Top 450 Ernest Cline Quotes (2026 Update)
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301. “The collected knowledge, art, and amusements of all human civilization were there, waiting for me. But gaining access to all of that information turned out to be something of a mixed blessing. Because that was when I found out the truth.”

— Ernest Cline

302. “He was dressed in a plaid bathrobe and bunny slippers.”

— Ernest Cline

303. “So now you have to live the rest of your life knowing you’re going to die someday and disappear forever.”

— Ernest Cline

304. “Through sheer force of will and brainpower, he’d once again turned science fiction into science fact, without much regard for the long-term consequences.”

— Ernest Cline

305. “There was no downtime between calls, because there were always several hundred morons in the call queue, all of them willing to wait on hold for hours to have a tech rep hold their hand and fix their problem. Why bother looking up the solution online? Why try to figure the problem out on your own when you could have someone else do your thinking for you?”

— Ernest Cline

306. “H-h-hey there, compadre!”

— Ernest Cline

307. “Welcome to the OASIS, Parzival!”

— Ernest Cline

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

— Ernest Cline

309. “I should be thanking you. I haven’t had this much fun in decades!”

— Ernest Cline

310. “To win the videogame of life you just have to try to make the experience of being forced to play it as pleasant as possible, for yourself, and for all of the other players you encounter in your travels.”

— Ernest Cline

311. “I thought. You’re going to turn it into a fascist corporate theme park.”

— Ernest Cline

312. “The moment I began searching for the egg, the future no longer seemed so bleak.”

— Ernest Cline

313. “She used to have to force me to log out every night, because I never wanted to return to the real world. Because the real world sucked. I.”

— Ernest Cline

314. “Someone had keyed my car.”

— Ernest Cline

315. “I’d finally gained enough distance from my addiction to realize something. Human beings were never meant to participate in a worldwide social network comprised of billions of people.”

— Ernest Cline

316. “So these aliens, they really have Glaive Fighters?”

— Ernest Cline

317. “Jeez. Cool your tool.”

— Ernest Cline

318. “Gut’, sagte er und zwinkerte mir zu. ‘Mach nicht denselben Fehler wie ich. Versteck dich nicht ewig hier drin.”

— Ernest Cline

319. “Well, I’m no Yngwie Malmsteen or anything,” I said. “I’m still learning.”

— Ernest Cline

320. “On the few occasions that Halliday agreed to do interviews, his behavior came off as bizarre, even by game-designer standards. He was hyperkinetic, aloof, and so socially inept that the interviewers often came away with the impression he was mentally ill.”

— Ernest Cline

321. “I was devastated. I was still in love with her.”

— Ernest Cline

322. “Star Trek? Oh, I did my homework. TOS, TNG, DS9. Even Voyager and Enterprise. I watched them all in chronological order. The movies, too. Phasers locked on target.”

— Ernest Cline

323. “I unclenched them. Then I glanced back at Ellen, to see if she was watching all of this. She was staring at Casey with a helpless expression, and her eyes were filled with pity.”

— Ernest Cline

324. “Some people define themselves by railing against all of the things they hate, while explaining why everyone else should hate it too.”

— Ernest Cline

325. “But I refused to give up. Until an avatar reached Halliday’s Easter egg, anything was still possible. Like any classic videogame, the Hunt had simply reached a new, more difficult level. A new level often required an entirely new strategy. I began to formulate a plan. A bold, outrageous plan that would require epic amounts of luck to pull off.”

— Ernest Cline

326. “Just a maintenance tech here, folks, heading home after a long night of rebooting routers. That’s all. I am definitely not an indent making a daring escape with ten zettabytes of stolen company data in his pocket. Nosiree.”

— Ernest Cline

327. “When my ship reached Syrinx, I saw the twin moons, By-Tor and Snow Dog, that orbited the planet. Their names were taken from another classic Rush song.”

