A Lee Martinez Quotes

Destroy knowledge?" I said. "The only point of existence, if there is one at all, is in the accumulation of the collective intelligence of the sentient beings of the universe."
"Even dangerous intelligence?"
"Intelligence is neutral. Application is everything."
She sighed. "Says the evil genius."
"Evil is a relative term. ~ A. Lee Martinez

Quiet descended, a silence so consuming that even the drafty corridors ceased whistling. Bog wasn't certain where to look, so he solved the problem by plucking out his eyes and sticking them in a drawer. ~ A. Lee Martinez

Nessy had never believed that fear and respect were the same thing. Nor did she believe that the castle's manners were beyond redemption, for although her accursed home was mostly bad it was at least a little bit good. She hoped it would be good enough. ~ A. Lee Martinez

Destiny was a hope found in the hearts of desperate men. But sometimes, if they believed strongly enough, desperate men could do great things. ~ A. Lee Martinez

To worry is to acknowledge that the world is unpredictable, and there is power in understanding one's own powerlessness at times. But too often worry takes on life of its own. Men are quite prone to this. They'll plague themselves with so many 'what if's and 'if only's that they soon forget to ponder the true possibilities before them. Which inevitably lead to poor decisions. Whatever happens will happen. Sometimes we have say over the future. Sometimes we don't. Either way, worrying alone never accomplishes anything. ~ A. Lee Martinez

To quote a great sage ... answer unclear, try again later. ~ A. Lee Martinez

Life isn't about the things you can't have... It is about those blessings you do find along the way. ~ A. Lee Martinez

Without limitations, how does one find satisfaction? ~ A. Lee Martinez

Heroes are carried on the backs of a thousand forgotten faces. ~ A. Lee Martinez

Self-preservation was a basic directive, but there wasn't a robot functioning that prioritized it at the top of the list. Like biologicals all robots were seeking a purpose. Autos and drones were lucky enough to have that built into them. A bot had to find his own way and I'd figured out that functioning for function's sake was pointless. The real question was finding a directive worth getting scrapped for. ~ A. Lee Martinez

Relations between Terra and Luna had been strained since the Lunans had eaten Neil Armstrong in 1960. ~ A. Lee Martinez

Vance took the news of their "big-city fellows" status better than Philip. Probably because it turned out that he was actually gay.
"You're what?"
"Well, I'm not entirely sure," said Vance, "but I'd say it's seventy-thirty for it."
"But I've seen you with women."
"That would be the thirty part of the equation," said Vance as he sipped his coffee.
"Oh my God. That's why you agreed to do this with me. You think I'm gay, too!"
Vance chuckled. "Dude you're not gay."
"I know I'm not, but do you know I'm not?"
"I'd say ninety-two-eight on the straight side," said Vance.
"How the hell-"
"They've made some terrific advances in gaydar, dude. ~ A. Lee Martinez

The wisest man knows he know nothing. ~ A. Lee Martinez

I lied, therefore I thought. ~ A. Lee Martinez

A bot had to find his own way, and I'd figured out that functioning for function's sake was pointless." - Mack Megaton ~ A. Lee Martinez

There are areas of New England, plenty of them, with quaintness to spare, with color-changing leaves and folksy folks full of folksy homespun wisdom accompanied by folksy accents ~ A. Lee Martinez

He'd discovered that most of the terrors that stalked the night weren't really terrors at all. They were mostly like regular folks, just trying to live their lives. As long as they were left alone they were perfectly harmless except for the occasional bite on the neck. Humans were the real terrors, always getting worked up and looking to kill something. ~ A. Lee Martinez

I'm sorry, Mr. Whiteleaf. I'm not going to let a monster eat me for minimum wage. ~ A. Lee Martinez

Vance shook his head. "Philly, I love you, buddy. I do. But you're not my type."
"I'm not?"
"What? Are you insulted?"
Philip was pondering that when the front door jingled. ~ A. Lee Martinez

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

The fate of the universe didn't rest in the hands of the giants. It could be found in the littlest things. Anything done well was a worthy accomplishment, whether it be unwrapping arcane secrets or sweeping halls, raising kingdoms from the ocean or washing dishes. All tasks, great or small, were of equal importance in the end. Without peasants, there could be no kings. Without soldiers, there was no army. ~ A. Lee Martinez

