Horrorstör Quotes

“Let's make sure it's really raining before we worry about floods.”
― Grady Hendrix, Horrorstör

“Life doesn’t care what you want, other people don’t care what you want. All that matters is what you do.”
― Grady Hendrix, Horrorstör

“The problem was the liars. They said she could do anything she set her mind to, they told her she should shoot for the moon because if she missed she’d be among the stars, they made movies tricking her into thinking she could achieve heroic things. All lies. Because she was born to answer phones in call centers, to carry bags to customers’ cars, to punch a clock, to measure her life in smoke breaks. To think otherwise was insane.”
― Grady Hendrix, Horrorstör

“She didn’t expect life to be fair, but did it have to be so relentless?”
― Grady Hendrix, Horrorstör

“There are enough people running around in here. It’s starting to feel like an episode of Scooby-Doo.”
― Grady Hendrix, Horrorstör

“It’s complicated. But pain and fear have a way of simplifying things.”
― Grady Hendrix, Horrorstör

“You're sure this isn't satanic?' Ruth Anne asked.
'It's a nondenominational séance," Trinity said.”
― Grady Hendrix, Horrorstör

“Something I learned from the Serbian tribes. Churches are built where saints were martyred. A bridge requires a child in its foundations if it is to hold. All great works must begin with a sacrifice.”
― Grady Hendrix, Horrorstör

“The more Amy struggled, the faster she sank. Every month she shuffled around less and less money to cover the same number of bills. The hamster wheel kept spinning and spinning and spinning. Sometimes she wanted to let go and find out exactly how far she’d fall if she just stopped fighting. She didn’t expect life to be fair, but did it have to be so relentless?”
― Grady Hendrix, Horrorstör

“Work gives you a goal. It lets you build something that lives on after you’re gone. Work has a purpose beyond making money.”
― Grady Hendrix, Horrorstör

“For her, the world was divided into two kinds of jobs: those where you had to stand up, and those where you could sit down. If you were standing up, you were paid hourly. If you were sitting down, you were salaried.”
― Grady Hendrix, Horrorstör

“A monstrous bird unfurled its wings inside Amy’s chest and her anger felt bigger than the world.”
― Grady Hendrix, Horrorstör

“Here was the other option: the tranquilizing chair. It was always waiting for her. It always wanted her back. It always wanted her to quit again, to sit down and never get back up.

In the end, Amy thought, everything always comes down to those two choices: stay down or stand up.”
― Grady Hendrix, Horrorstör

“It was the voice of a preacher, a voice of the past, a voice for cathedrals, a voice from a time before microphones. It was a voice that denounced witches and flogged sinners. It was a voice that sang Latin while women burned at the stake and men were crushed beneath stones.”
― Grady Hendrix, Horrorstör

“Do you believe in ghosts?” she asked. Amy stepped back, startled. “Jesus!” “I guess he counts as a ghost,”
― Grady Hendrix, Horrorstör

“Trinity was one of those happy, super-popular, high-energy girls who reminded Amy of the creatures from Gremlins: she was fun for about half an hour, then you wanted to stuff her in a blender.”
― Grady Hendrix, Horrorstör

“Everyone keeps telling me it's all over, that it's back to normal, but I don't want to go back to normal. I don't like the person I used to be. I want to keep being the person I was that night.”
― Grady Hendrix, Horrorstör

“That was her nature. Fail and quit. If you cut her open, it was fail and quit right down to her bones.”
― Grady Hendrix, Horrorstör

“I know this is your religion, but for me it’s just a job.”

“That’s your problem,” Basil said. “For you it’s ‘just’ a job.”

“What’s it supposed to be?”

“Work.”

“Same thing,” Amy said.

“No,” Basil said. “A job is what a guy in a gas station has. People at Orsk have work. It’s a calling. A responsibility to something bigger than yourself. Work gives you a goal. It lets you build something that lives on after you’re gone. Work has a purpose beyond making money.”

“I am begging you to stop,” Amy said.

“There’s nothing wrong with being serious,” Ruth Anne said.

“She can’t take anything seriously,” Basil said. “That’s her problem.”

“I do my job,” Amy said. “I punch the clock, I work my shop, I sell people their desks, I cash my check. That’s what Orsk pays me to do: my job. I’m not planning on being in retail for the rest of my life.”

“Really? What are you going to do?”

“I’m …” Amy suddenly realized that in fact she didn’t have any plans. “I’ve got plans. They’re none of your business.”
― Grady Hendrix, Horrorstör

“She promised herself that she was not going to cry. They could take her job, but they would not take her dignity.”
― Grady Hendrix, Horrorstör

“Amy would honor the first commandment of keeping her job: Do not look like an idiot in front of anyone who can fire you.”
― Grady Hendrix, Horrorstör

“There’s nothing waiting inside but retail slavery, endless exploitation, and personal subjugation to the whims of our corporate overlords.” If”
― Grady Hendrix, Horrorstör

“In the end, Amy thought, everything always comes down to those two choices: stay down or stand up.”
― Grady Hendrix, Horrorstör

“Sometimes she wanted to let go and find out exactly how far she’d fall if she just stopped fighting. She didn’t expect life to be fair, but did it have to be so relentless?”
― Grady Hendrix, Horrorstör

“We don’t know what happened in there.” “I do,” Amy said. “There was a prison here, and we built a new prison on its ruins, and all the old prisoners came out to give it a try.” Basil kept staring up at the store and then he nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “That sounds about right.”
― Grady Hendrix, Horrorstör

“All great works must begin with a sacrifice.”
― Grady Hendrix, Horrorstör

“We’re getting out of here,” she said. “The store will try to stop us. It’ll disorient you, get inside your head, try to confuse you and control you. But if you stay focused, you can block it out. You have to fight, do you understand?”
― Grady Hendrix, Horrorstör

“Their causes of death differed: hangovers, nightmares, children who couldn’t stop crying, neighbors partying till 4 a.m., broken hearts, unpaid bills, roads not taken, ailing parents, midnight ice cream binges.

But every morning.. they dragged themselves here, to the one thing in their lives that never changed, the one thing they could count on come rain, or shine, or dead pets, or divorce: work.”
― Grady Hendrix, Horrorstör

“On weekends especially, the Showroom and Market Floor were packed with families, couples, retirees, people with nowhere else to go, college kids and their roommates, new families with their new babies… a legion of potential customers, clutching maps, bags stuffed with lists of model numbers written on sticky notes.. credit cards burning holes in their pockets, all of them ready to spend.”
― Grady Hendrix, Horrorstör

“people believed that architecture could be designed to generate a psychological effect.”
― Grady Hendrix, Horrorstör