Mark Ewing > Mark's Quotes

“However, there is another reaction to the never-ending plethora of unoriginal idiocies that life throws up with such erratic reliability, besides horror and despair.” “What’s that?” “A kind of glee. Once one survives the trough that comes with the understanding that people are going to go on being stupid and cruel to each other no matter what, probably for ever – if one survives; many people choose suicide at this point instead – then one starts to take the attitude, Oh well, never mind. It would be far preferable if things were better, but they’re not, so let’s make the most of it. Let’s see what fresh fuckwittery the dolts can contrive to torment themselves with this time.”
― Iain M. Banks, The Hydrogen Sonata

“One should never regret one's excesses, only one's failures of nerve.”
― Iain M. Banks, The Hydrogen Sonata

“One should never mistake pattern for meaning.”
― Iain Banks, The Hydrogen Sonata

“So basically you're sticking around to watch us all fuck up ?"
"Yes. It's one of life's few guaranteed constants.”
― Iain M. Banks, The Hydrogen Sonata

“There was something comforting about having a vast hydrogen furnace burning millions of tons of material a second at the centre of a solar system. It was cheery.”
― Iain M. Banks, The Hydrogen Sonata

“Once one survives the trough that comes with the understanding that people are going to go on being stupid and cruel to each other no matter what, probably for ever – if one survives; many people choose suicide at this point instead – then one starts to take the attitude, Oh well, never mind.”
― Iain M. Banks, The Hydrogen Sonata

“One should never mistake pattern … for meaning.”
― Iain M. Banks, The Hydrogen Sonata

“Thing about emergencies,” he said, sounding weary. “Rarely occur when they’d be convenient.”
― Iain M. Banks, The Hydrogen Sonata