Sloan Quotes & Sayings

The suburban mind cannot comprehend the emergent complexity of a New York sidewalk. — Robin Sloan

Why do organizations need to mark everything with their insignia? It's like a dog peeing on every tree. Google is the same way. So was NewBagel. Using — Robin Sloan

Help your players to control their emotions - do this through example. — Norm Sloan

Its a museum's job to keep things for posterity,"Tabitha sniffs. "We have a temperature-controlled storage unit full of Christmas sweaters. — Robin Sloan

I'm putting my place in the universe into perspective.
I'm stardust.
I'm golden brown.
I'm just one small bit in a vast expanse. — Holly Goldberg Sloan

One thing with Sway, when things are starting to press in around you and your mood is as close to shit as it can get, Sway always makes the world a little bit brighter. — Harper Sloan

The way I see it is life is too short to sit on your ass and not live every minute as if it's your last. — Harper Sloan

Success comes to the man who grits his teeth, squares his jaw and says, "There is a way for me and, by jingo, I'll find it". — Cliff Sloan

Let me be candid. If I had to rank book-acquisition experiences in order of comfort, ease, and satisfaction, the list would go like this: 1. The perfect independent bookstore, like Pygmalion in Berkeley. 2. A big, bright Barnes & Noble. I know they're corporate, but let's face it - those stores are nice. Especially the ones with big couches. 3. The book aisle at Walmart. (It's next to the potting soil.) 4. The lending library aboard the U.S.S. West Virginia, a nuclear submarine deep beneath the surface of the Pacific. 5. Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. — Robin Sloan

We all have a jacked up past, all of us. You aren't special because you've been fucked over. Do you know how much I would love to have someone solid to share my life with? — Harper Sloan

As Sloan approached the door, Paul Lyons lifted his eyes to watch her leave. He found himself wondering why after all these years they couldn't manage to get along for a lousy twenty minutes. Perhaps it was the result of their inability to compromise - to give each other the benefit of the doubt. Or maybe they'd both simply lost the ability to trust another human being and believe anything good could come of this world. — Kaylin McFarren

This job has three requirements, each very strict. Do not agree to them lightly. Clerks in this store have followed these rules for nearly a century, and I will not have them broken now. ( ... ) Two: You may not browse, read, or otherwise inspect the shelved volumes. Retrieve them for members. That is all"
( ... )
"You must keep precise records of all transactions. The time. The customer's appearance. His state of mind. How he asks for the book. How he receives it. Does he appear to be injured. Is he wearing a sprig of rosemary on his hat. And so on — Robin Sloan

But, I tell you this, there is no way a man as man as him swings for the rainbow. No way. Shame for Sway, but girlfriend, as beautiful as you are, this is good news. — Harper Sloan

Our friendship is a nebula. Now — Robin Sloan

Its circumference was tiny, but he had a life, and he would not give it up. — Robin Sloan

God, Sarah. No. Just, no. I'm not talking money. I don't want your money. You think you can buy true power? You can't. If you could, history would be written by the practitioners." 'So, what then?" Here it was. "Your soul, Sarah. The price is your soul. — J.P. Sloan

All the secrets of the world worth knowing are hiding in plain sight. — Robin Sloan

Appleblossom can't believe the taste of the dark square. Is tehre a way to describe this morsel of goodness? It is so sweet adn smooth. It makes a green snail seem like an old pinecone seed, and every possum knows that a green snail is fantastic eating. — Holly Goldberg Sloan

I might be many things, but I am also smart enough to learn from the past. Smart enough to know that no man who oozes so much alpha male will be happy with a woman who isn't weak. Or, he won't settle until he makes me weak, and I will never be that bitch. — Harper Sloan

I hate it. It looks like a stickup at 7-Eleven. Five guys standing there with their hands in the air. — Norm Sloan

Or what if he's weeping to himself in a lonely apartment somewhere, where his family never visits him because Grandpa Penumbra is weird and smells like books? — Robin Sloan

A piece of drapery is like a necktie, hot stuff to paint, and one of the easiest things for a painter to kid himself into thinking he can do. Don't be fooled by the color. Go after the shape and character. Hew the forms together with colored tones. — John French Sloan

Give a man a clear-cut job and let him do it. — Alfred P. Sloan

The purpose of subject matter is to veil technique. The great artist uses the cloak of resemblance to hide the means. — John French Sloan

