Quotes & Sayings About Steampunk

Steampunk, the repurposing of Victorian culture and technology for contemporary fun and profit, is so ubiquitous - in media, books, fashion, music, cosplay, and maker culture - that we tend to imagine its superficial aspects are all that define it. — Paul Di Filippo

I have to believe it's right to be a warm voice, a companion if I can be, as soon as ever I find a friend. — Betsy Cornwell

I tell you all the time, you will never be able to replace me with a brass and steam contraption. — Maeve Alpin

Steampunk is ... the love child of Hot Topic and a BBC costume drama — Gail Carriger

Oh, it doesn't work at all. That's the problem! It's an endless, halting parade of inspections, bribes, and nonsense - but if you're aboard a Texas vessel, you'll find less inconvenience along the way."
"It's because of their guns!" declared Mr. Henderson, once more escaping his reverie, bobbing out of it as if to gasp for air.
"Concise, my love." Mrs. Henderson gave him a smile. "And correct. Texans are heavily armed and often impatient. They don't need to be transporting arms and gunpowder to create a great nuisance for anyone who stops them, so they tend to be stopped ... less often. — Cherie Priest

Hassler flips burgers on a grill in the shadow of the remnants of the Seattle Gas Light Company, a collection of rusted cylinders and ironwork that looms in the distance like the ruins of a steampunk skyline. The expanse of emerald grass runs down to the edge of Lake Union, which sparkles under the late afternoon sun. It's June. It's warm. The entire city seems to be out taking advantage of this rare, perfect day. — Blake Crouch

You'll have to do better than that chaps, if you want to kill me! — A.F. Stewart

Not another word, not another thought, not another sniffle. If you need to pass gas, I pray you'll clench your backside and keep walking until we are certainly alone. — S.C. Barrus

Because of the foulness of her mother's emotional river, a current which ran swift, changing its path without warning ... — Tamara Rose Blodgett

The Clockwork Commune were made of many things, and some of them were steamtruck wheels and landship tracks. They salvaged speed, and used it to help them salvage everything else. — Dean F. Wilson

Don't ever be deceived by the size or the lack of size of an object. Sometimes the smallest can be the mightiest of them all. — Maxwell Grantly

Rigg shrugged. "I know it makes you feel better, but I think it's arrogant to believe in anything anyway."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah," Rigg said, frowning at the clouds. "No one can really know what's out there. People are too small in the grand scheme of things. Saying we know and understand the gods is like a bug saying they know and understand our airships. They don't and they can't."

Hari smiled. "Fair enough. — Ash Gray

Well, look what the scamp has dragged home with her. Pirates, henchmen and naughty, naughty men - "

A soft whack noise was followed by a startled squawk, as a tea towel hit Nessy in the face. She pulled the cloth down, shooting daggers at her lifetime companion.

"What was that for?"

Nan tapped her chin. "You're drooling dear, might want to mop up a bit. — A.W. Exley

And then there was an explosion. — Adrienne Kress

But there was nothing. No village or town as far as her eyes could strain. Nowhere for her saviours to come from and take her to; just fields and trees and the weeping arc of the river Greave all the way to the horizon. Just like in the books, Greaveburn was all there was; building and building until streets were foundations, roofs were floors, constantly climbing away from itself. now that Abrasia saw it, her dream of escape crumbled completely like an ancient map in her fingers. The horizon was the world's edge and there was nothing beyond it but mist and falling.

Greaveburn stood alone on this little circle of earth, the river running around and into itself like a snake eating its tail. And Abrasia was doomed to watch the sun and stars trade places for all eternity. — Craig Hallam

Imagine if you will, creatures as unlike us as it is possible to be; creatures whose technology dwarfed ours as we dwarf the ants. Creatures whose sole purpose was to wipe out all existing life on Earth and replace it with their own. Beings who did not know the meaning of mercy, who were uninterested in dialogue, with whom one could not even plead. That is what we were up against, Henry. — Stephanie Osborn

The answer's in the question, child. — Sharon Lynn Fisher

They were all machines, he thought, just like La Mettrie had said in L'Homme Machine all those years ago. So he, Orphan, was a machine of flesh and blood, and Lucy, now, was made of something else, more complex perhaps- but they were the same and ...
They were in love.
Sometimes that was enough. — Lavie Tidhar

He had an image in his mind of a gaggle of long-necked geese, all done up in petticoats and crinolines, sitting around a stuffy parlor and talking about him. — Stefan Bachmann

Here lies the body of Colonel Cornell's. The rest of the fellow, I fancy, in hell is. — Mark Hodder

I am tempted to incapacitate him with the hemlock and then castrate him."
Lena paled. "I don't think that would be very wise," she said. "And the only knife we own is what I use for the cooking. You're not using that."
"I was planning on using a spoon," Honoria replied. — Bec McMaster

The important question is, what will your wear for a wedding dress, Alexia? You look horrible in white. — Gail Carriger

There are creatures in this world, small things and pretty things, which burn within them a fire for survival. — S.C. Barrus

Sometimes you have to close your eyes to see more clearly. Magical things are easier to see if your eyes are closed. — Maxwell Grantly

I've really loved steampunk for a long time, ever since 'Wild Wild West,' and it's always been a genre and an era that's fascinated me. But so often it's set in England, and that doesn't really resonate with me, or maybe it just seems a little overdone. — M.K. Hobson

Struggling to control his wayward breathing, Lukan stopped at her side. "A panther. Do you purr as well as claw?"
"Only time will tell." Lynx turned to face him. — Gwynn White

Steampunk is nothing more than what happens when Goths discover brown. — Charles Stross

Darling, you know how I like the sight of a stiff one. — RoChe Montoya

We learned the seven traditional ways to make words unclear."
"Seven? That many? Which was the most effective?"
"Poor grammar skills. — Lita Burke

A rollicking good read-THE HUNTER is steampunk with a Wild West feel. Theresa Meyers is an entertaining and witty writer with a fresh, new voice in the genre. THE HUNTER is a fun-filled ride through a world of demons, vampires, and things that go bump in the night, and kept me turning pages until the very end. — Yasmine Galenorn

She gathered herself up- rather like collecting her skirts before mountibg a carriage — Gail Dayton

I hate you, wardrobe. But here is what's going to happen. I will close the doors, say a magic word, open the doors, and you will present me with a suitable evening gown.
Work, dammit. — A.W. Exley

She wanted to make sure she studied all the manuals thoroughly, but she had to admit that part of her hesitation was the unsettling length of the list of things that could go wrong if she mishandled the pressure. — Jaleigh Johnson

Perhaps if he stumbled onto a bath and a tailor he could even be considered handsome. — Katherine McIntyre

Just roll me in fairy dust and call me a unicorn. — Lita Burke

You didn't have to come."
"Of course I did. What kind of a friend and mentor would I be if I went drinking without you? — Clay Griffith

The Ketty Jay was staffed with drunkards and drifters, all of them running from something
whether it be memories or enemies or the drudgery of land-bound life
but since Yortland they'd been running in the same direction. United by that common purpose, they'd begun to turn into something resembling a crew. And Frey had begun to turn into something resembling a captain. — Chris Wooding

To me, steampunk and urban fantasy are naturally hinged together. And I think that's because I love the early gothic Victorian literature, and both things spring from that movement. — Gail Carriger

You can't hurt him. He's an endangered species!"
"Vampires are not endangered." Van's tone made it clear that it was his life's work to rectify this regrettable situation.
"No, not that," Zack said dismissively. "He's a Victorian!"
"Brainwashed," Van muttered.
"Crazy," Sarah proclaimed.
"Steampunk," I corrected with a sigh. — Helen Keeble

Be happy. Be free. You have a universe inside you. — Sophia Elaine Hanson

And there on the piss-soaked cobbles, his back to the alley and his face to the wall, lay the object of their diplomatic mission: A sleeping drunk. Colt lay out his hand in a flourish.
"Mr. Billings, may I introduce to you His Imperial Majesty Joshua Norton the First, Emperor of the United States of America and Protector of Mexico. — Jordan Stratford

Death is as light as a feather, duty heavier than a spire. — Jim Butcher

The landscape here was strange. It was some type of forest, with giant vines that grew into spirals, round and round, growing up fifty metres toward the sky. They were massive. Some were fifteen metres across, narrowing as they rose. — Stephan Von Clinkerhoffen

This is the time of myths, Orphan. They are the cables that run under the floors and power the world, the conduits of unseen currents, the steam that powers the great engines of the earth. — Lavie Tidhar

Perhaps you are a clockwork girl. Perhaps Mortmain's warlock father built you, and now Mortmain seeks the secret of how to create such a perfect facsimile of life when all he can build are hideous monstrosities. Perhaps all that beats beneath your chest is a heart made of metal.'
Tessa drew in a breath, feeling momentarily dizzy. His soft voice was so convincing, and yet--'No,' she said sharply. 'You forget, I remember my childhood. Mechanical creatures do not change or grow. Nor would that explain my ability.'
'I know,' said Will with a grin that flashed white in the darkness. 'I only wanted to see if I could convince you.'
Tessa looked at him steadily. 'I am not the one who has no heart. — Cassandra Clare

Beauty was a weapon as well, one Viola enjoyed wielding. — Katherine McIntyre

He held out the pendant in the palm of his hand.
"Happy birthday, Copper," he whispered. — Sharon Lynn Fisher

We do not need you. Do not come unless I call you." Ricard crawled out of bed and shut the door as the steam men moved down the hall. "Dumb things." Ricard - As Timeless As Stone — Maeve Alpin

A dagger is the noble weapon of Brutus. Everyone understands that tyrants fall to daggers. A bomb is a sordid modern device with many complex working parts. Only engineers understand bombs — Bruce Sterling

What makes us the strongest tribe on the continent is the fact that a group that opposes these values
a group that would have mankind remain in the new dark ages
is permitted to grow, permitted to exist ... and, after it becomes a violent terrorist organization, is allowed to live on it own lands, taken out of the lands of those it has attacked and continues to attack!" He had to stop speaking then
the applause was louder than even his amplified voice. "They expect that fear will drive us to become like them ... closed-minded, blind, angry. Our society will remain open and free so long as I am standing upright," he continued, once the applause died down. — Lia Habel

I do the same with my books ... Nothing like a good argument in the margins with someone who's already said all they have to say on the subject. — Betsy Cornwell

That is the difference between great men and small, we great are willing to do the hard things, the uncomfortable things to ensure we succeed. — S.C. Barrus

What sort of work do you do?"
Lifting her skirts with one hand, still holding the owl in the other, she started for the cottage. "Quickening. Citizens of this spacetime call it clockwork magic."
--- — Sharon Lynn Fisher

I have a heart-shaped hole. Like an empty bird's next, it rests among marigold-hued ruffles above the topmost hook of my corset.
The hole was not left by something removed, but for something anticipated. — Sharon Lynn Fisher

Pearl spent the passing days buried so deep in the musty, dusty sorcery tomes that sometimes when she emerged, she spoke in archaic english. "Hast thou a light?" she'd asked him this afternoon when her study room had grown dark with gathering clouds. — Gail Dayton

Greg Broadmore's fertile and twisted imagination has conjoined multiple genres, memories, and a sharp sense of pulp, colonialist nostalgia/parody in this lavish, fully realized, imaginative tour-de-force. It's Jules Verne meets Fritz Lang meets Tintin.
It's beyond Steampunk. It's clearly an insatiable passion for the talismans of a bygone civilization and it's slavish addiction to the early industrial age in all it's filigreed, ignorant glory. Greg has raised the bar. — Adam Savage

Creff, my factotum, interrupted the breakfast he had brought me only a few minutes earlier and announced that a crazed Ethiope was at the door, presumably to buy a watch. — K.W. Jeter

While I think you were a rotten father and are still a horrid excuse for a person, I appreciate your ability to mix revenge and charity. — Kate M. Colby

Great things await you. You have a lifetime of amazing dreams to fulfil and noble ambitions to achieve — Maxwell Grantly

You put up this steel armor around yourself in the form of hostility and disinterest - whichever works to shield you best at the moment, but that's not who you are. — Pauline Creeden

May your song guide you home. — Sophia Elaine Hanson

How dare you! What is your name? I shall make it a sin to be spoken."
The braveness of his chuckle and grin made me step back. "Garrett. My name is Garrett and please make my name a sin to speak. Maybe that way I won't have people like you screaming out for people like me; for people like you are so ghastly and in need of saving too many times." Lucy to Garrett from my Steampunk YA Romance book I have started. — Elizabeth J. Kolodziej

As they walked, it seemed almost every building had some similar contrivance as decoration, adorning the street in a cacophony of clangs, bangs and whirs. The street's surroundings danced with steam and smoke, the scent of oil and grease its perfume. — A.F. Stewart

Many great things have been accomplished by the careful combination of keen minds and ardent spirits. — G.D. Falksen

To the steampunk community, including artisans like Richard "Doc" Nagy (sadly lost to us) and musicians like Professor Elemental, Steam Powered Giraffe, Vagabond Opera, and Abney Park. You are an endless source of joy and inspiration, — Lisa Mantchev

Goons were the lowest sort of homunculi, only superior to zombies. — Lita Burke

Breathe, Newberry. If you faint in the Blacksmith's laboratory, only the stars above know what might be grafted to your body when you wake up. — Meljean Brook

Rigg pressed her back against a tree and closed her eyes, wishing she could have died in a less humiliating way. She supposed it could have been worse: the frog could have been a cute mechanical bunny. — Ash Gray

Not my job to judge, boy." Baba Yaga filled and lit the pipe again. "But I do observe that its difficult to escape familiar patterns. When you live your life with cruel words, you look for people to give them to you. When you escape and evil stepmother, you take an uncaring bride. When your father throws you out, you love someone who won't love you back. And to keep yourself in cruelty, you're willing to risk head and hands on the mayors side board. Keep the pattern going. Hm." ~ Baba Yaga, Clockwork Fairy Tales: A Collection of Steampunk Fables, Steven Harper, Pg. 32. — Steven Harper

I brought my hand to the back of his neck and leaned into him, sliding my fingers into the curls at his nape. His arms clasped tighter around me. I sighed just a little against his mouth, feeling that it was almost too much, all this newness, this feeling that there was space and light inside me I'd never noticed before. Every part of me down to my fingertips felt like reworked glass, melting into some new shape, my edges beginning to glow. I wanted to do nothing but change this way, pressed against his body, his warmth and goodness, forever. — Betsy Cornwell

Let us fly, Madam Harpy Queen. Show me how you dance on the wind. — Lita Burke

It's impossible to own a Norin, no matter how many cages you wrap around them. We will always follow our own star. The best you can do is to hope you've pinned your heart to the same constellation. — Gwynn White

You better not be dead. This team is already overflowing with ankle spankers. I was looking forward to having more women around."
Yara's eyelids fluttered open. She blinked a few times, focused on him, and frowned.
"Ankle spanker? The only thing you've got that'll reach that far is your ego. — Lindsay Buroker

Steampunk has been hovering around for a long while, and it's never really caught on in a big way. — Chris Wooding

I liked to tinker with things, like Father. Make things with my hands. I liked to be alone, but not to be lonely. You were my only friend. You and Dutch. — Sharon Lynn Fisher

Never before had he seen a woman so angry - or so seductive. It rendered him speechless. He couldn't fight the compulsion to kiss her.
She punched him on the chin, snapping his head back. — Gwynn White

We are bodies which think, and we're at home with steampunk because it is an ethos of design and creativity which acknowledges the humanly physical: that which we can understand with our fingers. — Nick Harkaway

I like certain subgenres within science fiction and fantasy, and one of those is urban fantasy, and another is steampunk. — Gail Carriger

Cursed the crown that brought such grief to me — J. Leigh Bralick

Babbage's Three Laws of Difference Engines
First Law: A difference engine must have at least six cogs.
Second Law: A difference engine must be able to operate a loom.
Third law: A difference engine must be able to kill a man, should the mood so take it. — Gideon Defoe

A clockwork heart can't replace the real thing. — Dru Pagliassotti

Are we immortal?" he paused in his exploration of her skin.

