Quotes from The Shining Girls

“She would disappear
folded like origami
into her own dreams”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“There are only so many plots in the world. It's how they unfold that makes them interesting.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“The problem with snapshots is that they replace actual memories. You lock down the moment and it becomes all there is of it.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“There are patterns because we try to find them. A desperate attempt at order because we can't face the terror that it might all be random.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“The future is not as loud as war, but it is relentless. It has a terrible fury all its own.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“Next time, can you ask him to bring cookies? I don't like to put up with that level of insane unless there's some kind of high-calorie compensation.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“Only other people can make you feel real.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“Memory is curated. All this paraphernalia you collect to ward off forgetting”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“Can't reinvent the wheel. But you can put your own spin on it.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“But she was the kind of girl you couldn't keep down. Unless you cut her up and caved in her skull.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“Being her friend was like going to a tropical island for a little fun in the sun, only to be kidnapped by terrorists.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“She's even been practicing making out with the back of her hand. Which was about as effective as tickling yourself. It's why you needed other fingers, other tongues. Only other people can make you feel real.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“Grown-up relationships are complicated. We got what we needed from each other. Passion. A safety net. Some kind of solace. It's lonely out there. But it ran its course. It was lovely while it lasted. But everything is finite. Life. Love. All this. Sadness too. Although that's harder to let go of than happiness. - Rachel Mazrachi”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“I'm scared, Mom." ... "It's okay, honey. It's all right. That's the big secret, don't you know? Everyone is. All the time.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“Dope don't have no sympathy, not for love or family, definitely not for fear. Put dope and the devil up against each other in the ring, and dope will win out. Every single time.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“Oh, but fine isn't everything!' Rachel exclaims and grabs her hands and pulls her into a stepping foxtrot over the paintings, twirling her round. 'Fine is the very definition of mediocrity. It's what's polite. It's what's socially acceptable. We need to live brighter and deeper than just fine, my darling!”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“We do this to ourselves. Society is a poisonous hamster wheel.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“If you want to kiss me again, then shut the fuck up and stop bleeding to death”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“Affectionate violence. For when a hug just won't do. That's a Hallmark card for you.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“Time heals. Crushes let up. Splinters work their way out. Doesn't mean they don't leave scars that itch.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“Nothing is infinitely reducible. You can split an atom but you can't vaporize it. Stuff sticks around. It clings to you, even when it's broken.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“Six foot eight and all asshole.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“He adds, wistfully, "I don't suppose you have syphilis, do you?"
"No."
"Pity. There's a study starting in Alabama that would have paid for all your medical care if you did. Although you'd have to be a Negro."
"I'm not that, either."
"Too bad." The doctor shrugs.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“(…) everything is finite. Life. Love. All this.' (…) 'Sadness too. Although that's harder to let go of than happiness.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“You can bury your radical magazines and tear up your sexually perverse sketches and burn your sheets. But how do you erase who you are?”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“Fear festers in the imagination. It’s not fear’s fault. That’s just the way it’s made. Nightmares breed. Allies become enemies. Subversives are everywhere. Paranoia justifies any persecution, and privacy is a luxury when the Reds have the bomb.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“It doesn't escape him that the rock holding it up is the perfect fit for his fist. Or how easily one of those needle spokes would slide right through the girl's eye like Jell-O.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“And he's sorry he ever doubted the House. She's the one. One of the ones. His shining girls.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“A gut wound will drop a man in his tracks every time. Harper always found it more personal than bullets, getting right up into someone. It made the war bearable.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

“It's why you need other fingers, other tongues. Only other people can make you feel real.”
― Lauren Beukes, quote from The Shining Girls

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“Thank you," he said. "Welcome. Welcome especially to Mr. Coyle Mathis and the other men and women of Forster Hollow who are going to be employed at this rather strikingly energy-inefficient plant. It's a long way from Forster Hollow, isn't it?"

"So, yes, welcome," he said. "Welcome to the middle class! That's what I want to say. Although, quickly, before I go any further, I also want to say to Mr. Mathis here in the front row: I know you don't like me. And I don't like you. But, you know, back when you were refusing to have anything to do with us, I respected that. I didn't like it, but I had respect for your position. For your independence. You see, because I actually came from a place a little bit like Forster Hollow myself, before I joined the middle class. And, now you're middle-class, too, and I want to welcome you all, because it's a wonderful thing, our American middle class. It's the mainstay of economies all around the globe!"

"And now that you've got these jobs at this body-armor plant," he continued, "You're going to be able to participate in those economies. You, too, can help denude every last scrap of native habitat in Asia, Africa, and South America! You, too, can buy six-foot-wide plasma TV screens that consume unbelievable amounts of energy, even when they're not turned on! But that's OK, because that's why we threw you out of your homes in the first places, so we could strip-mine your ancestral hills and feed the coal-fired generators that are the number-one cause of global warming and other excellent things like acid rain. It's a perfect world, isn't it? It's a perfect system, because as long as you've got your six-foot-wide plasma TV, and the electricity to run it, you don't have to think about any of the ugly consequences. You can watch Survivor: Indonesia till there's no more Indonesia!"

"Just quickly, here," he continued, "because I want to keep my remarks brief. Just a few more remarks about this perfect world. I want to mention those big new eight-miles-per-gallon vehicles you're going to be able to buy and drive as much as you want, now that you've joined me as a member of the middle class. The reason this country needs so much body armor is that certain people in certain parts of the world don't want us stealing all their oil to run your vehicles. And so the more you drive your vehicles, the more secure your jobs at this body-armor plant are going to be! Isn't that perfect?"

"Just a couple more things!" Walter cried, wresting the mike from its holder and dancing away with it. "I want to welcome you all to working for one of the most corrupt and savage corporations in the world! Do you hear me? LBI doesn't give a shit about your sons and daughters bleeding in Iraq, as long as they get their thousand-percent profit! I know this for a fact! I have the facts to prove it! That's part of the perfect middle-class world you're joining! Now that you're working for LBI, you can finally make enough money to keep your kids from joining the Army and dying in LBI's broken-down trucks and shoddy body armor!"

The mike had gone dead, and Walter skittered backwards, away from the mob that was forming. "And MEANWHILE," he shouted, "WE ARE ADDING THIRTEEN MILLION HUMAN BEINGS TO THE POPULATION EVERY MONTH! THIRTEEN MILLION MORE PEOPLE TO KILL EACH OTHER IN COMPETITION OVER FINITE RESOURCES! AND WIPE OUT EVERY OTHER LIVING THING ALONG THE WAY! IT IS A PERFECT FUCKING WORLD AS LONG AS YOU DON'T COUNT EVERY OTHER SPECIES IN IT! WE ARE A CANCER ON THE PLANT! A CANCER ON THE PLANET!”
― Jonathan Franzen, quote from Freedom

“be made of the wind’s actual speed,”
― quote from Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage

“glutton. When Ami was caught in the stables with no fewer than three”
― George R.R. Martin, quote from A Storm of Swords: Blood and Gold

“I despise you and I love you, you who are my damnation and salvation both.”
― John Scalzi, quote from Old Man's War

“The tall white lillies were reeling in the moonlight, and the air was charged with perfume, as with a presence. Mrs. Morel gasped slightly in fear. She touched the big, pallid flowers on their petals, then shivered. They seemed to be stretching in the moonlight. She put her hand into one white bin: the gold scarcely showed on her fingers by moonlight. She bent down to look at the binful of yellow pollen; but it only appeared dusky. The she drank a deep draught of the scent. It almost made her dizzy.”
― D.H. Lawrence, quote from Sons and Lovers

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