Belatedly, I notice how much easier it is to walk on these sticks when you can't feel your legs. Lesson number one for hooch wear, be drunk. It might make dancing more of a challenge, but I wasn't feeling a thing and it was beautiful. — Harper Sloan

Having her in my arms feels like coming home. I am not one to believe in all that love at first sight bullshit, but even as cynical as I am, I can recognize something bigger than lust at work. My body wants her; that is no secret, but the level of want is borderline craving. I need her. Needing someone is not something I am used to. No, I am used to being needed ... something this woman clearly doesn't want. — Harper Sloan

You're the angel that my demons beg to make fall. The pureness and light that my darkness wants to extinguish. — Harper Sloan

Each blossom held it's own unique possibility. — Holly Goldberg Sloan

Are there sexual fetishes that involve books? There must be. I try not to imagine how they might work. — Robin Sloan

Each big idea like that is an operating system upgrade," she says, smiling. Comfortable territory. "Writers are responsible for some of it. They say Shakespeare invented the internal monologue."
Oh, I am very familiar with the internal monologue.
"But I think the writers had their turn," she says, "and now it's programmers who get to upgrade the human operating system."
I am definitely talking to a girl from Google. "So what's the next upgrade?"
"It's already happening," she says. "There are all these things you can do, and it's like you're in more than one place at one time, and it's totally normal. I mean, look around."
I swivel my head, and I see what she wants me to see: dozens of people sitting at tiny tables, all learning into phones showing them places that don't exist and yet are somehow more interesting ... — Robin Sloan

Hear me now, and understand me, we will talk but nothing you can say will change the fact that you and me are happening. I won't let you go, Izzy. Never. You're mine, you got that, Princess? — Harper Sloan

You don't really know much until you get to be 70. — Sloan Wilson

Connectedness. One thing leads to another. Often in unexpected ways. — Holly Goldberg Sloan

You don't see how beautiful you are because you're too busy hiding to avoid more pain. — Harper Sloan

The major media companies are playing a defensive game, and I'm not sure I blame them. If you look at the digital revolution, you look at who the winners and the losers are, there are some very very big losers - music, the newspaper industry. And there are some really big winners, social media, Facebook. — Harry E. Sloan

Books of silver; books of bone; and yet the strangest thing you see in all your years at Galvanic is a boy in a ski-mask, sitting in a basement, using a computer. — Robin Sloan

Rosemary, why do you love books so much?"
( ... )
"Well, actually, I love books because books are my best friends. — Robin Sloan

I think you've never quite altogether forgiven yourself for that woman in Los Angeles all that time ago."
"Candy Sloan," I said.
Susan nodded.
"Only time I ever cheated on you," I said.
"Makes it that much worse, doesn't it?" Susan said.
"I'm not sure it makes any difference," I said.
Susan smiled the smile she used when she knew I was wrong but planned to let me get away with it. — Robert B. Parker

Engaging in the critical reflective processes of critical inquiry, critical dialogue, critical reflection, and critical thinking is key to understanding the complexity of strategic problems. Yet, the process is often overlooked as leaders race to find an expeditious solution to a complex problem. Like — Julia Sloan

Because in my opinion it's not really a great idea to see people as one thing.
Every person has lots of ingredients to make them into what is always a one-of-a-kind creation.
We are all imperfect genetic stews. — Holly Goldberg Sloan

We need James Bond with a library science degree. — Robin Sloan

Not one day went by Izzy that my heart didn't belong to you. To this day there has only been one woman that has and will ever hold it. Fuck, baby but the love I have for you is so fucking strong sometimes, I wonder if it will crush me. — Harper Sloan

Before I can even process his actions, he bends down and gives me a quick but deep kiss. When he pulls back and rests his forehead against mine, I know I might as well have just signed on the dotted line. The look he gives me is so full of promise that if I had been wearing underwear, they would have blown up, completely exploded, right from my skin. — Harper Sloan

I'll be ready. I'm not sure for what exactly. But maybe that's what being ready really means. — Holly Goldberg Sloan

When you have children, you can't say you're not interested in money. — Sloan Wilson

It's time to take that leap and be what he believes is something achievable. Finally shed the weakness old Willow wore as a cloak of protection and allow my determination to be stronger and to be all the armor I need to protect myself. — Harper Sloan

So I switch to my MacBook and make my rounds: news sites, blogs, tweets. I scroll back to find the conversations that happened without me during the day. When every single piece of media you consume is time-shifted, does that mean it's actually you that's time-shifted? — Robin Sloan

