Dystopian Fiction Quotes

Everybody stood dead still. It was as if now that we were about to get out of the Tower for the first time since the flood, we were scared, like we were crossing some line that we wouldn't be able to uncross.
Greenleigh ~ B.E. Scully

Through my fiction, I seek to highlight the social and cultural rules that we accept without question. Sometimes, without even noticing. Fiction offers a unique platform to do this, with dystopia at the fore. By exaggerating these ingrained rules, or by reversing them entirely, we can start to examine them. And question them. And challenge those that are harmful. ~ Angeline Trevena

Nature is cheaper than therapy. ~ M.P. Zarrella

The storage capacity of the average human brain is two-hundred and fifty-six exabytes. However, the average adult human only uses approximately one billionth of that storage space effectively. This means my knowledge capacity is approximately three thousand trillion times that of your average human. ~ Michael Monroe

The James Bond movies and the comic books had it all wrong. You did not need elaborate contraptions, complicated plans, and futuristic doomsday weapons to wipe out of all of humankind. All you needed was a fully realized vision and an intense focus. All you needed to do is give a little push to what was already happening; what was inevitable.
All you had to do is get one group of people who believe in an invisible man in the sky to get really pissed off at another group of people who believe in a slightly different version of the same invisible man in the sky. ~ James J. Caterino

But a thought swarmed in me; what if he, this yellow-eyed being – in his ridiculous, dirty bundle of trees, in his uncalculated life – is happier than us? ~ Yevgeny Zamyatin

He doesn't trust people because he knows they are all the same. Everyone cares about their own survival and nothing else, just like him. Since he is more than willing to kill for it, so are they. After all, he has endured through all these years, leading him to be alone, it was the only conclusion that made sense. ~ Joe Reyes

In the center of a garden reared a tree, glinting golden in the darkness, peppered with flowers that smelled of blood. The great yawning hollows of the trunk invited her in, promising a snug sanctuary. "They will suffocate you like a pillow of sand and you will never emerge alive," a chittering voice cried out. The patterns engraved on the tree's bark dizzied her eyes. "If your finger brushes against them, you'll know true madness." She glanced away from the bark, her eyes caught by a movement in the branches. A squirrel scurried down the trunk towards her. It didn't seem to be bothered that its tail was swathed in flames, or that something had eaten away at half of its rot-black face and torso. Death's pet project bared its teeth at her. "Do you really want to be here? ~ Angela Panayotopulos

People are writing post-apocalyptic fiction like there's no tomorrow! ~ Cassandra Page

Feeling lurks in that interval of time between desire and its consummation. ~ Aldous Huxley

Emotion. It's a lethal weakness of our kind. A sickness that inhibits logic and eventually drives our minds toward the breaking point. It's our kryptonite – our fatal flaw and our saving grace.

After all, emotions make us who we are. They make us capable of love and compassion and selflessness, bring out the best in us.

At the same time, they ruin us. Make us feel hatred and pain and guilt. Cause our muscles to lock, our pulses to spike, our hearts to split in half.

These things called…feelings…could break every single one of us, if we let them. ~ Tiana Dalichov

... there are certain questions that must never be asked. Of anyone. Even oneself. ~ Jenny Lynne

Well one tiny poisonous spider can kill a very large man if it bites him in the right place. ~ Michael Monroe

What I always hate is when people call our movement a 'revolution'. For this to be a revolution, we would have to be opposing a standing government. Look around; there is no standing government. ~ Joe Reyes

For a moment nothing happens. The figure stands still and I stand cold and alive and-
He starts to run. I make my way down the rocks, slipping, sliding, trying to get to the plain. I wish, I think, my feet clumsy, moving too fast, not fast enough, I wish i could run, I wish I'd written a whole poem, I wish I kept the compass-
And then I reach the plain and wish for nothing but what I have. Ky. Running toward me. I have never seen him run like this, fast, free, strong, wild. He looks so beautiful, his body moves so right. He stops just close enough for me to see the blue of his eyes and forget the red on my hands and the green I wish I wore. "You're here," he says, breathing hard and hungry. sweat and dirt cover his face, and he looks at me as though I'm the only thing he ever needed to see. I open my mouth to say yes. But I only have time to breathe in before he closes the last of the distance. All I know is the kiss. ~ Ally Condie

The law isn't merciful. ~ Cate Campbell Beatty

Fantastic," I said without an ounce of enthusiasm. "I'm just one more embarrassing confession away from taking over the world."
Spencer Nye ~ Jason Letts

