Quotes from A. Lee Martinez

in a moment of indulgence, I'd had my face carved in Mount Rushmore, so I wasn't one to judge.

I've never believed in destiny. My personal philosophy is one of feigned entropic denial.

The world is full of people who smirk on the sidelines. I'd much rather be a cheerleader.

I could no more appreciate your unparalleled coffee nectar than I could understand the genius of whatever art-house auteur director you currently love or whatever obscure musical group you and exactly four of your friends listen to. I will never be cool like you. I will never understand the secret beauty of this world the way you do. So, give me a cider and your pity and/or contempt, and we can both get on with our lives.

Ned felt vaguely insulted. And unimportant. It was one thing to hide away from the world. It was quite another to discover the world didn't miss you when you were gone.

there's nothing like having to claw and scrape your way through a sea of molten lava to remind one to keep an eye on the details.

I thought you said everything would be fine." "I also thought storing my most dangerous technology on a dimensionally unstable island full of mutant dinosaurs would be safe. Much as it pains me to admit it, I do make my share of mistakes." I

The wisest man knows he know nothing.

He gives me the hairy eyeball, and asks me to help him find his pancreas.

Reality is like a fruitcake; pretty enough to look at but with all sorts of nasty things lurking just beneath the surface.

Those who write are writers. Those who wait are waiters.

When you cross over into the weird stuff, there's no going back. Hector has a theory on it. Calls it the law of 'Anomalous Phenomena Attraction.' He explained it to me once. Didn't really pay attention, but it boils down to 'weird shit pulls in more weird shit.

Terrible errors are rarely made all at once. Usually they are performed one small misstep at a time.

I believe it was the great ogre philosopher Gary who observed that complexity is, generally speaking, an illusion of conscious desire. All things exist in as simple a form as necessity dictates. When a thing is labeled 'complex,' that's just a roundabout way of saying you're not observant enough to understand it.

Being a good person is more than just not being a bad person.

Death should take more care with his paperwork.

The universe was filled with secrets, and he understood now that one of the biggest was that no one needed to know them all.

Mortal life is too short to be worried all the time.

Ned passed the next few minutes quietly not dying in his office, and was pleased with how well it was going. He'd stayed alive longer, but now that he was concentrating on it, it felt more like an accomplishment.

Because life is complicated and difficult. Anyone who says otherwise hasn't truly lived.

Humans... You want a nice warm hug from a cold, indifferent universe.

In the middle of nowhere, along a quiet stretch of road, the diner dreamt of the hungry dead. And of two men.

We all carry many selves, but in the end, these are just phantoms of possibility, nothing more than ghosts of broken destinies.

But all memories, no matter how distant, no matter how distorted, have the shadow of truth underneath. Even the most imperfect memory is a window—