The late Alfred P. Sloan, Ir., long-time executive of General Motors Corporation, had a fivepoint "secret of success." It was: 1. Get the facts. 2. Recognize the equities of all concerned. 3. Realize the necessity of doing a better job every day. 4. Keep an open mind. 5. Work hard. — Alfred P. Sloan

People say karma is a bitch but I have news for you, karma doesn't have anything on fate when she is after blood. Not a single thing. — Harper Sloan

The nature of immortality is a mystery,' he says, speaking so softly that we have to lean closer to hear.' But everything I know of writing and reading tells me that this is true. I have felt it in these shelves and in others. — Robin Sloan

You're not going to go far unless you're a workaholic. — Sloan Wilson

Neel takes a sharp breath and I know exactly what it means. It means: I have waited my whole life to walk through a secret passage built into a bookshelf. — Robin Sloan

Google," he breathes. There's a long pause. "How curious." He straightens. He has the strangest expression on his face - the emotive equivalent of 404 PAGE NOT FOUND. — Robin Sloan

A single charitable foundation started by one capitalist does more good than a world full of socialists and leftists. Think Carnegie and his libraries, or Sloan and Kettering their hospital, or Gates in Africa. — James Cook

Dennis faced him. They glared at each other again. Neither said a word until Dennis set the glasses down, leaned back against the counter, and folded his arms over his chest. "You're an idiot." "Seems to be a common conclusion. You're not my favourite person right now either. — Sloan Parker

At least it's working out because Cheddar is sort of obsessed with me, or at least very interested, which in the world of felines counts as obsessive behavior. — Holly Goldberg Sloan

The outer perimeter of the facility is like a highway; this must be where all the popular artifacts hang out. — Robin Sloan

The business of business is business. — Alfred P. Sloan

But it will make mistakes," she says. "Hadoop will probably get us from a hundred thousand buildings down to, like, five thousand."
"So we're down to five days instead of five years."
"Wrong!" Kat says. "Because guess what
we have ten thousand friends. It's called"
she clicks a tab triumphantly and fat yellow letters appear on the screen
"Mechanical Turk. Instead of sending jobs to computers, like Hadoop, it sends jobs to real people. Lots of them. Mostly Estonians."
She commands King Hadoop and ten thousand Estonian footmen. She is unstoppable. — Robin Sloan

To tell you the truth, I hate audiobooks.
But an audiobook is like a fizzy knit cap pulled down over your - — Robin Sloan

What do you seek in these shelves? — Robin Sloan

Books: boring. Codes: awesome. These are the people who are running the internet. — Robin Sloan

When you love someone, you fight. You fight for them, and you fight with them. She needed me to fight for her then, and I'll continue to do that until she can fight for herself again. — Harper Sloan

Emily just knew that the grocery store clerk's cousin had slipped on a bath mat and fallen out a second-story open window only to be saved because the woman landed on a discarded mattress.
But what interested Emily most about the incident was how the cousin had subsequently met a man in physical therapy who introduced her to his half brother who she ended up marrying and then running over with her car a year later after a heated argument. And that man, it was discovered, had been the one to dump the mattress in her yard.
He'd saved her so that she could later cripple him.
Emily found that not ironic but intriguing.
Because everything, she believed, was connected. — Holly Goldberg Sloan

We lost Coop in this very spot not even a year ago, and here we are now - Coop's son being born right where he was lost to us forever. "Full Circle," I murmur, stroking Zac's cheek. — Harper Sloan

At best, the fellowship is founded on a false hope, and at worst, it's founded on a lie. — Robin Sloan

I won't go so far as saying it was love at first sight, but it damn sure was hard on at first sight. That motherfucker doesn't have selective taste though, so I can't rely on that alone. — Harper Sloan

Stock and flow" is an economic concept that writer Robin Sloan has adapted into a metaphor for media: "Flow is the feed. It's the posts and the tweets. It's the stream of daily and sub-daily updates that remind people you exist. Stock is the durable stuff. It's the content you produce that's as interesting in two months (or two years) as it is today. — Austin Kleon

I didn't realize wizards were going to walk among us and we'd just call them Googlers. — Robin Sloan

For most cosmologists, a supernatural God is an unnecessary hypothesis. For most Americans, He is an unassailable fact. The American belief machine apparently has a fail-safe component. Nothing shuts it down. — Gary Sloan

