Top 450 Ernest Cline Quotes (2026 Update)
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351. “Once it was verified, a tiny augmented reality display extended from the front of the headset and then locked into place in front of my left eye, like a monocle. Several paragraphs of text appeared, floating in the air in front of me, superimposed in the center of my vision:.”

— Ernest Cline

352. “Cats with a serious marble deficiency.”

— Ernest Cline

353. “Parzival: Farewell, Art3mis. Sweet dreams.”

— Ernest Cline

354. “You don’t need to sell me on anything, Wade,” she said. “You’re my best friend. My favorite person.” With.”

— Ernest Cline

355. “Era el nacimiento de una nueva era, una era en la que casi toda la humanidad pasaba su tiempo libre en un videojuego.”

— Ernest Cline

356. “I never blamed my mom for the way things were. She was a victim of fate and cruel circumstance, like everyone else. Her generation had it the hardest. She’d been born into a world of plenty, then had to watch it all slowly vanish. More than anything, I remember feeling sorry for her.”

— Ernest Cline

357. “Maybe it was just as I had always secretly feared: The apple had fallen right next to the Crazy Tree.”

— Ernest Cline

358. “Neal Stephenson.”

— Ernest Cline

359. “I made a big entrance when I arrived in my flying DeLorean, which I’d obtained by completing a Back to the Future quest on the planet Zemeckis.”

— Ernest Cline

360. “It was still pretty dark down here, so I took out my flashlight and headed east, weaving my way through the dark maze, doing my best to remain unseen while being careful to avoid tripping over a shopping cart, engine block, or one of the other pieces of junk littering the narrow alleys between the stacks.”

— Ernest Cline

361. “OASIS. The Ontologically Anthropocentric Sensory Immersive Simulation.”

— Ernest Cline

362. “The vast wasteland of television programming had finally reached its zenith, and the average person was no longer limited to fifteen minutes of fame.”

— Ernest Cline

363. “This is a special strain of Yoda Kush that I myself created,” Shin said, holding up his giant spliff.”

— Ernest Cline

364. “My haptic suit did its best to simulate the sensation of torrents of falling water striking my body, but it felt more like someone pounding on my head, shoulders, and back with a bundle of sticks.”

— Ernest Cline

365. “My bullet bill this month was going to be huge.”

— Ernest Cline

366. “The tenderness in her tone, which had once been so familiar to me, now felt completely foreign. Hearing it again was like a knife in my heart.”

— Ernest Cline

367. “The Europans were building an armada, just like the Sobrukai. But much closer to Earth. They had Foundry Ships orbiting their moon, cranking out fighters and drones – just like those I’d spotted above Sobrukai last night.”

— Ernest Cline

368. “And I apparently take this as my cue to shove my foot even further into my mouth.”

— Ernest Cline

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

— Ernest Cline

370. “My father looked as if I’d just gutted him – but it was mingled with a twisted sense of satisfaction. It felt good to hurt his feelings.”

— Ernest Cline

371. “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

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

— Ernest Cline

373. “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

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

— Ernest Cline

375. “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

376. “It’s cold as balls in here!”

— Ernest Cline

377. “I gave her another salute – then, like a goofball, I pretended to poke myself in the eye as I did, just to hear the sound of her laugh.”

— Ernest Cline

378. “Real estate within walking distance of a big city became far too valuable to waste on a flat plane of mobile homes, so someone had cooked up the brilliant idea of, as Mr. Miller pit it, “stacking the sumbitches,” to maximise the use of ground space.”

— Ernest Cline

379. “I-r0k and Aech attended the same school and had a few classes together, but I still couldn’t figure out why Aech had granted him access to the Basement.”

— Ernest Cline

380. “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

381. “We can’t be together anymore, Wade,” she said evenly, her voice suddenly devoid of emotion. “Not when we disagree on something so basic. And so important. Your actions today will have disastrous consequences. I’m sorry you can’t see that.”

— Ernest Cline

382. “But we also figured out how to do science, which helped us develop technology.”

— Ernest Cline

383. “Correct,” the machine replied. “But thankfully you made the correct choice, and knowingly disengaged from the cycle of warlike escalation with your imaginary enemy. That is why I’m speaking to you now. Once the Test has been passed, the Emissary makes contact with the individual most directly responsible, to inform them that their species has been invited to join the Sodality.”

— Ernest Cline

384. “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

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

— Ernest Cline

386. “Sorry, Cruz!” I said, pushing my throttle forward. “But you’ll never guess who just showed up. Leeeeeeroyyy – ” “Oh, Lightman, don’t you even dare!” “ – mmm-Jenkinsss!” I broke formation with the others, leaving the Icebreaker behind as I moved to attack the nearest Dreadnaught. I slammed my throttle forward and crossed in front of it, strafing the turrets spaced along the sphere’s equator, taking out one or two of them. “Goddammit, Zack!” Cruz shouted. “Every time! Every goddamn time!”

— Ernest Cline

387. “I need each of you to build the best rig you can, as fast as you can.”

— Ernest Cline

388. “One artificially intelligent supercomputer pretending to be a hostile alien race for the purpose of testing humanity’s character?”

— Ernest Cline

389. “As we sprinted from the Candle Room to the Music Club to the Boudoir to the Virtual Video Room, a song called “Interactive” played on a continuous loop in every room. Aech explained that this was a song Prince wrote exclusively for a Myst-like videogame he released with the same title.”

— Ernest Cline

390. “Yeah, I wish we could skip this storyline crap,” Cruz said. “Bor-ing.”

— Ernest Cline

391. “Ray, we don’t have much time,” I said. “We need to access the EDA intranet node hidden here in the store. It’s an emergency.” Ray only hesitated for a split second. “Behind the UFO poster on the back wall.” I turned and located the one he was talking about – a framed reprint of Mulder’s “I Want to Believe” poster from The X-Files. I took it down, revealing what appeared to be a small titanium safe embedded in the brick wall behind it, with a keypad at its center.”

— Ernest Cline

392. “You’re just dead, your brain stops working, and then you’re not around to ask annoying questions anymore.”

— Ernest Cline

393. “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

394. “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

395. “I’d never had such a powerful, immediate connection with another human being before.”

— Ernest Cline

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

— Ernest Cline

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

— Ernest Cline

398. “Ernest Cline lives in Austin, Texas, where he devotes a large portion of his time to geeking out. This is his first novel.”

— Ernest Cline

399. “I couldn’t make myself be cautious around her. A little voice in my head kept trying to tell me that every word she said could be disinformation and that she might be playing me for a fool. But I didn’t believe it. I trusted her, even though I had every reason not to.”

— Ernest Cline

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

— Ernest Cline