James Morrow Quotes

Better a citizen in hell than a slave in New Jersey.

Although Bix Constantine disbelieved in hell as intensely as he did in heaven, he knew what the place would be like. Hell, for Bix, was jealousy. It was failed journalists seeing their enemies receive Pulitzer Prizes. It was compulsive gamblers seeing jackpots gush from adjacent players’ slot machines and sex-starved young men seeing their friends piled high with naked cheerleaders.

The problem is, only a few people get to be scientists. You see the dilemma? Given the choice between a truth they can appreciate and a lie they can live, most people will take you-know-what.

As with the rest of Phoebe’s species, Julie must not let her become dependent upon supernatural solutions, trading one addiction for another.

When a species fixates on the supernatural, it ceases to mature.

I can’t help suggesting that a God who communicates through leukemia is at best deranged.

I think you’re so full of shit you’ve got roses growing out of your ass.

He smiled. Julie’s wedding, exquisite thought. Would his grandchildren be free of godhead? Was divinity a recessive trait?

She asked, “Do you believe science has all the answers?”
“Huh?”
“Science. Does it have all the answers?”
“Everybody thinks he’s being oh-so-deep when he says science doesn’t have all the answers.” Done. All of it. Virginity gone, flesh ratified, mother spited, mission discovered—the gospel of empirical truth! Yes! Oh, yes!
“Science does have all the answers,” said Howard, withdrawing. “The problem is that we don’t have all the science.”

What most people don’t realize is that something unprecedented has entered the world. Bang—science—and suddenly a proposition is true because it’s true, Julie, not because its adherents have the biggest churches or the grandest inquisitors or the most weeks on The New York Times bestseller list.

Myriad contradictory worlds," lectured Professor Jerome Delacato, "forever splitting off from each other like branches on a tree, so that, somewhere out there, I am presently giving a lecture explaining how the many-worlds hypothesis cannot possibly be true.

I'm really interested in this stuff." Julie rubbed a carton labeled ELEMENTARY PARTICLES.
"Physics?"
"Physics, biology, stars, everything." Howard said, "Good for you. These days most people prefer to impoverish their minds with mysticism.

Actually, the answer's quite simple." Two red eyes floated in the mist.
"Really? Tell me. Why does God allow evil?" The red eyes vanished, leaving only the lantern and the night. "Because power corrupts," said Wyvern's disembodied voice. "And absolute power corrupts absolutely.

You wouldn’t like him. Major fanatic. Confuses migraine headaches with God.

I've been good, I've been bad—nothing gets her attention. What am I supposed to do, sacrifice a goat?"
"Perhaps you should start a religion. You know—reveal your mother to the world."
"How can I reveal her when I don't know what she's like?"
"Use your imagination. Everybody else does.