, just hit the button, put the cell phone in the bottom drawer of my file cabinet, and go to the multiplex to watch a movie about things blowing up. Maybe get some Ben and Jerry's afterward. — Jonathan Maberry

As of this moment there's the police department way, the federal law enforcement way, the military way ... and my way. If you want me to function at my best then you're going to have to accept that I'm going to have to make up some of my own rules. I don't know enough about your playbook and, quite frankly, I don't like the way you operate. If I'm not a cop anymore then I'm something else, something new. Okay, then from here on out I'll decide what that is; and that includes building, shaping, and leading my team. My team, my rules. — Jonathan Maberry

Who'd play her in the movie?" "The shark from Jaws," muttered Trout. — Jonathan Maberry

When people ask me about what I learned from martial arts, I don't talk about favorite punches or kicks, or about fights won or lost. I talk about learning self-discipline, about ethics and manners and benevolence and fairness. — Jonathan Maberry

I'm going to be dead for a long time. Let me be awake as much as I can for now. — Jonathan Maberry

There are such moments in a life. Solitary seconds on which the reality of what life means pivots and turns from a dead end toward a road of untrodden grass that stretches on forever. — Jonathan Maberry

Rape is, to me, no different than murder. It kills a part of the victim's soul. — Jonathan Maberry

Dez, on the other hand, was pure backcountry Pennsylvania; a blue-eyed blonde who could have been a model for fitness equipment if not for what JT personally viewed as an overactive redneck gene. — Jonathan Maberry

My 'Rot & Ruin' series is a post-apocalyptic adventure for teens. My 'Joe Ledger' novels are science-based action thrillers for adults. My 'Dead of Night' stories are zombie tales for adults; my 'Pine Deep Trilogy' is classic horror for adults, and I've written nonfiction books on topics ranging from martial arts to folklore. — Jonathan Maberry

It's cloaked in cultural mumbo jumbo, but I assure you that it is very hard science. — Jonathan Maberry

There are moments that define a person's whole life. Moments in which everything they are and everything they may possibly become balance on a single decision. Life and death, hope and despair, victory and failure teeter precariously on the decision made at that moment. These are moments ungoverned by happenstance, untroubled by luck. These are the moments in which a person earns the right to live, or not. — Jonathan Maberry

He's a ghost, not a carnival magician.
-Benny Imura — Jonathan Maberry

So is that it? Will I have to live the rest of my life like this? Not doing the right thing? Not saying the right words?"
"That's your choice. You can't change the past. Ah, but the future ... you own the future." The Greenman smiled. "So, you tell me ... what choice do you want to make now? — Jonathan Maberry

But there never was a country, no matter how noble or well-intentioned, that wasn't infected by a greedy and power-hungry few. — Jonathan Maberry

This was a better place. Not just this new town, but this new world. So much brighter and cleaner than the old world of rot and ruin, fire and ash. — Jonathan Maberry

But it was death that changed. People are still people. Some good, some bad. Death changed, and we don't know what death really means anymore. Maybe that was the point. Maybe this is an object lesson about the arrogance of our assumptions. Hard to say. But the world? She didn't change. She healed. We stopped hurting her and she began to heal. You can see it all around. The whole world is a forest now. The air is fresher. More trees, more oxygen. — Jonathan Maberry

Do you work for Starbox? If so, I can't say I dig your new marketing strategy. — Jonathan Maberry

She said, "Look down at your chest."
I held the cell phone to my ear as I bend my head. Two red dots, quivering slightly, danced right over my heart.
"You are one second away from death," said the caller. — Jonathan Maberry

Time crawled on as if its legs were broken. — Jonathan Maberry

Benny Imura sat in the dark and spoke with monsters.
It was like that every day.
It had become the pattern of his life. Shadows and blood. And monsters.
Everywhere.
Monsters. — Jonathan Maberry

You see the fence as something keeping the zoms out. I don't. I see it as the thing that pens us in. We're trapped here. Trapped isn't "alive." Trapped isn't "safe." And it isn't "free. — Jonathan Maberry

We let fear rule us and guide us, and that's never the way to win. Never. A long time ago a great man once said that "we have nothing to fear but fear itself." That was never truer than during First Night. It was fear that caused people to panic and abandon defenses. It was fear that made them squabble instead of working together. It was fear that inspired them to take actions they would never have taken if they'd given it a minute's more cool thought. — Jonathan Maberry

Yippie ki-yay and all that shit"

- Desdemona Fox — Jonathan Maberry

Newton screamed when he felt them begin to crawl over his scrotum and try to wiggle between his buttocks — Jonathan Maberry

Lilah growled low in her throat, grabbed his shirt with both hands, and hauled him toward her. Into a kiss that was fierce and hot and instantly intense. After several scalding seconds, she shoved him roughly back.
She got to her feet and snatched up her spear, then looked pityingly down at him. "Stupid town boy," she muttered, then turned and jogged into the forest.
Chong lay sprawled, eyes glazed and face flushed.
Holy moley ... ," he gasped. — Jonathan Maberry

Dude, what is it with you and zoms? — Jonathan Maberry

We had the whole 'when you assume you make an ass out of you and me' speech in school. — Jonathan Maberry

The word "impossible" used to mean something. It was a line that couldn't be crossed. It was the outer edge of the safe zone.
I can't find that line anymore — Jonathan Maberry

When Chong made to sit down next to her, Lilah drew her knife and stabbed the point into the earth between them.
"I can see that you need some quiet time," he said and scuttled quickly away. — Jonathan Maberry