Moffat's prose is fine: clear and steady, with just enough sweeping statements about destiny and dragons to keep things well inflated. The characters are appealing archetypes: Fernwen the scholarly dwarf is the everynerd, doing his best to live through the adventure. Telemach Half-Blood is the hero you wish you could be. He always has a plan, always has a solution, always has secret allies that he can call upon - pirates and sorcerers whose allegiance he earn with long-ago sacrifices. — Robin Sloan

Whatever this might have been for you before now baby, there is no trying or going slow. I know you felt it; it was all over your face. I feel like I just found a piece of myself that has been lost forever. A piece of the puzzle that I didn't even know was missing until you walked into my life. This, us ... baby, I will work as hard as I can and then some to prove to you that you have nothing to fear. — Harper Sloan

It is impossible to get the measure of what an individual can accomplish unless the responsibility is given him. — Alfred P. Sloan

To make good decisions, CEOs need the courage to seek out disagreement. Alfred Sloan, the longtime CEO and chairman of General Motors, once interrupted a committee meeting with a question: "Gentlemen, I take it we are all in complete agreement on the decision here?" All the committee members nodded. "Then," Sloan said, "I propose we postpone further discussion of this matter until our next meeting to give ourselves time to develop disagreement and perhaps gain some understanding of what this decision is about. — Chip Heath

That's almost cute: Don't forget your ruler on your first day at cult! But where is 'down below'? — Robin Sloan

A leader organizes people whether they know it or not. — Holly Goldberg Sloan

Competition is the final price determinant and competitive prices may result in profits which force you to accept a rate of return less than you hoped for, or for that matter to accept temporary losses. — Alfred P. Sloan

To be successful you need to have good, happy Players. — Norm Sloan

Don't hide who you are. One thing I have learned is you never hide who you
are. If you want something, you fight for it. When you think you have fought hard enough, fight a little more. Don't ever let anyone or any situation make who you are. — Harper Sloan

Don't think of sea as color. Make it a solid that can support a boat. Think of 'wetness' as color-texture. — John French Sloan

From my observation, the older you get, the more you like the word cozy.
That's why most of the elderly wear pants with elastic waistbands. If they wear pants at all. This may explain why grandparents are in love with buying grand kids pajamas and bathrobes. — Holly Goldberg Sloan

Teenage boys are so easily amused. — Holly Goldberg Sloan

But when people are past a certain age, you sort of stop asking them why they do things. It feels dangerous. — Robin Sloan

I will admit that I just want an excuse to put all my favorite people in a room together. — Robin Sloan

The way he says it, I can hear the capital letters. — Robin Sloan

colored pencils to fill in blank spaces. Being — Holly Goldberg Sloan

So I guess you could say Neel owes me a few favors, except that so many favors have passed between us now that they are no longer distinguishable as individual acts, just a bright haze of loyalty. Our friendship is a nebula. — Robin Sloan

Don't be stingy with your paint, it isn't worth it. — John French Sloan

I like when you look at me like you can't figure me out. You're considering getting to know me, but you're not sure I'm worth your time. — Kate Angell

The artist seeks to record his awareness of order in life. — John French Sloan

Take my assets - but leave me my organization and in five years I'll have it all back. — Alfred P. Sloan

Be sensitive to your mistakes. Put it on the wall for a couple of weeks. It may be that you can learn more from the study of your own work than from others. — John French Sloan

If I can save one person along the way, I'm okay. The trials and tribulations my special needs kids go through daily is far greater than the journey I'm about to go on. — Renee Sloan

Or is life so filled with random action that the very notion of caution is futile? — Holly Goldberg Sloan

And then, on a sunny Friday morning, for three seconds, you can't search for anything. You can't check your email. You can't watch any videos. You can't get directions. For just three seconds, nothing works, because every single one of Google's computers around the world is dedicated to this task. — Robin Sloan

I made a note to talk to him about soft drinks. Those beverages are not healthy.

from counting by 7s (not listed in drop-down) — Holly Goldberg Sloan

Always follow your dreams. Never give up. If you have a thought in your mind write it down. If you have a desire in your heart to write, then write. Tell your story. Make a difference. Touch someone's heart. — S. Sloan

Your parents are weirdos, in the best possible way. They do not celebrate birthdays; never in your life have you received a present on the tenth of December. Instead, you are given books on the days that their authors were born. — Robin Sloan

Magic is not the only power in this world. — Robin Sloan

For me to be here tonight, everything had to be perfect. I had to get drafted by Utah, had to play with a point guard like John Stockton, and had to be coached by Jerry Sloan and Frank Layden. — Karl Malone