Quotes from Zoo

James Patterson ·  395 pages

Rating: (33.5K votes)


“The world was becoming a zoo, without cages.”
― James Patterson, quote from Zoo


“Turns out an apocalypse actually comes on pretty slowly. Not fire and brimstone, but rust and dandelions. Not a bang but a whimper.”
― James Patterson, quote from Zoo


“Then the doctor broke my nose and I cried like a baby”
― James Patterson, quote from Zoo


“It wasn’t because the lions were particularly hungry. The humans had been nothing compared to the eighteen-hundred-pound Cape buffalo, the pride’s more typical prey. The cars had been like boxes full of snacks.”
― James Patterson, quote from Zoo


“Toxic pheromone pollution. How can we combat that?” Charles Groh and I looked at each other. This was it. We’d finally arrived at the hard part. What had to be done. “The first step,” I said, “would be removing the factors that are causing the environmental disturbance.” “Remove petroleum products?” said the president. “And cell phones?” said the secretary of state. I nodded at both of them, then looked out at the faces around the table and on the screens.”
― James Patterson, quote from Zoo



“For all the scientific evidence we were amassing, many people, both in government and in the citizenry our elected officials are supposedly beholden to, were still refusing to accept that anything out of the ordinary was happening.

I wasn't the only voice screaming in the wilderness anymore - but still, not everyone heard the call. In those first few years, it was a long uphill battle to get people to recognize what was happening.”
― James Patterson, quote from Zoo


“Why is this happening? Who knows, really? Life and existence can never be fully understood. Stars are born only to explode. Creatures hunt other creatures, and then they die. The universe is a chaos of irrational forces wrestling with one another in a war without end. The human race is on the receiving end now.”
― James Patterson, quote from Zoo


“Desperate times, ladies and gentlemen,” I said. “Here’s what I think we should do.”
― James Patterson, quote from Zoo


“The greatest known power in the universe is the resilience of man coupled with his intellect. He tinkers and tests and fights through to solutions.”
― James Patterson, quote from Zoo


“Her English had an elegant European lilt, what I thought was a French accent—​vowels in the front of her mouth, consonants brushed with feathers.”
― James Patterson, quote from Zoo



“Turns out an apocalypse actually comes on pretty slowly. Not fire and brimstone but rust and dandelions. Not a bang but a whimper. Perhaps”
― James Patterson, quote from Zoo


“MRE. “Any you guys wanna take a moonlit stroll?”
― James Patterson, quote from Zoo


“They told us to come here,”
― James Patterson, quote from Zoo


“Horses had been brought in from a farm in Rockville, Maryland, to pull U-Haul trailers.”
― James Patterson, quote from Zoo


“The terminal was filled to capacity, crowded with tourists coming in from evacuated safari camps. The air buzzed with fear and nervous excitement. The tourists looked scared and confused, though I was glad to see that many of them were texting”
― James Patterson, quote from Zoo



“It was like crawling into the asshole of Satan.”
― James Patterson, quote from Zoo


“Raksasom! Rana! Atanka!” he warbles as he runs past the van. Monsters. Horror. Run. Monsters. Pardeep smiles to himself, amused. This is a prank. Probably kids playing tricks on some superstitious old fools. “Hello? Police,” he says, entering the lobby. It’s deserted. “Police!” The smell is awful. It smells like shit, garbage, death—which is to say, nothing unusual for this neighborhood. There’s no response. He starts up the stairs. At the top of the first-floor landing he sees something moving in the dimness down at the end of the hallway. It’s low to the ground, perhaps about waist level. In the windowless corridor, it looks to Pardeep like a woman with a blanket over her, crawling on all fours. He is confused. He reaches for his flashlight, takes a few steps closer. Then there is something moving at him very fast down the dark hallway. He clicks on his flashlight and sees bright eyes flash jewel-green in the darkness. Then he is falling backward. Pardeep doesn’t have time to scream as the leopard opens him from belly to chin. Two more leopards arrive, skulking slyly in the hallway. The leopard is one of the most dangerous animals in the world. The beautiful turquoise-eyed creature is sometimes called a leaping chain saw due to the fact that it uses both its rear claws and its razor-sharp front claws, as well as its teeth, when it strikes.”
― James Patterson, quote from Zoo


About the author

James Patterson
Born place: in Newburgh, New York, The United States
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Popular quotes

“Ich bin der festen Überzeugung, dass fünfundneunzig Prozent der Menschen auf der Erde einfach gleichgültige Masse sind. Ein Prozent sind Heilige, ein Prozent sind Arschlöcher. Die anderen drei Prozent sind die Leute, die das machen, was Sie sagen.”
― Stephen King, quote from The Dead Zone


“»Roma se tapa los oídos cuando te oye; y el mundo se ríe de ti.”
― Henryk Sienkiewicz, quote from Quo Vadis


“Of course the Man was wild too. He was dreadfully wild. He didn't even begin to be tame till he met the Woman, and she told him that she did not like living in his wild ways. She picked out a nice dry Cave, instead of a heap of wet leaves, to lie down in; and she strewed clean sand on the floor; and she lit a nice fire of wood at the back of the Cave; and she hung a dried wild-horse skin, tail down, across the opening of the Cave; and she said, 'Wipe your feet, dear, when you come in, and now we'll keep house.”
― Rudyard Kipling, quote from Just So Stories


“What is it that constitutes virtue, Mrs. Graham? Is it the circumstance of being able and willing to resist temptation; or that of having no temptations to resist? - Is he a strong man that overcomes great obstacles and performs surprising achievements, though by dint of great muscular exertion, and at the risk of some subsequent fatigue, or he that sits in his chair all day, with nothing to do more laborious than stirring the fire, and carrying his food to his mouth? If you would have your son to walk honourably through the world, you must not attempt to clear the stones from his path, but teach him to walk firmly over them - not insist upon leading him by the hand, but let him learn to go alone.'

'I will lead him by the hand, Mr. Markham, till he has strength to go alone; and I will clear as many stones from his path as I can, and teach him to avoid the rest - or walk firmly over them, as you say; - for when I have done my utmost, in the way of clearance, there will still be plenty left to exercise all the agility, steadiness, and circumspection he will ever have. - It is all very well to talk about noble resistance, and trials of virtue; but for fifty - or five hundred men that have yielded to temptation, show me one that has had virtue to resist. And why should I take it for granted that my son will be one in a thousand? - and not rather prepare for the worst, and suppose he will be like his - like the rest of mankind, unless I take care to prevent it?”
― Anne Brontë, quote from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall


“I don't like the idea of you shivering unless I cause it. Stay warm.”
― J.D. Robb, quote from Naked in Death


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