Interstellar: The Official Movie Novelization

by Greg Keyes

“We used to look up and wonder at our place in the stars,” he said. “Now we just look down and worry about our place in the dirt.”

This world’s a treasure, Donald. But she’s been telling us to leave for a while now. Mankind was born on Earth. It was never meant to die here.”

‘I look at the babies and see myself as they’ll remember me.’”

‘It’s as if we don’t exist anymore, like we’re ghosts, like we’re just there to be memories for our kids.’”

“once we’re parents, we’re just the ghosts of our children’s futures.”

In space, distance was time, and time was distance.

How could humanity hope to live on a world so hopelessly out of synch with the rest of the universe?

“Evolution has yet to transcend that simple barrier—we can care deeply, selflessly for people we know, but our empathy rarely extends beyond our line of sight.”

Being human was to inherit from a parent, a sibling, a family, a community, a town, a culture, a civilization.

He wished he’d had a few more moments with his children. Every second, gold in his hand.

“The only way humans have ever figured out of getting somewhere is to leave something behind.”

Space required a certain parsimony of thought. Something was either useful, or it was dead weight, and if it was dead weight you dropped it.