G.S. Jennsen > G.S.'s Quotes

“We don’t get to choose what happens to us—but we always get to choose how we react to it.”
― G.S. Jennsen, Starshine

“That excuse only works until you discover the person is merely an individual like any other.”
― G.S. Jennsen, Starshine

“Yes, she loved her ship more than she had loved him. But what she loved even more was what it gave her: freedom, and the key to the marvels of space. It gave her the stars, and she doubted she could ever love anything or anyone more than she loved the stars.”
― G.S. Jennsen, Starshine

“They sit in their soundproof rooms and issue tone-deaf edicts and call themselves controlling the world. And one day they ask you to die for them.”
― G.S. Jennsen, Starshine

“Alexis, please mind your mouth. Cursing in Russian is still cursing.”
― G.S. Jennsen, Starshine

“He swallowed hard, annoyed at the sudden dryness in his throat. No reason to become all emotional about it now. He had already sold his soul for a chance at vengeance, and there was no getting it back.”
― G.S. Jennsen, Starshine

“He had seen many criminals in his years in Division. Dangerous men and even more dangerous women. Small-time hucksters and savvy crime lords. Spies, gangsters, assassins, insurgents and wannabe-revolutionaries. True believers and soulless mercs willing to kill children for the right price.”
― G.S. Jennsen, Starshine

“No…you can ask for a beautiful, witty, intelligent yet minxy woman in your arms every night, a mansion on a hill—or better yet in the sky—and the best bodyguards to protect you when someone does inevitably try to kill you. For starters.”
― G.S. Jennsen, Starshine

“In sum, every pore of his being oozed one thing…okay, FINE. Every pore oozed two things. The first was irrelevant. The second was dangerous.”
― G.S. Jennsen, Starshine

“In the space of a breath he had crossed the distance separating them and spun her around into a vise grip from behind. Somehow, the gun was out of her hand and in his. He locked her arms between them and raised the gun to her temple. His voice resonated low and dangerous at her ear. “Just so we’re very clear. If I want to kill you, I can kill you.”
― G.S. Jennsen, Starshine

“The brain represented the most complex organism ever to exist, and impossible to tame. Morality could not be spawned by tweaking a few genes or shutting off a few neurons. Not yet. So though humanity conquered the very stars, it remained unable to conquer the darkness within.”
― G.S. Jennsen, Starshine

“He simply preferred the sensation of soil beneath his feet and wind in his hair, of fresh, non-recycled air which carried on it the scent and taste of life. He preferred what was solid and real, where if you could see it you could touch it, feel its texture between the tips of your fingers. As far as he knew, no one had ever touched a star. Not even her.”
― G.S. Jennsen, Starshine

“I wouldn't be your best and most marvelous friend in the galaxy if I didn’t point out there might be a few negative consequences from all…” she gazed upward and twirled her hand in the air “…this.”
― G.S. Jennsen, Starshine

“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”
― Carl Sagan

“Her pulse raced, pounding in her ears above the howling wind. A wave of dizziness crashed over her with the rapid flood of adrenaline. She gasped in a breath. “Don’t let go.”
― G.S. Jennsen, Starshine

“Above the curving arc of the planet, a mammoth explosion plumed crimson and charcoal then erupted in a starburst of crystaline white which for a microsecond shone brighter than a sun. For the briefest moment he allowed himself to entertain the notion that they might win this battle.

Then the real battle began.”
― G.S. Jennsen, Vertigo

“You’re covered in blood again.”

“I really am.”

“Why are you always covered in blood when I wake up after being unconscious?”
“Usually for the same reason you were unconscious, I think.”
― G.S. Jennsen, Vertigo

“His punch knocked her back a meter into the wall. His fist had moved of his own volition, carrying a rage and frustration all its own.

To his dismay, she didn’t fall. People so small as her always fell.

No tears pooled in her eyes; instead they flared golden amber as she rubbed her jaw and pushed off the wall to stand rigid straight. A peculiar smile danced across her lips as blood trickled from the corner of her mouth and down her chin.”
― G.S. Jennsen, Vertigo

“She burst into her hotel room pulling her blouse over her head with one hand while she yanked her shoes off with the other.

No way was she going to face an alien invasion in heels and silk.”
― G.S. Jennsen, Vertigo

“He did not have time to wallow, to give a moment’s thought to what may have happened to her or whether she was alive.

Turn into the punch, grab hold of the gun, leap into the arena. Attack.

He had to move. Now.”
― G.S. Jennsen, Vertigo

“Her weight settled on her back foot as she crossed her arms over her chest and stared at him, now legitimately baffled.

“How delusional are you, aliens in your head notwithstanding?”
― G.S. Jennsen, Vertigo

“The Artificial’s speech pattern was an idiosyncratic mix of awkward and colloquial. It was unexpectedly endearing. “I just have good instincts. Mostly I love being in space.”

But you are not ‘in’ space. You are in your starship and your starship is in space. It is not so different than being on a planet.

“Oh, Valkyrie, you have no idea.”

Tell me then.”
― G.S. Jennsen, Vertigo

“She thought he might have said her name, but it was background radiation accompanying the hum in her ears and the symphony in her head—

—a song of quantum mechanics and trajectory calculations and astroscience physics and where to go, where to go, where to…”
― G.S. Jennsen, Vertigo

“As soon as he had departed she directed her attention to the others.

“I need a shielded containment box, radiation gloves and a micro welding torch. And a crescent wrench.”
― G.S. Jennsen, Vertigo

“If her daughter’s ship had been disintegrated in space there would never be evidence of it, never an answer to what had happened to her.

If she stopped to ponder the implications she might break. And Admiral Miriam Solovy did not break.”
― G.S. Jennsen, Vertigo

“Blood drummed in her ears and adrenaline coursed through her veins, driving her to move. To act. Her hands trembled against his chest.

Time vanished out from beneath her feet, one accelerating second at a time.”
― G.S. Jennsen, Vertigo

“They flew high above savanna grassland. The sky was the deep cornflower blue of a sunny late afternoon on Earth…exactly the color of a sunny late afternoon on Earth.

Only there was no sun. Whatever was lighting this planet, it wasn’t a star.”
― G.S. Jennsen, Vertigo

“Good luck with the aliens, and if we survive this feel free to look me up on your next vacation.”

“Good luck with the aliens? You are such a prick.”
― G.S. Jennsen, Vertigo: Aurora Rising Book Two

“So that’s why I say ‘never have anything you can’t walk away from.’ Especially a woman. For them, because this is a dangerous life we lead and you never know if or when it will blow back on those close to you."

"And for you, because trust me when I tell you there exists no greater perdition than the guilt of causing the death of someone you love.”
― G.S. Jennsen, Vertigo

“I was as hollow and empty as the spaces between stars.”
― Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye