Feedback loops, echo chambers, circular reinforcement. All could play a part in escalating the utterly imaginary to the level of reality, sometimes with fatal consequences.
All those words,′ she whispered, ’so diligently placed together, and so pointlessly torn apart.
If you look into someone else’s dreams, all you ever find are nightmares.
The most favorite boy’s name is James; the least favorite is Gzxkls.
It’s important to collect evidence,’ she said, ’even if disproved. That’s how science works. Being proved wrong and then advancing. If I’m proved wrong a lot, I must be making headway, right?
Tangling with the Goliath Corporation generally left you in one of two places: inside a wooden box with a grieving family outside, or inside a wooden box under six foot of soil with family wondering where you were. The former was if they didn’t hold a grudge.
There were seven thermonuclear devices?” queried Parks, who had latched on to Jack’s outlandish explanation without too much difficulty, as should you.
There was a picture of Don Hector on the wall and next to the television was a phonograph with a large collection of cylinders. I looked through them. They were a mixture of old favourites – Dark Side of the Moon, Rumours, Ziggy Stardust – mixed with jazz and a little Puccini.
I am boring, but I’m ok with it. I’m the anchor, the shoulder... I’m an average man... with a truly extraordinary wife.
The people to listen to are the ones who don’t say very much.
Somebody once said that the library is actually the dominant life form on the planet. Humans simply exist as the reproductive means to achieve more libraries.
She and I had not exchanged an intelligent word since we first met five hours before, and the reason was readily explained: Mrs Tiffen was dead, and had been for several years.
You’ll also be pleased to know that no resident has been eaten in their sleep here for almost thirty-seven years.
In order to fail, first you have to try.
It was loopholery at its very best.
The dismantling of S0-27 had some peculiar and unforeseen consequences, not least the legalizing of lethal force within libraries “for the maintenance of the collections and public order.” Originally intended as a deterrent to thieves, the legislation quickly became known as the “Shush Law,” when overenthusiastic librarians invoked a “violent intervention” for loud talking. Libraries have never been quieter, and theft and vandalism dropped by 72 percent.
Much that we had appreciated about one another had been left unsaid. In humor, in life and in love, we had understood.
You’re not any of those. But I can’t figure out if you’re a clever person pretending to be thick, a thick person pretending to be clever, or just a chancer stumbling through the Winter without any sort of plan or thought at all.
You’ll know the beginning easily enough; it’s when it all started going weird.
That’s the point about failure,” I said. “It’s an intrinsic part of success. You win some, then you lose some. But with experience and luck, you learn to lose less as the years go on.
Oh, hullo, Worthing,’ he said in a cheery manner. ‘How are things?’ ‘Outlook stormy with a chance of scattered death moving in randomly from all points of the compass.