The Ghost Brigades Quotes

“Colonel, I'm giving you a direct order. Eat the fucking cookie.”
― John Scalzi, The Ghost Brigades

“To everyone who thinks writing a sequel should be easy because you've already clreated the universe: Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha! Heh. No.”
― John Scalzi, The Ghost Brigades

“Every creature has a survival instinct. It looks like fear but it’s not the same thing. Fear isn’t the desire to avoid death or pain. Fear is rooted in the knowledge that what you recognize as yourself can cease to exist. Fear is existential.”
― John Scalzi, The Ghost Brigades

“Occam’s razor theory of combat: The simplest way of kicking someone’s ass was usually the correct one.”
― John Scalzi, The Ghost Brigades

“Yes, he's an equal opportunity asshole," Szilard said. "And he's aware of it, which he thinks means it's okay.”
― John Scalzi, The Ghost Brigades

“It was interesting what you could do, when your enemy was officially your ally. And unaware you knew it was your enemy.”
― John Scalzi, The Ghost Brigades

“At least one tribe, the Geln, strongly opposed attacking the Colonial Union, since humans were reasonably strong, distressingly tenacious and not especially principled when they felt threatened.”
― John Scalzi, The Ghost Brigades

“Harvey knew what he was and what he was best at: He was a noisy son of a bitch and he was good at making things fall down and go boom.”
― John Scalzi, The Ghost Brigades

“Imagine waking up and finding your first and last view of the world was a shotgun barrel. That’d be a hell of a life.”
― John Scalzi, The Ghost Brigades

“Two classics stuck with them. Ender’s Game delighted them all; here were soldiers who were just like them, except smaller. The main character was even bred to fight alien species like they were. The next day the members of the 8th greeted each other with the salutation ::Ho, Ender,:: until Brahe told them to knock it off and pay attention.”
― John Scalzi, The Ghost Brigades

“After watching Star Wars everyone wanted a lightsaber and was irritated that the technology for them didn’t really exist. Everyone also agreed the Ewoks should all die.”
― John Scalzi, The Ghost Brigades: Old Man's War Book 2

“Fear isn’t the desire to avoid death or pain. Fear is rooted in the knowledge that what you recognize as yourself can cease to exist. Fear is existential.”
― John Scalzi, The Ghost Brigades

“The supply transport’s on autopilot most of the way down anyway. I’m just on board so that if it crashes, they can say someone died.”
― John Scalzi, The Ghost Brigades

“It was this philosophy that had Harvey taking the hovercraft Sagan had stolen, mounting it, and, after a few moments to glean the fundamentals of navigating it, rocketing on it toward the door of the Obin mess hall. As Harvey approached, the door to the mess hall opened inward; some Obin heading to duty after dinner. Harvey grinned a mad grin, gunned the hovercraft, and then braked it just enough (he hoped) to jam that fucking alien right back into the room.
It worked perfectly. The Obin had enough time for a surprised squawk before the hovercraft’s gun struck it square in the chest, punching backward like it was a toy on a string, hurling down nearly the entire length of the hall. The other Obin in the room looked up while Harvey’s victim pinwheeled to the ground, then turned their multiple eyes toward the doorway, Harvey, and the hovercraft with its big gun poking right into the room.
“Hello, boys!” Harvey said in a big, booming voice. “The 2nd Platoon sends its regards!” And with that, he jammed down the “fire” button on the gun and set to work.
Things got messy real fast after that. It was just fucking beautiful.
Harvey loved his job.”
― John Scalzi, The Ghost Brigades

“While landing a spacecraft on a planet via Skip Drive navigation was officially and strongly discouraged by the Colonial Union, the Colonial Defense Forces recognized the strategic value of sudden and unexpected arrivals.”
― John Scalzi, The Ghost Brigades

“First off, to everyone who thinks writing a sequel should be easy because you’ve already created the universe: Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha! Heh. No.”
― John Scalzi, The Ghost Brigades