Danger was a part of questing. Perhaps some quests were dull and safe affairs. Go to the store. Pick up some eggs. Return henceforth with said eggs and thou shalt be rewarded with the sacred omelet of justice.
Nobody wrote legends about that type of quest. ~ A. Lee Martinez

Jung's upper lip twitched, revealing a single, white fang. Only once had I seen him lose his temper, after someone at work had thought it funny to hide Jung's copy of Pride and Prejudice. He'd taken it well enough at first, but the prankster hadn't ended the gag soon enough and found himself facing a frothing, chest-beating, primal beast. No one got hurt, but that might not have been true if I hadn't been there to hold Jung back. After that, no one got between an eight-hundred-pound gorilla and Jane Austen. ~ A. Lee Martinez

I'll take hope over hopelessness everyday. ~ A. Lee Martinez

Music has always been the greatest expression of mortal philosophy," continued Lucky. "The path to enlightenment is found in the lyrics of Spinal Tap. ~ A. Lee Martinez

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. ~ A. Lee Martinez

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. ~ A. Lee Martinez

The revelation that there was nothing "special" about humanity didn't shock her. Not specifically. She'd always been cynical about that sort of thing. The idea that reality was all too big to even quantify in any meaningful way didn't disturb her much either. Except, deep down, she'd assumed there was some inherent logic at work. Like ricocheting molecules congealing into planets and stars, dogs and cats. At least the made sense, even if it wasn't very comforting. At least it put things in neat little boxes with neat little labels that she didn't always understand but could rely on in terms of familiarity. ~ A. Lee Martinez

Legends are always better from afar. ~ A. Lee Martinez

All coincidences are Odd. That's what makes them coincidences. ~ A. Lee Martinez

I emitted an ultrasonic signal. The beast climbed off her and scampered to my side. "Good girl, Snarg." I patted her between the antennae, and she squeaked. Zala stood. "By the hidden moon, what is that?" "My pet ultrapede." "I wouldn't expect you to have a pet." "Snarg was a gift of the ambassador of the Undersphere. She's the fiercest ultrapede ever bred for the royal family. How could I turn down a gift like that? ~ A. Lee Martinez

A sixth sense warned her that she was striking a Faustian bargain. Odd, since she wasn't sure what a Faustian bargain was. But it was something not to be taken lightly. She knew that. ~ A. Lee Martinez

The middle was where it was too easy to be lazy and cynical at the same time. ~ A. Lee Martinez

Death should take more care with his paperwork. ~ A. Lee Martinez

I stand corrected. Yours is a far superior arbitrary system of governance. ~ A. Lee Martinez

Most magic wasn't even magic. It just was. ~ A. Lee Martinez

I want to explore what it means to be human, but not just the most extreme elements of humanity. The quiet moments. The times when the world isn't exploding, but we're still trying to determine who we are and how can we make this thing called life work. And I want to do it while writing about space squids and moon-eating monster gods. ~ A. Lee Martinez

Rockwood didn't have a movie theater or an IHOP or a strip mall. But it did have two churches, a ramshackle bar, and last (but certainly not least) Wacky Willie's Deluxe Goofy Golf, a barren landscape of wilted ferns and plastic flamingos with peeling paint. Wacky Willie had added the 'Deluxe' when finally ridding the thirteenth hole windmill of a stubborn family of bats after a great and terrible struggle that would forever be known as 'The Fearsome Bat War of Rockwood County' by Willie, but was usually referred to as 'That Time Willie Had to Get Rabies Shots' by everyone else. ~ A. Lee Martinez

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

So how about you?" she asked. "Why did you and your" - she broke out the air quotes again - "'life partner' decide to move to Clam Bay?"

"Not really a good reason for it, I guess. Just bad judgment on... Wait. What did you call us?"

"Oh, I'm sorry." She blushed. "Was that the wrong term? I didn't mean to offend."

"You think... Uh, we're not gay."

She laughed. "Oh, it's all right. Nobody here cared about something like that. We're pretty tolerant of alternative lifestyles."

"We're not gay," he said with a little more force than intended. "We're just friends."

"Are you married?"

"No."

"Girlfriends?"

"Not at the moment."

"Confirmed bachelors?" She raised an eyebrow/

"Not confirmed," he replied.

