Quotes from Islands in the Net

Bruce Sterling ·  256 pages

Rating: (4.5K votes)


“The rhythm built up, high resonant notes from the buzzing xylophone, the off-scale dipping warble of the flute, the eerie, strangely primeval bass of the synthesizer.
The others punctuated the music with claps and sudden piercing shrieks from behind their veils. Suddenly one began to sing in Tamashek.
"He sings about his synthesizer," Gresham murmured.
"What does he say?"

I humbly adore the acts of the Most High,
Who has given to the synthesizer what is better than a soul.
So that, when it plays, the men are silent,
And their hands cover their veils to hide their emotions.
The troubles of life were pushing me into the tomb,
But thanks to the synthesizer,
God has given me back my life.”
― Bruce Sterling, quote from Islands in the Net


“Hey, check this cheap-shot fascist shit,” David muttered, just for the record.”
― Bruce Sterling, quote from Islands in the Net


“If America suffers from drugs, perhaps you should ask what America is lacking, [“What an asshole,”] Eric King commented suddenly. They ignored him.”
― Bruce Sterling, quote from Islands in the Net


“Because you’re a straight, Laura.” “Stop calling me that!” Laura said. “What makes you so different?” “Look at you,” Carlotta said. “You’re educated. You’re smart. You’re beautiful. You’re married to a goddamn architect. You have a wonderful baby and friends in high places.” Her eyes narrowed; she began to hiss. “Then look at me. I’m a cracker. Ugly. No family. Daddy used to beat me up. I never finished school—I can’t hardly read and write. I’m diselxic, or whatever they call it. You ever wonder what happens to people who can’t read and write? In your fucking beautiful Net world with all its fucking data? No, you never thought of that, did you? If I found a place for myself, it was in the teeth of people like you.”
― Bruce Sterling, quote from Islands in the Net


“They never forget what they can’t have”
― Bruce Sterling, quote from Islands in the Net



About the author

Bruce Sterling
Born place: in Brownsville, Texas, The United States
Born date April 14, 1954
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“The biologist and intellectual E. O. Wilson was once asked what represented the most hindrance to the development of children; his answer was the soccer mom. He did not use the notion of the Procrustean bed, but he outlined it perfectly. His argument is that they repress children's natural biophilia, their love of living things. But the problem is more general; soccer moms try to eliminate the trial and error, the antifragility, from children's lives, move them away from the ecological and transform them into nerds working on preexisting (soccer-mom-compatible) maps of reality. Good students, but nerds--that is, they are like computers except slower. Further, they are now totally untrained to handle ambiguity. As a child of civil war, I disbelieve in structured learning . . . . Provided we have the right type of rigor, we need randomness, mess, adventures, uncertainty, self-discovery, near-traumatic episodes, all those things that make life worth living, compared to the structured, fake, and ineffective life of an empty-suit CEO with a preset schedule and an alarm clock.”
― Nassim Nicholas Taleb, quote from Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder


“The Chinese considered the moon to be yin, feminine and full of negative energy, as opposed to the sun that was yang and exemplified masculinity. I liked the moon, with its soft silver beams. It was at once elusive and filled with trickery, so that lost objects that had rolled into the crevices of a room were rarely found, and books read in its light seemed to contain all sorts of fanciful stories that were never there the next morning.”
― Yangsze Choo, quote from The Ghost Bride


“Mom's eyes blazed. "Are you sleeping with her?"

Oh, god. Did we have to do this here? Now? "Well, actually," I smirked, "we don't get a lot of sleep.”
― Julie Anne Peters, quote from Keeping You a Secret


“No. But then the American Government--whatever branch--has never really grasped the concept of tribal identity.”
― Laurell K. Hamilton, quote from Micah


“Of all those books you've read? There's got to be something, somewhere in them, to help us laugh at a situation like this.”
― Carol Plum-Ucci, quote from What Happened to Lani Garver


Interesting books

Zen Flesh, Zen Bones: A Collection of Zen and Pre-Zen Writings
(6K)
Sea Swept
(51.9K)
Sea Swept
by Nora Roberts
A Civil Contract
(5.4K)
A Civil Contract
by Georgette Heyer
All the Weyrs of Pern
(21.4K)
All the Weyrs of Per...
by Anne McCaffrey
This World We Live In
(26.4K)
This World We Live I...
by Susan Beth Pfeffer
Bittersweet
(11.4K)
Bittersweet
by Sarah Ockler

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.