“Sherlock Holmes and his sidekick Watson decide to go camping one night, right? So they make a campfire, have a bottle of wine, roast some marshmallows. The usual. Then they bed down for the night. Later that night, Holmes wakes up and wakes up Watson. ‘Watson,’ he says, ‘look up at the sky and tell me what you see.’ And Watson says, ‘I can see the stars.’ ‘And what does that tell you?’ Holmes asks. And Watson starts listing things, like that there are millions of stars, and how a clear sky means good weather for the next day, and how the majesty of the cosmos is proof of a powerful God. When he’s done, he turns to Holmes and says ‘What does the night sky tell you, Holmes?’ And Holmes says, ‘That some bastard has stolen our tent!’” Cloud”
― John Scalzi, The Ghost Brigades

“We're in the wrong universe for fair.”
― John Scalzi, The Ghost Brigades

“You’ve got yourself a cloned body here, Jim.”
― John Scalzi, The Ghost Brigades

“One of Harvey’s guiding lights in terms of strategies was simplicity; all things being equal, Harvey preferred the course of action that let him get into the middle of things and then just buckle down.”
― John Scalzi, The Ghost Brigades

“He reached over, took the second cookie, and offered it to Robbins. “Here,” he said. “I saw you coveting it.” Robbins stared at the cookie, then looked around. “I can’t take that,” he said. “Sure you can,” Szilard said. “I’m not supposed to eat anything here,” Robbins said. “So what?” Szilard said. “Screw ’em. It’s a ridiculous tradition and you know it. So break it. Take the cookie.” Robbins took the cookie and stared at it glumly. “Oh, good God,” Szilard said. “Do I have to order you to eat the damn thing?” “It might help,” Robbins said. “Fine,” Szilard said. “Colonel, I’m giving you a direct order. Eat the fucking cookie.” Robbins ate it. The waiter was scandalized.”
― John Scalzi, The Ghost Brigades

“It’s not that Seaborg disliked Harvey, but after a couple of combat drops with the 2nd Platoon one got the sense that if you didn’t like things to explode unnecessarily around you, you would want to stay well clear of Daniel Harvey.”
― John Scalzi, The Ghost Brigades

“If they can work out the kinks, it could revolutionize space travel.” “ ‘Work out the kinks’?” Jared said. “I’m about to use this thing. Kinks are bad.”
― John Scalzi, The Ghost Brigades

“On the sixth day, Jared and the rest of the 8th finally figured out what that sex thing was all about. On the seventh day, and as a direct consequence of the sixth day, they rested.”
― John Scalzi, The Ghost Brigades

“At dinner members of the 8th enthusiastically told each other to pass the fucking salt, you fucking sack of shit, until Brahe told them to quit that goddamn shit, cocksuckers, because it got old pretty goddamn quick.”
― John Scalzi, The Ghost Brigades

“Some planets evolved genetic structures roughly similar to Earth’s, incorporating some if not all the nucleotides involved in terrestrial genetics (perhaps not coincidentally, the intelligent species of these planets have been known to consume humans from time to time;”
― John Scalzi, The Ghost Brigades

“Szilard looked over at Robbins. “Is it true?” he said. “Which part, sir?” Robbins said. “That you don’t like General Mattson,” Szilard said. “He can take some getting used to, sir,” Robbins said. “By which he means I’m an asshole,”
― John Scalzi, The Ghost Brigades

“Realborn go for years without the slightest clue what they’re going to do with themselves. From what I understand, some of them never actually figure it out. They just walk through life in a daze and then fall into their graves at the end of it. Sad. And inefficient.”
― John Scalzi, The Ghost Brigades

“The elderly, many of whom would readily accept a life in the military rather than die of old age, and whose deaths, in any event, would not create the multi-generational demographic damage that ensued when large numbers of healthy young adults were blown out of the gene pool at the end of an alien’s weapon.”
― John Scalzi, The Ghost Brigades

“Why would knowing they lack consciousness matter to them?” Jared asked. “Why did knowing that she couldn’t eat from the tree of knowledge matter to Eve?” Boutin said. “It shouldn’t have mattered but it did. She was temptable—which, if you believe in an all-powerful God, means God intentionally put temptation into Eve. Which seems like a dirty trick, if you ask me.”
― John Scalzi, The Ghost Brigades