Neil Cross > Quotes

“I have lived a long life, and I have seen a few things. I walked away from the Last Great Time War. I marked the passing of the Time Lords. I saw the birth of the universe and I watched as time ran out, moment by moment, until nothing remained; no time, no space. Just me. I walked in universes where the laws of physics were devised by the mind of a madman. I watched universes freeze and creations burn. I have seen things you wouldn't believe, I have lost things you will never understand. And I know things, secrets that must never be told, knowledge that must never be spoken. Knowledge that will make parasite gods blaze! So come on then! Take it! Take it all, baby! Have it! You have it all!”
― Neil Cross

“No, we don't walk away. But when we're holding on to something precious, we run. We run and run, fast as we can, and we don't stop running until we are out from under the shadow.”
― Neil Cross

“Okay then. That's what I'll do. I'll tell you a story. Can you hear them? All these people who lived in terror of you and your judgment. All these people whose ancestors devoted themselves, sacrificed themselves to you. Can you hear them singing? Oh you like to think you're a god. But you're not a god. You're just a parasite. Eaten with jealousy and envy and longing for the lives of others. You feed on them. On the memory of love and loss and birth and death and joy and sorrow, so... so come on then. Take mine. Take my memories. But I hope you're got a big a big appetite. Because I've lived a long life. And I've seen a few things. I walked away from the last great Time War. I marked the passing of the Time Lords. I saw the birth of the universe and watched as time ran out, moment by moment, until nothing remained. No time, no space. Just me! I walked in universes where the laws of physics were devised by the mind of a madman! And I watched universes freeze and creation burn! I have seen things you wouldn't believe! I have lost things you will never understand! And I know things, secrets that must never be told, knowledge that must never be spoken! Knowledge that will make parasite gods blaze! So come on then! Take it! Take it all, baby! Have it! You have it all!”
― Neil Cross

“Because this exact leaf had to grow in that exact way, in that exact place, so that precise wind could tear it from that precise branch and make it fly into this exact face at that exact moment. And, if just one of those tiny little things had never had happened, I'd never have met ya. Which makes this leaf the most important leaf in human history”
― Neil Cross

“The Booker thing was a catalyst for me in a bizarre way. It’s perceived as an accolade to be published as a ‘literary’ writer, but, actually, it’s pompous and it’s fake. Literary fiction is often nothing more than a genre in itself. I’d always read omnivorously and often thought much literary fiction is read by young men and women in their 20s, as substitutes for experience.”
― Neil Cross

“She watches him walk outside, through the big doors and into the morning. A big man with a big walk. The world turning like a wheel beneath him.”
― Neil Cross

“Jamie Smart has gone home and Adrian sits on the curb at the edge of the field, the bike propped against a lamppost. He can see the back garden. He’s drinking a can of Fanta. He’s feeling pretty good. He’s six years old. A van pulls up. The worried-looking driver gets out and jogs across the quiet road. He said, “Mate—what’s your name?”
― Neil Cross, The Calling

“My mum,’ Thomas Kintry told him, ‘when she gets really down, she churns over the past. All the things she thinks she did wrong, all the people she let down. There was this one Christmas when the turkey came out too dry; she still goes on about that bloody turkey, what a miserable Christmas day it was. And this is, like—1993 or something. But she still goes on about it. My nan was the same.”
― Neil Cross, The Collected Works Volume One: Captured, Holloway Falls, and Mr. In-Between

“A country is legislation, specifically designed to restrict your freedom, intellectual and physical. A country exists to make you a productive unit. A consumer. You’re fuel to your country’s economy. And all over the world, and all through history, people have been happy to kill, and to die for exactly that idea. For this Monty Python idea of what freedom is. ‘A government provides one freedom. It frees us from the tyranny of true choice. Modern democracy dazzles us with ephemera and calls it liberty. Meanwhile, the important decisions are made on our behalf. Partly, that’s because we long to be told what to do.”
― Neil Cross, The Collected Works Volume One: Captured, Holloway Falls, and Mr. In-Between

“What's the golden rule of social networking?"
Luther hangs up his coat. "Don't do it?”
― Neil Cross, The Calling