Emma Newman Quotes

That’s the trouble with these violent mersives: once the limbic system gets involved my higher cognitive functions are screwed.

I hate dealing with these people.
No, I hate dealing with people, but the rich ones are the worst.

As a scientist, I know this is madness. But I also know this is an act of faith.

Saying it’s a sign from God is an interpretation, not a fact.

Her voice cracks and I fight the tug of memories trying to pull me back to that place where people thought he was the center of the universe. I feel a flash of hatred toward her for being so broken by the loss of him, for needing him so much when he was just a man who scooped up the human detritus from the edges of society and fooled them into thinking they were part of something special.

The simple truth emerges like a bubble of swamp gas and just as foul.

I’m not going to let that stupid, crazy woman convince everyone that doing this to me is God’s work! She’s just bored and if they knew—

The data is always there. It’s just a matter of knowing where to look.

That was the second major lie I told that week. It gets easier, in some ways; now I lie without expending any effort. But I think each one has its own weight. One alone may barely register, like a grain of sand in the palm of one’s hand. But soon enough there’s more than can be held and they start to slip through our grasp if we’re not careful.
I’m always careful.

I’ve grown out of seeking emotional self-destruction. But even now the doubts are slithering in, making me question whether the hellish foundation my life is built on genuinely equates to coping.

Maybe one day I’ll be able to live somewhere with a garden. I’ll be old but skilled enough to still have some consultancy work to pay for the space to grow real food. Hands in the dirt again. Doing something real. No people around. Yeah, that’s the dream. Strange how the things we rail against and hate in our youth can be the things we crave as we get older.

It’s no easier to climb down than it is to go up. It just torments a different set of muscles.

She looks at me like I’m a car engine that’s been making a strange noise.

I made a mistake when I was young and didn’t know how the world worked and I have paid for it. Many, many times over.

I’m not sure what the masses enjoy more: being swept into a fervor about the latest big story or the backlash against it. It all ends the same way: by the time whatever is being hyped actually happens, most people have used up all the fucks they could possibly give about it.