If the only option you leave poor people with is to resort to violence in order to survive, they'll do just that. And there are lots more poor people in this world than there are rich ones. ~ Michael Monroe

When your legs and arms are being torn from your body, you console yourself that you've not yet been beheaded. Of course, right? When your nerves are being extracted strand by strand and your flesh is being dried drop by drop, you simply see past the blood and the bones and think: Hey, at least they haven't torn me apart at the cellular level yet.
Unnerving logic. ~ Angela Panayotopulos

Of what I know of life, in any moment, you run three vital risks-the risk of being yourself, the risk of not being yourself and the risk
itself. I would stress most on the third kind. It is the game itself that draws its modest players inward. The "risk" to hide out in a world where masks are normative, the "risk" to play the oppressor, the
"risk" to risk your truth one more day in life, the "risk" to not risk your lie. ~ Simran Keshwani

Would we be so enamored with dystopian fiction if we lived in a culture where violent death was a major concern? It wouldn't be escapism. ~ Maggie Stiefvater

She would have laughed if she haven't been at the point of crying. ~ Aldous Huxley

That was a double negative, Jemail. By saying that you haven't seen nobody, you're actually saying that you have seen somebody. ~ Michael Monroe

Fear walks through the City, fear without name, without shape. All men feel it and none dare to speak. ~ Ayn Rand

The world as we know it, cruel, dark and hopeless, have gifted us one more reason why, as a species, shoud we accept the fact that we're living in absolute ignorance. One more chunk of food for our fears and desperations. One more nightmarish and haunting thought for our dreams. ~ Mladen Đorđević

Buddy, you have no idea what I am capable of. Now, put the rifle down on the ground. Step back and walk away. Then leave this place and do not ever come back. If you do that, I will let you live. ~ James J. Caterino

My English teachers gave me a copy of Atwood's 'The Handmaid's Tale' when I left high school, which has always been very special to me - it was the novel that introduced me to dystopian fiction. I'm also influenced by Edgar Allan Poe, Dickens, John Wyndham and Middle English dream-visions. ~ Samantha Shannon

If we keep punishing people for what their parents or their ancestors have done, the world as a whole can never move forward. Society will never grow. ~ Jennifer Wilson

If I didn't love so damn hard I
wouldn't have someone to risk my life for. ~ Leslie Lee Sanders

If you listen closely you will hear the spirits sigh
a lesson lost on humans; an enchanting lullaby:
Mercy lies in nature's hands and bound to it we grow.
Of the earth we came to be and of the earth we'll go. ~ Nicoline Evans

Writing is emotional ... it is baring your soul to the world and waiting for someone to acknowledge and love it, or shun and hate it, or worse be indifferent about it. ~ Anne-Rae Vasquez

That's what you people do, isn't it? Make assumptions and sell them to impressionable idiots. ~ Michael Monroe

Sometimes at night I would look out and up at the glow rising up around me through the plastic and it would just make me shudder. It reminded me of larvae. We were like pale grubs in our eggs. When I got the horrors like that, I requested a little yellow pill from the dial-a-doc and flopped down into the fuzz along with everyone else. ~ Stevie O'Connor

The lucky ones died in the blasts. They were spared the fate of starvation, cannibalism, rape and slaughter. Where a man could be killed over half-eaten can of corn. ~ Joe Reyes

Generalities are intellectually necessary evils. ~ Aldous Huxley

They walked through the rainy dark like gaunt ghosts, and Garraty didn't like to look at them. They were the walking dead. ~ Stephen King

All the definitions people want to put on you in terms of what kind of writer you are come with hidden meanings. If you're writing science fiction, you're writing rocket ships. If you write dystopian fiction, it's inequity where The Man must be fought. ~ Paolo Bacigalupi

I have been speaking to you all of your life. In the gurgle of a tide pool, I breathed myself into you. I drew you down from the trees and I lifted you onto your feet. I freed your hands to become your tools so that you would cradle me in my old age, but you have turned on me. My strongest warrior for life, you have been transformed into an insatiable messenger of death. Only a few of my children are still listening when I howl to them, crying in the night, sending the oceans in great surges to cleanse my land -- to cleanse, and to warn you who no longer listen. I WILL BE HEARD. ~ Sarah Warden

I haven't been this high-functioning since last century." - Chief Morray, The City Center ~ Simone Pond

It's time, Perry. He let her go. She took a step back, taking in his face one last time. His green eyes. The bend in his nose and the scars on his cheek. All the tiny inperfections that made him beautiful. Without a word, she turned and made her way downhill. ~ Veronica Rossi

It will begin with the six who now tread the streets of a city where the stone pinnacle erects like a reed amongst long grass. Where a bridge expands across a gorge, drifts a cloud buzzing with a million stings. There, these six shall bleed. There, these six shall die, and like a plague shall spread the wings that carry the cloud till they consume the city, and with it, the strength that fuels all of your lives. Farewell, children of the new world, and may your deaths be swift. ~ Najeev Raj Nadarajah

Humans have been doin' awful things to each other throughout history. Humanity's not as great as you make it out to be. I do what needs to be done, and that's that. We're about to go to war, Earl. There ain't no humanity in war. ~ Michael Monroe

There was always so much going on. Never any time to stop and smell the roses. Never any roses to stop and smell anyway. ~ Ellie Lieberman

A snake's carcass sprawled across a third of the road. It was so mangled she couldn't tell head from tail. Pieces of its shredded skin lifted and drifted in the aftermath of the car's passing. ~ Angela Panayotopulos

Be sure to volunteer to make your community a better place. We all win when everyone gives. ~ Alexandra Swann

Money is a tool we use to reach certain ends. Nothing more, nothing less. It's hard to come by, though, so when opportunities arise, we need to make the most of them. ~ Michael Monroe

What do you read after the Hunger Games? Start the Octagon series for just 99c - Limited Time Only. For Sale on Amazon Kindle ~ J.K. Ellem

He hugs me and I'm home.
He kisses me and I'm never alone. ~ David Estes

And it is strange that absence can feel like presence. ~ Ally Condie

But really, that is kind of silly,' Abigail tried to explain. 'I mean, a book is much less personal than a programmed screen that can respond to you according to your needs, and concentrate on what's hard for you, and go fast on what's easy. A book stays the same no matter *who's* reading it. And anyway, I don't see how anyone could read a whole long book, it must be so boring!'

'But...but it wasn't,' Peter said faintly. 'I...almost forgot I was reading it. The...the whole story was going on in my head.'

'I still don't understand,' said Oliver. 'I mean, watching a real-life hologram right before your eyes is better than anything you could *imagine.* ~ William Sleator

When the bombs fell, it wasn't a war; it was an obliteration. No one had any idea who shot first or why. ~ Joe Reyes

I have a curse.
I HAVE A GIFT.
I'm a monster.
I'M MORE THAN HUMAN.
My touch Is lethal.
MY TOUCH IS POWER.
I am their weapon.
I WILL FIGHT BACK. ~ Tahereh Mafi

We go to the schools and they leach the dreams from where our ancestors hid them, in the honeycombs of slushy marrow buried in our bones. And us? Well, we join our ancestors, hoping we left enough dreams behind for the next generation to stumble across. ~ Cherie Dimaline

I had evolved a year too soon, and it nearly broke me ~ Carlyle Labuschagne

Remember that forgiveness too is a power. To beg for it is a power, and to withold or bestow it is a power, perhaps the greatest. ~ Margaret Atwood

He hadn't realized that the ordinary little things that happened, the ones that took place between the big events while waiting for something more exciting to happen – they were the most important, after all. ~ Helen Smith

Fireflies were like fairy tales. They appealed to the young, the old, and the imaginative. In a world of detestable insects, these bugs were the exception. They had an adorable way of flying so whimsically despite their butts being on fire. ~ Angela Panayotopulos

But he couldn't risk taking the helmet off. It was the only thing saving him from the firing squad. He was no longer able to keep his thoughts silent. No longer able to squash his misgivings about what he had done. ~ T.C. Avey

For its speculations to be taken seriously, dystopian fiction must be part of a discussion of contemporary society, a projection of ongoing political failures perhaps, or the wringing of present jeopardy for future disaster. ~ Sarah Hall

I would rather never make a penny on book sales and know that many had derived some fair pleasure from my writing, than to know that very few had ever taken a chance on my work. I certainly won't last forever, but I'd love to think that my imagination will continue to surface in the minds of others. ~ Eric Diehl

Never trust a man who sits, uninvited, at the head of the table in another man's home. ~ Cecelia Ahern

Sure, you can break a man. Bend his will, even, but be careful with the ones that break easily. Those are the ones you have to keep a close eye on. Those are the ones that play possum and hide in the shadows. Just waiting for their time to strike! That's when you're most vulnerable. When you're surrounded by friends. ~ Joe Reyes

The warbling of birds emerged from the wind-swept trees flanking the road; the swishing branches tangled together overhead like kissing tongues. Children shrieked as they hopped off school buses and raced each other home. Lawn mowers purred like great mechanical cats, delighted with their dinners of shredded grass. The road unraveled through such forested neighborhoods, the kind where families host barbecues and children still ride bikes after sunset and porches creak under the weight of seasonal decor. The kind where kidnappings are flukes and horned men are freaks of nature. ~ Angela Panayotopulos

They are as smart as they are ruthless. That's why they've been around for all five years. ~ Joe Reyes

I would cry if I could, but instead I just feel my heart rip apart. ~ Siobhan Davis

I knew that feeling, the sense of panic that stretched time, turning seconds into years, and the deep pain that came from being hurt by not one person but many, a gang of bullies that expanded into a neighborhood and then into a community, until you questioned the whole world. And your last thought, as you stretch your arm until your fingers are inches from that lifeline, is how if you survive, you'll find a way to help fix what was broken, so you can say that yes, you want to be part of the world again. ~ Lissa Price

I was in a place I had never visited before and I didn't want to ever visit again.
I was in hell, or so I thought… ~ J.K. Ellem

The dark winds are nearing. I can sense them. I can feel them in the air all around me, like a distant echoes. The twilight must fall, and the Dragon must awake. ~ Mladen Đorđević

I hear my father's voice. "Political differences divided what used to be America into The Nationalist States and The Patriot States: Then Nats declared war on the Patriots. Why?"
Olmo answers in an overly enthusiastic tone. "Because they couldn't agree on the division of derritoryes!"
"Territories," corrects Dad.
"That, too," says Olmo cheerfully. ~ Mya Robarts

Inside the room there sat a rocker, which she sat on, and which had rocked her while she sipped the beer, because in spite of herself she had become so giddy to have so quickly relieved her heart that she allowed herself to lean backwards while in the rocker, which had made it possible for the rocker to rock her, although it was not her intention to be so rocked. Also there stood an ironing board with a still hot iron on it that was burning a yellow shift, and there was, among several items that were not as noticeable to the woman, and yet were noticeable enough to at least bear mention, a fake man.
"I hope you don't mind me asking," said the woman who lived in the room, but then while in her chair she nodded off. ~ Justin Dobbs

Well, for one, you walk around like you're so much better than everyone else. We're all a bunch of soulless animals or somethin' in your eyes, I guess. You're the high and mighty one and I ain't fit to drink your piss. ~ Michael Monroe

Prince Maxon surveyed the room and found me. Our eye met for a moment, and he smiled. ~ Kiera Cass

I lived in an enclave in which our oldest had seen twenty-five years. His face was withered, and his fingers shook when he attempted the smallest tasks. Some whispered it would be a kindness to kill him, but they meant they didn't want to see their futures written in his skin. ~ Ann Aguirre

The books I was given to learn from were about a boy and a girl called Dick and Jane. The books were very old, and the pictures had been altered at Ardua Hall. Jane wore long skirts and sleeves, but you could tell from the places where the paint had been applied that her skirt had once been above her knees and her sleeves had ended above her elbows. Her hair had once been uncovered. ~ Margaret Atwood

That's the funny thing about guns; even untrained hands can feel powerful using them. But take that gun away and you're left with nothing but a coward whose only skill is how to blindly pull a trigger. ~ Jennifer Wilson

Let them come. We've got helicopters, tanks, jets, and big guns. We've got armies of robots. What do they have but their stench and the squalor they live in? ~ Michael Monroe

Once upon a time there was war, and starvation, and death. Once upon a time we would kill our brothers and sisters, fearing for our own lives. Once upon a time the characters turned from us, and we wept. Now we do not war, nor do we fear, nor do we weep. We Redact. ~ F.D. Lee

I fell silent after that. I didn't want to talk about such things anymore, at least today. My chest already hurt and I was trying to keep my mind calm. I didn't want to think of a future so bleak and dark. I had plans for my future and they didn't involve the world ending or society collapsing. ~ J.M. Northup

Evangeline," he sighed. "It ain't ever goan to be easy with you, is it? ~ Kresley Cole

Beeswax, with its subtle undertones of smoke and honey. The smell of ink on wet paper, the sickly-sweet smell of decay. The sweat of clean bodies, the scent of burnt gloves. She loved the crackle of the fire and the clang of the tools. She loved the magic of sweat-streaked alchemists who blew down metal pipes and created bubbles within molten glass. She loved the flawless final chapter, the glistening undulations as smooth as ice. ~ Angela Panayotopulos

