Top 450 Ernest Cline Quotes (2025 Update)
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451. “You’re just dead, your brain stops working, and then you’re not around to ask annoying questions anymore.”

— Ernest Cline

452. “The guy had no sense of decorum.”

— Ernest Cline

453. “It suddenly occurred to me just how absurd this scene was: a guy wearing a suit of armor, standing next to an undead king, both hunched over the controls of a classic arcade game. It was the sort of surreal image you’d expect to see on the cover of an old issue of Heavy Metal or Dragon magazine.”

— Ernest Cline

454. “At the center of all that gear was the opening DJ, R2-D2, hard at work, using his various robotic arms to work the turntables.”

— Ernest Cline

455. “At the center of all that gear was the opening DJ, R2-D2, hard at work, using his various robotic arms to work the turntables. I recognized the tune he was playing: the ’88 remix of New Order’s “Blue Monday,” with a lot of Star Wars droid sound samples mixed in.”

— Ernest Cline

456. “You have a gift for making friends who are much cooler than you are.”

— Ernest Cline

457. “I was still in love with her. And I always would be. I just wanted to live long enough to correct my mistakes and redeem myself in her eyes, if I could.”

— Ernest Cline

458. “Ray seemed to subsist primarily on a diet of high-fructose junk food and old videogames. It was hard not to love the guy. Back.”

— Ernest Cline

459. “Like most gunters, I voted to reelect Cory Doctorow and Wil Wheaton.”

— Ernest Cline

460. “I was a man of science, even if I did usually get a C in it.”

— Ernest Cline

461. “Christ! Haven’t any of you rewatched The Matrix lately? Or Sword Art Online?”

— Ernest Cline

462. “I don’t want to work with you.” I leveled a finger at him. “You give me the creeps. But if your superiors are willing to fire your ass and give me your position, I’m in. It’s a done deal.” Silence.”

— Ernest Cline

463. “It was Art3mis. She wore a suit of scaled gunmetal-blue armor that looked more sci-fi than fantasy. Twin blaster pistols were slung low on her hips in quickdraw holsters, and there was a long, curved elvish sword in a scabbard across her back. She wore fingerless Road Warrior–style racing gloves and a pair of classic Ray-Ban shades. Overall, she seemed to be going for a sort of mid-’80s postapocalyptic cyberpunk girl-next-door look. And it was working for me, in a big way. In a word: hot.”

— Ernest Cline

464. “Peu importaient les responsables au pouvoir, ils se contentaient de modifier l’agencement des transats sur le pont du Titanic, et personne ne se faisait d’illusions.”

— Ernest Cline

465. “Neal Stephenson.”

— Ernest Cline

466. “Besides, what if BSG and Firefly took place in the same universe? You ever consider that?” I.”

— Ernest Cline

467. “Pretend they’re Gungans,” Cruz suggested. “And that we get to nuke Jar Jar.”

— Ernest Cline

468. “My father’s face contorted in pain, and that was when I turned and walked away, well out of earshot, to let them talk in private – and to avoid a crying jag of my own.”

— Ernest Cline

469. “Once we reached the edge of the Be-Free Forest, we entered Holden’s Field – a large, flat, open field of rye, perched precariously on the edge of the Cliffs of Salinger, a place where I had completed several different book-report quests at several different grade levels. I had also played countless games of tag in this field, with other kids from around the world. Kids I had never met and would never meet in the real world, with usernames that they had probably changed long ago.”

— Ernest Cline

470. “Player One button, and my worries would instantly slip away as my mind focused itself on the relentless pixelated onslaught on the screen in front of me. There, inside the game’s two-dimensional universe, life was simple: It’s just you against the machine. Move with your left hand, shoot with your right, and try to stay alive as long as possible.”

— Ernest Cline

471. “Halliday had prepared a short video message, along with instructions that it be released to the world media at the time of his death.”

— Ernest Cline

472. “I wasn’t some dilettante.”

— Ernest Cline

473. “He wasn’t dead!”

— Ernest Cline

474. “This is your QComm,” he explained. “It’s a Quantum Communicator – basically a smartphone with unlimited range. It will work anywhere in the world – or in outer space.” He smiled. “They also have insanely fast Internet access and Bluetooth capability. I already imported all of your contacts, photos, and music from your iPhone, so you’re all set up.”

— Ernest Cline

475. “When I played the classics, I did so with a determined sort of reverence.”

— Ernest Cline

476. “I took control of a Happy Helpdesk avatar, a cookie-cutter Ken doll that I used to take tech-support calls. This avatar appeared inside a huge virtual call center, inside a virtual cubicle, sitting at a virtual desk, in front of a virtual computer, wearing a virtual phone headset. I thought of this place as my own private virtual hell.”

— Ernest Cline

477. “I also have a habit of overeating when I was depressed or frustrated, which was most of the time.”

— Ernest Cline

478. “Strong with the Dark Side of the Force that place is. In you must go, mofo.”

— Ernest Cline

479. “Not trusting my instincts any further, I loaded up a piece of high-end avatar dance software called Travoltra, which I’d downloaded and tested earlier that evening. The program took control of Parzival’s movements, synching them up with the music, and all four of my limbs were transformed into undulating cosine waves. Just like that, I became a dancing fool. Art3mis.”

— Ernest Cline

480. “I don’t care if Spielberg directed.”

— Ernest Cline

481. “She did it to get the extra food vouchers from the government every month.”

— Ernest Cline

482. “Knavery?” Art3mis said after she’d finished reading it. “Were you using a thesaurus when you wrote this?”

— Ernest Cline

483. “Don’t say that!” I was starting to cry and didn’t bother hiding it from her. “Is it because I told you I’ve never had a real girlfriend? And that I’m a virgin? Because-.”

— Ernest Cline

484. “I didn’t try to run. I didn’t even move. I just stood there and let justice take its course.”

— Ernest Cline

485. “According to him, the firmware on our OIVs has not been altered in any way – it just isn’t functioning properly now, due to the changes in Anorak’s infirmware.”

— Ernest Cline

486. “Van Halen, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, and Pink Floyd.”

— Ernest Cline

487. “Ray seemed to subsist primarily on a diet of high-fructose junk food and old videogames.”

— Ernest Cline

488. “The prize for the Earthworld contest was the Talisman of Penultimate Truth.”

— Ernest Cline

489. “No,” Daito said. “We’re not. You’re all strangers to us. For all we know, any one of you could be a Sixer spy.”

— Ernest Cline

490. “Before I could protest, she laid a hand on my avatar’s chest and muttered a few arcane words.”

— Ernest Cline

491. “When I tried to access one of the other entertainment libraries, Vintage Movies, the system informed me that I wouldn’t be granted access to a wider selection of entertainment options until I had received an above-average rating in three consecutive employee performance reviews. Then the system asked me if I wanted more information on the Indentured Employee Entertainment Reward Program. I didn’t.”

— Ernest Cline

492. “The real van that I’d used as my hideout had been extracted from the junk pile and airlifted to Columbus, so it could be put on display in the GSS Museum.”

— Ernest Cline

493. “Once she and I started touching each other, we both found it difficult to stop.”

— Ernest Cline

494. “It was a partnership destined to alter the course of human history.”

— Ernest Cline

495. “That’s the first rule of online romances, pal. No one ever looks anything like their avatar.”

— Ernest Cline