Quotes from The Peripheral

William Gibson ·  485 pages

Rating: (13.2K votes)


“Eras are conveniences, particularly for those who never experienced them. We carve history from totalities beyond our grasp. Bolt labels on the result. Handles. Then speak of the handles as though they were things in themselves.”
― William Gibson, quote from The Peripheral


“Because people who couldn’t imagine themselves capable of evil were at a major disadvantage in dealing with people who didn’t need to imagine, because they already were.”
― William Gibson, quote from The Peripheral


“Encryption isn’t optional, when we address one another,” she said.”
― William Gibson, quote from The Peripheral


“If you fancy resenting the tedious, I recommend intentional communities, particularly those led by charismatics.” “You”
― William Gibson, quote from The Peripheral


“So now, in her day, he said, they were headed into androgenic, systemic, multiplex, seriously bad shit, like she sort of already knew, figured everybody did, except for people who still said it wasn't happening, and those people were mostly expecting the Second Coming, anyway.”
― William Gibson, quote from The Peripheral



“Be quiet, darling. Let pattern recognition have its way.”
― William Gibson, quote from The Peripheral


“Eras are conveniences, particularly for those who never experienced them. We carve history from totalities beyond our grasp. Bolt labels on the result. Handles. Then speak of the handles as though they were things in themselves.” “I’ve”
― William Gibson, quote from The Peripheral


“Unstuck her in time, day-sleeping in her bedroom. How old was she? Seven, seventeen, twenty-seven? Dusk or dawn? Couldn’t tell by the light outside. Checked her phone. Evening. The house silent, her mother probably asleep. Out through the smell of her grandfather’s fifty years of National Geographic, shelved in the hall.”
― William Gibson, quote from The Peripheral


“What Shaylene saw as Burton’s primary symptom of traumatic stress, Flynne thought, was his ongoing failure to ask her out.”
― William Gibson, quote from The Peripheral


“And this other evening light, rainy, rose and silver, and to her left a river the color of cold lead. Dark tumble of city, towers in the distance, few lights.”
― William Gibson, quote from The Peripheral



“Netherton was watching the intricate texture of her bustier, which resembled a microminiature model of some Victorian cast-iron station roof, its countless tiny panes filmed as by the coal smoke of fingerling locomotives, yet flexing as she breathed and spoke.”
― William Gibson, quote from The Peripheral


“A few stray bits of Lego edged fitfully about among lower strata,”
― William Gibson, quote from The Peripheral


“I have already told you of the sickness and confusion that comes with time travelling. —H. G. WELLS”
― William Gibson, quote from The Peripheral


“It’s like wearing your cock ring to meet the pope, and making sure he sees it.”
― William Gibson, quote from The Peripheral


“You're from the future, Mr Netherton?"
"Not exactly," he said. "I'm in the future that would result from my not being here. But since I am, it isn't your future. Here.”
― William Gibson, quote from The Peripheral



“a chronic malcontent, albeit quite a purposeless one.”
― William Gibson, quote from The Peripheral


“History had its fascinations, but could be burdensome.”
― William Gibson, quote from The Peripheral


“Because people who couldn’t imagine themselves capable of evil were at a major disadvantage in dealing with people who didn’t need to imagine, because they already were. She’d said it was always a mistake, to believe those people were different, special, infected with something that was inhuman, subhuman, fundamentally other.”
― William Gibson, quote from The Peripheral


“He gestured for it to sit. The bench vibrated briefly in anticipation, shedding drops of rain. The peripheral sat.”
― William Gibson, quote from The Peripheral


“That evil wasn’t glamorous, but just the result of ordinary half-assed badness, high school badness, given enough room, however that might happen, to become its bigger self. Bigger, with more horrible results, but never more than the cumulative weight of ordinary human baseness.”
― William Gibson, quote from The Peripheral



“Those fuckers,” Janice said, meaning the football players, “they get me doing hate Kegels.”
― William Gibson, quote from The Peripheral


“terror should remain the sole prerogative of the state.”
― William Gibson, quote from The Peripheral


“Conspiracy theory’s got to be simple. Sense doesn’t come into it. People are more scared of how complicated shit actually is than they ever are about whatever’s supposed to be behind the conspiracy.”
― William Gibson, quote from The Peripheral


“Eras are conveniences, particularly for those who never experienced them. We carve history from totalities beyond our grasp. Bolt”
― William Gibson, quote from The Peripheral


“Something stilled the part of him that knitted narrative, that grew the underbrush of lies in which he lived.”
― William Gibson, quote from The Peripheral



“stray bits of Lego edged fitfully about among lower strata, like bright rectilinear beetles.”
― William Gibson, quote from The Peripheral


“Reality television. It merged with politics. Then with performance art.” They walked on. “I think that already happened, back home,”
― William Gibson, quote from The Peripheral


“but Leon wasn’t due any disability. Wasn’t, their mother said, like he could claim to have caught the dumbfuck there. Not”
― William Gibson, quote from The Peripheral


About the author

William Gibson
Born place: in Conway, South Carolina, The United States
Born date March 17, 1948
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“This universe and all it is connected with will come to an end. Entropy carries us towards the inevitable omega point, that is why entropy exists.”
― Peter F. Hamilton, quote from The Naked God


“All the misunderstandings that tie the world up and keep people apart were quivering before me at once, waiting for me to untangle them, explain them, and I couldn’t. I didn’t know the words, the grammar, the syntax.”
― Samuel R. Delany, quote from Babel-17


“I leapt eagerly into books. The characters’ lives were so much more interesting than the lonely heartbeat of my own.”
― Ruta Sepetys, quote from Out of the Easy


“This is the role of the mother, and in that visit I really saw clearly, and for the first time, why a mother is really important. Not just because she feeds and also loves and cuddles and even mollycoddles a child, but because in an interesting and maybe an eerie and unworldly way, she stands in the gap. She stands between the unknown and the known. In Stockholm, my mother shed her protective love down around me and without knowing why people sensed that I had value.”
― Maya Angelou, quote from Mom & Me & Mom


“I will find her."
"And when you do?" Roger asked.
"I will make her mine," the warrior answered in a hard, determined voice. "She will be mine."
The vow was made.”
― Julie Garwood, quote from Gentle Warrior


Interesting books

Devil in Winter
(45.4K)
Devil in Winter
by Lisa Kleypas
Last Chance to See
(16.5K)
Last Chance to See
by Douglas Adams
The Secret of Ella and Micha
(66.9K)
The Secret of Ella a...
by Jessica Sorensen
The Nicomachean Ethics
(27K)
The Nicomachean Ethi...
by Aristotle
Every Dead Thing
(17.7K)
Every Dead Thing
by John Connolly
Those Who Save Us
(80K)
Those Who Save Us
by Jenna Blum

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.