Top 90 Josh Malerman Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “And the androgynous laughter continued, too. Thick globules of sexless cheer.”

— Josh Malerman

52. “She was smiling. It was a smile Steve knew very well. The kind of smile from a girl that implied, if you answered in the affirmative, she’d see you in a way you always wish you saw yourself.”

— Josh Malerman

53. “As long as nobody knew what it was, nobody could take it from her.”

— Josh Malerman

54. “Death is never a nice thing. Even for those old enough to deserve it.”

— Josh Malerman

55. “And just like when the others ask the rim questions, coincidences start to look like prophecies made true. People can find links wherever they want to. It literally happens all day every day.”

— Josh Malerman

56. “Your baby is smarter than you think.”

— Josh Malerman

57. “Other feelings, outside forces, fears. These were the enemies of a good thing. These were the problems people faced.”

— Josh Malerman

58. “But neither said as much to the other. It was their way: independence wherever they could find it. And both felt like they were starring in a movie of their own, after all, or a Judith Nancy book called, perhaps, Sleuths or Getting to the Bottom of It.”

— Josh Malerman

59. “Your worries only keep you safe long enough to worry some more.”

— Josh Malerman

60. “In my imagination, the Editor meditated in a mountain-cave, espoused the rules of grammar, and frowned upon speculative fiction.”

— Josh Malerman

61. “Malorie is able to smile, and sometimes even laugh, despite the unfathomable horrors that have become commonplace.”

— Josh Malerman

62. “But legends had a way of making a man bigger than he really was.”

— Josh Malerman

63. “America doesn’t need you, son. America needs a psychiatrist.”

— Josh Malerman

64. “Farraline’s face was wrapped around a lantern set on a tree stump.”

— Josh Malerman

65. “Despite the behavior by some that she considered unfathomably dangerous only fourteen days ago, she also gets it. People in the new world fall into two categories: safe and unsafe. But who’s to say which lives the better, fuller life?”

— Josh Malerman

66. “Hey, you, reading this rock, YOU, standing at the Spirit of Samhattan, where do you find your identity if not in what you love?”

— Josh Malerman

67. “I was waiting for a literal message, I think. Waiting for a knock at the door, someone to come tell us it was over. It’s the ultimate fantasy for those of us from the old world, isn’t it? Word that the whole nightmare has come to an end?”

— Josh Malerman

68. “And Tom and Olympia both have pondered aloud, in their own ways, the worth of a life in which the only aim is to keep living.”

— Josh Malerman

69. “Even someone who appears kindhearted might glance out a window. Even someone abrasive might never. The old constructs of good and bad have long been replaced with safe and unsafe. Are you a safe person? She thinks she is. She knows she is.”

— Josh Malerman

70. “Looking into her dull, brown eyes, David wondered if that was to be her lot in life – absorbing the emotions and passions of others, like human tofu.”

— Josh Malerman

71. “What was dark but the absence of light?”

— Josh Malerman

72. “Drunk or not, I saw the face of Guilt out there! And I saw the rage it takes to atone for it!”

— Josh Malerman

73. “Tom the man died that day. The namesake of her son.”

— Josh Malerman

74. “Later, the man’s wife wouldn’t believe him. She’s tell him he was drunk and leave him stewing in the kitchen. But ultimately he would know that it was true: that when he looked up at the man on the mare the man looked down at him and the man looked like he had no face, like the only features he had were Guilt and Rage and both were wrapped like gauze tied tight to his fiery skull.”

— Josh Malerman

75. “There’s no need to live like this, miss. Consider these children. Would you rob them the chance to view a brisk, beautiful day like this?”

— Josh Malerman

76. “You can’t consider yourself remarkable, Richard thought, without being disappointed by the people around you.”

— Josh Malerman

77. “Malorie watches them close their eyes, then she does the same. In her private darkness, her heart beats louder. “Good.”

— Josh Malerman

78. “She told me that the greatest symbol of true love is self sacrifice. That our love could be legendary. Bigger than Van Gogh’s.”

— Josh Malerman

79. “The children have never seen the world outside their home. Not even through the windows. And Malorie hasn’t looked in more than four years. Four years.”

— Josh Malerman

80. “Maybe it’s because people can’t see the end that they agree to begin.”

— Josh Malerman

81. “Knowing that sometimes the pride one takes in one’s work is better for the job than any pace or progress can ever be.”

— Josh Malerman

82. “If they don’t know what they do, they can’t be “villains.”

— Josh Malerman

83. “Was this grief’s only gift? The eradication of the highs, by way of leveling the lows?”

— Josh Malerman

84. “It struck him that in moments of crisis one is never fighting against an external enemy, but always against one’s one body.”

— Josh Malerman

85. “But if you tell someone no enough times, they start thinking yes, just to hear something else, just to hear a different word, they start thinking yes.”

— Josh Malerman

86. “Curiosity killed the cat and the snooping seventeen-year-old girl.”

— Josh Malerman

87. “That a man built this maze and that I’m as clever as any man, big or small.”

— Josh Malerman

88. “You are saving their lives for a life not living.”

— Josh Malerman

89. “The monster, Carol thought, looks different when nobody’s watching.”

— Josh Malerman

90. “Forcing this philosophy deeper into his mind, searching for the soil of its roots, he allows himself to breathe, slowly.”

— Josh Malerman

91. “Boots, bushes, gardens, storefronts, buildings, streets, and stars. Why, she would have had to re-create the globe for them. But the best they got was fish. And the Boy loved them.”

— Josh Malerman

92. “It’s the spaces between words, the downbeats in a conversation in which two people feel bad for having fought.”

— Josh Malerman

93. “How can she expect her children to dream as big as the stars if they can’t lift their heads to gaze upon them?”

— Josh Malerman

94. “I don’t think it’s a matter of one man being better prepared than another,’ Gary is saying. ‘I think of it more like a 3-D movie. At first, the audience thinks the objects are really coming at them. They hold their hands up for protection. But the intelligent ones, the ones who are very aware, know they were safe all along.”

— Josh Malerman

95. “Creatures, Malorie thinks. What a cheap word.”

— Josh Malerman

96. “There are five thousand species of insect and animal who are hidden, watching us, listening to us right now. And we figured out how to blend in with the trees. Is that our big achievement, Private Tonka? We’re finally as smart as the bugs?”

— Josh Malerman

97. “But he didn’t care if he understood it or not. The words just felt good. Felt really good. Like every time he picked it up he slipped into a warm pool, bathwater, and the world hugged him, telling him things were crazy, yes, but we love you, kid, the world actually does love you.”

— Josh Malerman

98. “They told me that freedom is doing something you would never ordinarily do. Freedom is leaving the person you’re used to being behind. Real freedom is doing something so dreadful that you have no choice but to turn your back on yourself. Do you understand?”

— Josh Malerman