The bus rumbled away, its gleaming yellow body disappearing around a bend in the road, consumed by veiny crimson leaves that shrouded the trees like sweaters threaded with blood ~ Angela Panayotopulos

That's because both the job title and the job itself have never existed before. We used the term 'ground-breaking' to describe this position because that is exactly what it is." Leonard Scott leaned forward. "The current Administration is committed to solving the greatest problems of our time - climate change, sustainability, the deficit, the impending crisis stemming from shortfalls in Social Security and Medicare, healthcare, and the problems that our nation faces as a result of an aging population. We are implementing a plan that will address all of these issues and will revolutionize the way that this country looks at retirement. Rather than continuing on in a bankrupt, broken system that meets the needs of no one, we are going to introduce American seniors to a new way of life - a holistic community that will engage them like nothing ever has before. ~ Alexandra Swann

Our society is in the midst of mental slavery, on the cusp of physical. We are the checks and balances of society…Revolutions begin here." - - Alexander ~ James Farris

It feels so good to find out I mean everything to the person who means everything to me. ~ Leslie Lee Sanders

Welcome to the place on the other side of midnight. ~ Mladen Đorđević

Don't know when my life came to visualising intense pain and tragedy to putting it down on paper, to putting across a message of love in times of abject hate. Thank you everybody and the conspiracy of the stars for showing me this day. To many, many more books, inshallah, and to many more launches. ~ Simran Keshwani

A shiver ran through me. Freaks looked almost human
and weren't. They had lesions on their skin, razor-sharp teeth, and claws instead of fingernails. I'd heard you could detect them by smell, though in the tunnels, that could be hard. ~ Ann Aguirre

I was a new person. A new Aurora. I was Aurora of Itchikan City-State. ~ Binta Userkaf

Ideas combined with courage can change the world. ~ David Litwack

No, not really. But ... " Okay, I couldn't help but gloat a little. "She likes me."
Samedi didn't even look at me. "Well of course, you've had that bloody uniform on all day. I was half ready to tell you how much I liked you. ~ Lia Habel

Take it for granted that the government will disregard long-term dangers-such as those affecting the environment-in order to cling to power; that the citizenry will do the same because thinking is too much like hard work; and then the handful of Cassandras are proved right, they will be held to blame and very likely stoned or shot. ~ John Brunner

His life was now the life of a collector, and that gave it meaning. Evening after evening he would count and arrange his cuttings under the indulgent eyes of Mrs. Povondra who knew that every man is partly mad and partly a little child; it was better for him to play with his cuttings than to go out drinking and playing cards. She even made some space in the scullery for all the boxes he had made himself for his collection; could anything more be asked of a wife? ~ Karel Capek

It's degrading being routinely subjected to a battery of medical tests to ensure I continue to deserve a place in this new world. ~ Siobhan Davis

Lexi was older now than she'd been in kindergarten. Her brain functioned with more logic and less emotion. Gabriel knew it would be harder this time. Now Lexi had to make sense of things before she believed in them. ~ Angela Panayotopulos

Ask very pointed questions. Sharp as sword blades, or laser blasts, if you catch my meaning. ~ Michael Monroe

The need for nicotine is stronger than the rules of a men. ~ Mladen Đorđević

Kris," Leonard Scott looked at her from across the table, "we are hiring a group of people who will take part in helping the U.S. achieve the most radical change it has ever seen. This is not just change you can believe in, it's change you can touch and see and feel. We are ready to make you a part of this team, if you are ready to join us. ~ Alexandra Swann

My chest tightens to the point I fear my heart will suffocate from the pressure of it. Society's standards are the total opposite from how I was raised. The boy who I thought to be so strikingly handsome has less than a year of his life to live, my new friend only a few more months beyond that. Yet they are living these uneventful lives in which they don't think there is a reason for anything. Will I ever see my mother again, or is this how I will be forced to live the rest of my life, as well? ~ Jen Naumann

It had been along time since I breached the surface of the world above. My parents wouldn't allow it. So as far as I knew, the survivors that remained were savages. I'd seen a few things before our colony was built and most of the inhabitants left ran wildly through the bare, desert terrain, filth covering them from head to toe, bones protruding their leathery skin, and foam dripping from their mouths in search of one thing ...
Nourishment. ~ Lauren Hammond

Sometimes when we label something dystopian fiction, I feel like we're trying very hard not to use the words 'science fiction,' because science fiction has those horrible connotations of rocket ships and bodacious babes. ~ Paolo Bacigalupi