— Ernest Cline

328. “Several Sonic the Hedgehog games involved a quest to collect seven “Chaos Emeralds” that could be harnessed to obtain special powers. Inside the OASIS, dozens of different quests on Mobius Prime allowed you to collect the seven Chaos Emeralds, and I’d completed all of them. But if there was a way to trade the emeralds for one of the shards, I still hadn’t discovered it.”

— Ernest Cline

329. “Cameron, Gilliam, Jackson, Fincher, Kubrick, Lucas, Spielberg, Del Toro, Tarantino. And, of course, Kevin Smith.”

— Ernest Cline

330. “A pleasant place for the world to hide from its problems while human civilization slowly collapses, primarily due to neglect.”

— Ernest Cline

331. “Looking around, I wondered why Halliday, who always claimed to have had a miserable childhood, had later become so nostalgic for it. I knew that if and when I finally escaped from the stacks, I’d never look back. And I definitely wouldn’t create a detailed simulation of the place.”

— Ernest Cline

332. “His paternal tone irked me no end, and that helped to steel my resolve. I couldn’t sell out the the Sixers.”

— Ernest Cline

333. “He chuckled softly. I wanted to sock him in the face.”

— Ernest Cline

334. “At first, I couldn’t understand why the media was making such a big deal of the billionaire’s death. After all, the people of Planet Earth had other concerns. The ongoing energy crisis. Catastrophic climate change. Widespread famine, poverty and disease. Half a dozen wars. You know: “dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria.”

— Ernest Cline

335. “Out here on the perimeter, there are no stars.”

— Ernest Cline

336. “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

337. “WarGames had been one of Halliday’s all-time favorite movies. Which was why I had watched it over three dozen times.”

— Ernest Cline

338. “There was no way I’d be able to sleep tonight, or sit through school tomorrow. I had to go now.”

— Ernest Cline

339. “I opened my eyes to see her staring down at me. “Thank you!” I said, throwing my arms around her. My voice came out as a whisper. “Thank you for saving me. Thank you for coming back.” I forced myself to let go of her.”

— Ernest Cline

340. “Year after year, my eyes would scan the lunchroom like a T-1000, searching for a clique that might accept me.”

— Ernest Cline

341. “So the real jaw-dropping news that January morning, the news that had everyone from Toronto to Tokyo crapping in their cornflakes, concerned the contents of Halliday’s last will and testament, and the fate of his vast fortune.”

— Ernest Cline

342. “I stopped moving forward and the sound of hoofbeats also ceased, but not until a few seconds later. I turned around and saw the source of the sound. It wasn’t a horse. It was a man banging two coconut halves together.”

— Ernest Cline

343. “Says you, assface. It has some great moments.” “No,” I said, shaking my head. “It doesn’t. It’s even worse than that first Ewok flick, Caravan of Courage. They shoulda called it Caravan of Suck.”

— Ernest Cline

344. “And the only thing you can do is keep right on playing. Because the game that is your life still isn’t over yet. And there’s no telling how far you might be able to get, what you might discover, or who you might meet when you get there.”

— Ernest Cline

345. “Our records also show that you are currently unemployed and have therefore been classified as impecunious. Under current federal law, you are now eligible for mandatory indenturement.”

— Ernest Cline

346. “I RODE THE turbo elevator back up to the observation deck. The moment the elevator doors swished open and I stepped into the large domed room, the odor of burning cannabis filled my nose. The smell grew increasingly stronger the farther I ventured into the room, as did the familiar strains of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, punctuated by fits of only slightly suppressed laughter.”

— Ernest Cline

347. “The bay doors embedded on the starboard side of the Doolittle’s bow irised open and the Icebreaker launched out of it, accompanied by a dense escort of three dozen fighters.”

— Ernest Cline

348. “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

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

— Ernest Cline

350. “On the floor, directly underneath my suspended haptic chair, was my Okagami Runaround omnidirectional treadmill.”

— Ernest Cline