Mischief shone in her eyes. "Want me to shoot you and find out? — A.W. Exley

OMG YOU GUYS it has come to my attention that SOMEONE on the internet is saying that my fictional 19th century zombies are NOT SCIENTIFICALLY SOUND. Naturally, I am crushed. To think, IF ONLY I'd consulted with a zombologist or two before sitting down to write, I could've avoided ALL THIS EMBARRASSMENT. — Cherie Priest

Sespian opened his mouth, paused, closed it, then shook his head ruefully. "It's very easy to be drawn into what you're saying, and I catch myself wanting to nod and agree. Maybe I should take notes on your technique."
Amaranthe blushed and felt like she should stutter an apology, but she hadn't done anything to be embarrassed about, had she?
"It's her eyes", Sicarius said, startling her..
Yara glanced over her shoulder at him, apparently, surprised to hear him speak, but soon turned her attention back to the tracks. She seemed to be believe she should remain silent for the discussion.
Sespian scratched his jaw. "Yes, maybe so. They're like a doe's. Warm and earnest and ... "
"Wholesome. Sicarius's eyes glinted, and Amaranthe scowled at him. — Lindsay Buroker

The last thing I remembered was joining the crew in a rendition of "Take to the Sky," but the rest of the time blurred after I drank absinthe with the Captain. — Katherine McIntyre

As for genre, my adult books are usually filed under science fiction / fantasy, although some stores put them into romance, and few have stuck them into horror. I consider all my books a mix of steampunk and urban fantasy. — Gail Carriger

It was the dog Abel, who - as animals have been reported to do - had made his way over all England's hills and rivers, to return to that home where he was first kindly treated. The warm fire, by which he sleeps even now, and the fattening dish will be his rewards to the end of his days. — K.W. Jeter

I like stories about supervillains. They teach children that you can accomplish great things even when the whole world is against you. — G.D. Falksen

We're fragile things, Harb. It doesn't look like it but we are. We're here one minute, and just like that, we're gone. The Peacemakers (The Nemesis Engines) — Olivier A. Blanchard

When you read my stories, I want you to see the world through my eyes; as if I based my work on you. Come away with me, and I'll show you a world that you've never seen before or ever want to leave. — Nila N. Brown

She looked up at her father. "I am bound so tight by oaths that I feel like a fly in a spider's web. All I can do is use every resource I have before the spider strikes. — Gwynn White

As if the president gives a crap about demons and what they go through just because her father's got horns?" Morganith returned. "She never opens her coward mouth about the quiet oppression the demons -- your people -- face every single day --!"
"Our people," Hari calmly corrected.
"No," said Morganith at once. "Halflings have never been anyone's people. — Ash Gray

Steampunk is Victorian science fiction — G.D. Falksen

All right boys, let's sail away! Show those bastards how airship pirates fly a ship! — Katherine McIntyre

It seems to me that Halloween is the perfect time to get all over steampunk. — Gail Carriger

Follow those rats! They may lead us back to Muggins! — A.F. Stewart

You have a way of turning the established order on its head." Instantly regretting that, he forced his face to relax; Lynx must not see anger in his eyes. — Gwynn White

I'm always homesick for the journey," I had once written in ink speckled script, adding almost as an afterthought, " ... no matter what it may hold. — S.C. Barrus

She holstered her weapon, raising the hem of her skirts and stepping lightly around the dead bodies. — A.F. Stewart

Technically and logically speaking, actual Victorian science fiction writers cannot be dubbed 'steampunks.' Although they utilized many of the same tropes and touchstones employed later by twenty-first-century writers of steampunk, in their contemporary hands these devices represented state-of-the-art speculation. — Paul Di Filippo