"So two single guys from the big city move to our little town and open a bed-and-breakfast. But you're not gay."

"We're just friends," he said.

"Right. Because straight men open bed-and-breakfasts all the time."

"These straight men did."

"Straight men names Philip and Vance."

He wanted to argue, but he was suddenly beginning to question it himself. ~ A. Lee Martinez

Crime was a dirty public secret in Empire. No one talked about it, and if you listened to the Learned Council, you'd think Empire was a shining utopia of order and decency. True, there were plenty of districts where a citizen could live in complete safety, where police were omnipresent, reliable, and completely effective, where no one ever got mugged or slapped around, or murdered. Then there was the rest of the city.. In a town where technology was supposed to be the answer to all society's ills, there were plenty of ills to go around. ~ A. Lee Martinez

Do these robots looked armed? And I was talking to the dinosaur. Were you worried he would discuss me to death? ~ A. Lee Martinez

Your mistake, indeed the mistake of your inherently finite senses, is to view the universe as an extension of yourself. You expect that, like you, it should have a beginning, a middle, and an end. but what you fail to understand is that everything you consider to be you, except for that rather silly imaginary part you call consciousness, is merely bits and pieces borrowed from the universe, and to the universe it will all return. You had no beginning, and you will have no ending. Everything that is you has always been and will always be. ~ A. Lee Martinez

The women kept their smiles, although both their thumping hearts dropped from their throats to land hard back in their rib cages. For Miriam at least, this was less a metaphor, as siren hearts wandered a bit through their bodies depending on their mood. But to be accurate, hers hadn't risen all the way to her throat, stopping as high as her sternum before sliding its way down and resting on her bladder, thus adding a need to urinate to her disappointment. ~ A. Lee Martinez

We have to destroy the radioactive brain of Madame Curie. ~ A. Lee Martinez

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. ~ A. Lee Martinez

Are you a monster?" she asked. Helen smiled. "No, sweetie. I'm just an Enchanted American. ~ A. Lee Martinez

I wanted to glance one last time over my shoulder, but there was no reason to. Looking behind would only show me the things I'd seen, and everything of importance I could always see, ~ A. Lee Martinez

Being a good person is more than just not being a bad person. ~ A. Lee Martinez

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

He hasn't earned your your mercy."
Nessy replied, "Mercy isn't earned. It's given. ~ A. Lee Martinez

The Maycomb school grounds adjoined the back of the Radley lot; from the Radley chickenyard tall pecan trees shook their fruit into the schoolyard, but the nuts lay untouched by the children: Radley pecans would kill you. A baseball hit into the Radley yard was a lost ball and no questions asked. The ~ Harper Lee

Right. But do you think I could face my children otherwise? You know what's going to happen as well as I do, Jack, and I hope and pray I can get Jem and Scout through it without bitterness, and most of all, without catching Maycomb's usual disease. Why reasonable people go stark raving mad when anything involving a Negro comes up, is something I don't pretend to understand... I just hope that Jem and Scout come to me for their answers instead of listening to the town. I hope they trust me enough... Jean Louise?" My scalp jumped. I stuck my head around the corner. "Sir?" "Go to bed. ~ Harper Lee

He had no bag, which was strange. But overall it was vaguely reassuring to have such a man on board, especially after he had proved himself civilized and not in any way threatening. Threatening behavior from a man that size would have been unseemly. Good manners from a man that size were charming. ~ Lee Child

But I'm also a music lover, and I'll always try a lot of different things. ~ Lee Ann Womack

Sometimes the unyielding are just fighting to stay alive. No one wants to find out that their life was a lie. And when you change someone's mind, you are only rebirthing them into your reality. You destroyed one truth just to replace it with your own. And now you've just played God, without declaring yourself as God. ~ Charles Lee

A bunch of six nicer people, I couldn't be more fortunate to call my family - from Lee Pace, who is so dear. When I first saw him, I said he's like a Gary Cooper. He's bashful, he's shy, he's sensitive, he's a great actor, he's beautiful, he's delicious. ~ Ellen Greene

I had to test a new terror in myself. ~ Ang Lee

I was a star in England, but I've never been a star in America. Now I am. ~ Anna Lee

I am not a promoter of more laws, just better ones. ~ Lee Terry

There was also a phrase for him: pick at random any citizen from Maycomb County and its environs, ask him what he thought of Atticus Finch, and the answer would most likely be, "I never had a better friend." Atticus ~ Harper Lee