You, however, are a psycho bitch who shot my dog. — Jonathan Maberry

Sometimes shame is a more powerful engine than rage. — Jonathan Maberry

'V-Wars' is a head-on collision of real-world science, terrorism, special forces action, ethics, politics and an exploration of what defines us as human. — Jonathan Maberry

Everyone carries around his own monsters.
Richard Pryor — Jonathan Maberry

There was a lot of animosity on the County side, a lot of jealously. — Jonathan Maberry

We're on our way to rescue a queen, overthrow an evil wizard, and win back a country.
Care to join us?
- Wolverine (Doomwar #1) — Jonathan Maberry

No one is really who people think they are. It's unfair. When they give us nicknames and create a story for us, everyone expects us to be that person and to live up to that legend. — Jonathan Maberry

Pain was the coin that paid the ferryman. — Jonathan Maberry

A wise man once said that we can't make anyone feel or do anything. We can throw things into the wind, but it's up to each person to decide how they want to react, where they want to stand when things fall. — Jonathan Maberry

Wolverine is a world-weary old warrior. His rage issue notwithstanding, I see him as someone with the tortured soul of a poet, but one who has seen too many friends and lovers die. Even with that, he has grown into a leader and a true hero. — Jonathan Maberry

A bite will still hurt, but it won't kill you. — Jonathan Maberry

She looked like a character from a video game. One of those improbably busty, impossibly well-armed superchicks who could do acrobatics and hit the kill zone even while firing guns from both hands during a cartwheel.
"You look fucking ridiculous," she told herself. — Jonathan Maberry

I have been an Avengers fan since the middle 1960s. I grew up with them, and I've imagined a hundred different versions of an Avengers movie. I think I even have a script I wrote back in eighth grade, 'Avengers vs. the Mole Man.' Truly dreadful, but a work of love. — Jonathan Maberry

Nerves were on hair triggers, and if my virgin aunt had stepped out from behind those crates with a puppy in one hand and a baby in the other my guys would have capped her. — Jonathan Maberry

The truth is the truth. What changes is what we know about it and what we're willing to believe. — Jonathan Maberry

The girl's eyes rolled high and he fell backward. Dez — Jonathan Maberry

It's important to know the past, but your survival depends on knowing the present. — Jonathan Maberry

Yo! Deadheads," he yelled, waving his sword to taunt them. "Nice try, but you're messing with Benny-freaking-Imura, zombie killer. Booyah! — Jonathan Maberry

Watch Die Hard films until the day started making sense again. — Jonathan Maberry

She wept for the hurt that he owned, a hurt she could never hope to remove. — Jonathan Maberry

When he heard politicians use the phrase "in the best interests of the American people" he knew that it was always a profit-based decision. — Jonathan Maberry

They held each other and wept as the night closed its fist around their tiny shelter, and the world below them seethed with killers both living and dead. — Jonathan Maberry

Reporters trade in pain. It sells papers. Everyone knows that. — Jonathan Maberry

There are worse things that can happen to an enemy of the state than Gitmo. Hate to say it, hate it to be the truth, but there it is. — Jonathan Maberry

Know your enemy. The more you know about them, the less easily they can surprise you. And by studying them you might identify a weakness or vulnerability. — Jonathan Maberry

Often it was the most unlikely people who found within themselves a spark of something greater. It was probably always there, but most people are never tested, and they go through their whole lives without ever knowing that when things are at their worst, they are at their best. — Jonathan Maberry

They won the war but lost the peace, — Jonathan Maberry

(H)ope was like a backstabbing friend. You could trust it sometimes, and then it would turn and drive its blade deep. — Jonathan Maberry

Except that death collected everyone. Death is like that. Relentlessly efficient. — Jonathan Maberry

I'm not sure I could trust a man who would bypass an Oreo in favor of vanilla wafers. It's a fundamental character flaw, possibly a sign of true evil. — Jonathan Maberry

Life don't never get easy, does it? It just keeps getting harder in stranger ways. — Jonathan Maberry

Benny Imura couldn't hold a job, so he took to killing.
It was the family business. He barely liked his family-and by family he meant his older brother, Tom-and he definitely didn't like the idea of "business". Or work. The only part of the deal that sounded like it might be fun was the actual killing. — Jonathan Maberry

Ludo, for Christ's sake stop saying okey-dokey. We're master criminals. We're supervillains. Can't you come up with something that doesn't sound like we're a couple of hicks?"
"Yes, Your Exalted Evilness. How's that? Or should I call you Dark Lady? — Jonathan Maberry

The high is, according to the junkies, worth the side effect. For the record, this is one of the reasons I hate people. — Jonathan Maberry

Making playlists can kill a whole afternoon for me. I like building very specific playlists for new writing projects. In a strange way, choosing certain songs is part of the process of plotting the book out. I pick songs that I think with resonate with characters, their personality quirks, relationship dynamics, action scenes, and so on. — Jonathan Maberry

Like most writers, I read deeply into the genre in which I write. — Jonathan Maberry

Sing it like the midnight wind, Sing it like a prayer; Sing it on to the way to hell, Them blues'll take you there. - Oren Morse, Dead Man's Song — Jonathan Maberry

My nerves were telling me this guy was half a keg short of a six-pack. — Jonathan Maberry

Even though Tom wasn't moving, he seemed to be a little farther away. For the first time Benny realized that there were other people in the hallways. They were indistinct, more of a sense of movement in the gray light rather than specific shapes. He thought he recognized one of them, though.
"Chong?"
The figure stopped moving, but he stood with his back to Benny.
"Tom-is that Chong?"
"Is that Chong?" Benny asked again. "Is ... is he going with you? — Jonathan Maberry