John Twelve Hawks Quotes

What happens in our future can change the meaning of what has happened in our past.

One of the pleasures of writing novels is that my characters usually do something. But in real life we often stay locked in a situation that we know is painful or wrong.

Bland is the truest expression of an advanced civilization. It took a great deal of money to create this pocket of cool, calm bland among the rickshaw men and the beggar children tapping on the car windows.

In reality, the universe is neutral about our existence. Only dogs care.

Half the things you've been taught in school are just convenient fictions. History is a puppet show for childish minds.

The Grid still exists even if you don't see the lines.

All the news stories were telling me to be frightened. All the commercials were telling me to buy things I didn´t need. The message was that people could only be passive victims or consumers.

Lying, not love, is the fundamental indication of humanity.

You need to study history, Doctor. All great changes are based on pain and destruction.

Every new experience is unusual. The rest of life is just sleep and committee meetings.

The Turing Test tried to make a distinction between humans and machines. But these days Shadow programs like Edward and Laura can be programmed to say "I love you" or imitate other emotions. If a machine wanted to act like a human, then it had to deny the truth. Lying, not love, is the fundamental indication of humanity.

Most people go through life never knowing the truth about the major events of their time. They're watching a farce performed at the edge of the stage while the real drama is going on behind the curtain.

Fear requires a desire to exist in the future.

Any monitoring system that is invisible, pervasive, automatic, and permanent gives those in power the means to create a modern surveillance state. And these new states will have an authority that has detached itself from ethics and ideology. Politicians and dictators will continue to make speeches, but their words will become meaningless. This new system will see and know us. It will even predict our future behavior.