I walk with a dual longing
for life and for death. ~ Melissa Lee-Houghton

My essay had evolved into thinking about fucking. You could be raped a thousand times and still be a virgin. I was writing about fucking by a master and fucking as a slave, about Hegel, the comfort women and teenage porno stars. Ms. Bain and Mr. Rotowsky could fail me, I didn't care. I'd pass just with the bibliography. I was compiling a list of every single book I'd read or that I wanted to read that was about power and sex. High school should have a whole fucking course on just this. I was helping the school make curriculum ...
I was writing my essay, writing easily now. I didn't have a reader anymore like Lee or Chris but I imagined that I was writing for them both. Maybe I was writing for anyone who could fucking stand me. ~ Tamara Faith Berger

I enjoy personal injury cases. I've tried quite a few of those. And, frankly, any kind of litigation that is trouble-shooting, whether it's equities, suits and injunctions, or whatever. ~ F. Lee Bailey

Mother made sure her little kids were subjected to a strict routine. We were given a timetable which covered our every waking moment, copies of which were posted by our bedside, in the sitting room and in the kitchen. Story hour meant that mother would read us novels and short stories by Guy de Maupassant, Oscar Wilde and Edmondo de Amicis. Soon we graduated to Tolstoy, Gogol and Turgenev. She read them to us in Chinese and I never realised until much later that the writers wrote them in different European languages. Comics were absolutely forbidden and so were Enid Blyton adventures and pop music ... Lee Cyn and I soon went to a primary school nearby ... After mother's rigorous timetable, school became fun and easy-going. ~ Ang Swee Chai

Eulalia turned and smiled at me brilliantly, showing her tongue, her face cracking open like a brown snake's egg hatching. ~ Laurie Lee

I have been able to get a small audience. It's not the huge audience, but it's enough to make it possible to play. I appreciate that. ~ Lee Konitz

A lot of people thought I'd died, because of your coverage, they know I'm still around. ~ Brenda Lee

The sessions taught me a survival lesson. I had to be discreet, be cautious about what I said and did, and be very wary of others. Already I was acquiring the mask that the adults wore from long practice. Often, ~ Hyeonseo Lee

Eve turned away as a whispered "yes, ma'am" reached her ears. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. Why was she saving this asshole? Eve opened her eyes and unlocked the heavy steel bolt securing the five-by-two slab of oak. She looked back, ready to give him the signal to haul ass, when all the air punched from her lungs.
Naked.
It was the only word her stunned mind could form. Eve spun in place, and her rear bumped against the door. Guerin stood there, completely nude, with his briefs and coat in his grip.
"W-wh-what are you doing?" Dear God, she was stuttering like a young girl who'd never seen "boy parts" before. ~ Jessica Lee

It was usual to be obedient to authority, to obey a legal letter. But Rachaela left her bills
unpaid until the threats began. She ignored the money-envelopes stuck through the door for starving
children and the sick. ~ Tanith Lee

In the pairs of mothers and their adult children that I have seen, mothers who cared for their children out of obligation are then cared for in their elderly years by their adult children out of a similar obligation. ~ Jasmin Lee Cori

...a God that did everything we thought was right and good wouldn't be the creator of the universe. He would be our puppet. ~ Min Jin Lee

The Western approach to reality is mostly through theory, and theory begins by denying reality
to talk about reality, to go around reality, to catch anything that attracts our sense-intellect and abstract it away from reality itself. Thus philosophy begins by saying that the outside world is not a basic fact, that its existence can be doubted and that every proposition in which the reality of the outside world is affirmed is not an evident proposition but one that needs to be divided, dissected and analyzed. It is to stand consciously aside and try to square a circle. ~ Bruce Lee

To be a hacker - when I use the term - is somebody who is creative and does wonderful things. ~ Tim Berners-Lee

My beloved jay, give me a name now. call out the name you give me, looking into the deepest place in your heart. Everytime you call my name, I'll fly to you and be your wings. ~ Ilchi Lee

I get weary of reading about rebirths because we're all growing all the time and it diminishes the life you've lived if you say 'I'm a new person.' ~ Rickie Lee Jones

Everyone has it
To know what it is.
Take a journey deep within
And open your eyes wide.
Then you will see everything. ~ Ilchi Lee

There's a saying in High Egypt: The sky won't listen, so complain all you like. ~ Tanith Lee

He found something so intensely feminine about her that he fell in love. She was easy to look at and easy to be with most of the time, but she was in no sense of the word an easy person. She was afflicted with a restlessness of spirit he could not guess at, but he knew she was the one for him. He would protect her; he would marry her. ~ Harper Lee

How does a boot to the groin region sound?" A quick smirk. "I'll even pay you." Tommy feigned shock. "Jeez, no wonder you're making no money. Your customer service is lousy. ~ Jennifer Lee Thomson

Chakra Meditation is designed to bring you back to neutrality, to a place of balance. You might call this "Zero Point", a place where you can begin again with a fresh, new mind. ~ Ilchi Lee

I'd like to feel that whatever I play is a result of whatever I've heard. ~ Lee Konitz

Hatred, like a bush fire, ultimately consumes those who propagate it, leaving nothing but scorched, barren earth behind in their hearts. Love, the greatest of reckless endeavours, inspires men to greatness in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds... Maybe this book is just that, a reckless endeavour of the heart. ~ Stephen Lee

He said you could tell about a person not from what he believed, but by what worried him. ~ Chang-rae Lee

You know the Singaporean. He is a hard-working, industrious, rugged individual. Or we would not have made the grade. But let us also recognise that he is a champion grumbler. ~ Mr. Lee

Recognizing Nothing as one's true nature, following the guidance of our conscience - having a clear distinction between absolute and relative values, and using the Earth as the external absolute scale that matches the internal absolute truthfulness. ~ Ilchi Lee

I like Spike Lee a lot. He's incredibly gifted and I don't think he gets the credit he deserves as a filmmaker. ~ Tim Robbins

Throughout history, the technology always comes first. It's just technology for a while, until the day we artists inherit it. ~ Lee Clow

It's no such thing! she said. It's friendship! And if you're a man who can't tell friendship from charity, then you're to be pitied! ~ Bette Lee Crosby

Collateral damage' is what it's called when innocent people are killed during war. It is expected and is irrelevant as long as a mission has been successful. To view it this way is easy for someone that is far away from the bloodshed, but when you're on the frontlines... the faces of the innocent will stay with you, forever. ~ John Lee

Jesus's death has infinite value because he's an infinite God; it was enough to cover all the sins of the world. If we say some sin is too terrible, then we're saying Jesus fell short in his mission. Grace is only grace if it's available even to the Duchs of the world. In fact," he said, straightening himself in his chair, "here's a difficult thing for us to comprehend: God loves Duch as much as he loves you and me. ~ Lee Strobel

I want to learn. I want to stretch my muscles as a director and work under different circumstances. ~ Lee Daniels

A Conspiracy Theory that took hold was introduced by Anthony "Tony" Summers, the respected author of The Kennedy Conspiracy, published in 1980 and again in 1998 as "Not in Your Lifetime." He believes that anti-Castro activists, funded by Mafia mobsters who had been ousted from Cuba, killed Kennedy. Summers believes that members of the CIA took part in this conspiracy and named the people he suspected. Summers also stated in an article published in the National Enquirer magazine, on October 25, 2013, that Lee Harvey Oswald didn't act alone. The National Enquirer stated that Herminio Diaz, born in Cuba in 1923, had, in 1948, shot Pipi Hernandez, who was a Dominican exile employed at the naval base at Guantanamo. This killing took place at the Cuban Consulate in Mexico. In 1957, he was involved with an assassination attempt against President José Figueres of Costa Rica, who incidentally was a trained Army Ranger and a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point.

According to JFKFacts published on May 27, 2014, General Fabián Escalante, the historian of Cuban State Security and Castro's former bodyguard, said that the assassin Herminio Diaz, along with Eladio del Valle and three American mobsters: Richard Gaines, Lenny Patrick, and Dave Yara, were the shooters at Dealey Plaza. ~ Hank Bracker

If you use the original World Wide Web program, you never see a URL or have to deal with HTML. That was a surprise to me - that people were prepared to painstakingly write HTML. ~ Tim Berners-Lee

Ethical conduct is something that becomes inherent in an organization over a long period of time. ~ Lee R. Raymond