Atlas Quotes

“She felt dirty, ugly and tired. She felt like a marshmallow heading into a house fire armed with chocolate and graham crackers.”
― Benjamin R. Smith, Atlas

“It isn’t easy when life tears away the one person in a million you thought you could always trust.”
― Benjamin R. Smith, Atlas

“Don't you read the statistics? Guns are unisex these days.”
― Benjamin R. Smith, Atlas

“I haven’t got time for a love life and that’s usually frustrating to the would-be lovers. Care to make a run for it?”
― Benjamin R. Smith, Atlas

“In some literature, I’ve read, weather is used as a metaphor. The darker and stormier the weather outside the more diabolical the deeds done. When the clouds roll away, however, the rain has washed away all the blood in the streets and the world is clean and new again, as if all the violence and destruction of the storm served a divine purpose.”
― Benjamin R. Smith, Atlas

“I built them what they wanted and I made a profit off of it. Now they call me a god...What fools these mortals be.”
― Benjamin R. Smith, Atlas

“When I was a kid, they had a saying, 'to err is human but to really fuck it up takes a computer.’ ”
― Benjamin R. Smith, Atlas

“Nice dress,” Victoria said.
“Thank you,” Perpetua said. “Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?”
Victoria blinked. “Uh, what?”
― Benjamin R. Smith, Atlas

“Madness doesn’t get off wearing gloves. It needs to feel skin on skin, smell the blood and shit as it brings itself off.”
― Benjamin R. Smith, Atlas

“Human’s aren’t concerned with reality, merely their perceptions of it.”
― Benjamin R. Smith, Atlas

“Some people, when there’s a threat of everything they have being ripped away at a moments notice, they place value on the things they can keep with them, or find anywhere, so they can say ‘these are my things, nobody else can touch them.’ ”
― Benjamin R. Smith, Atlas

“The name Atlantis came from an old book Victoria had never read. A lifetime residency in the ASM paradise was rumored to cost anywhere from 15 to 20 million dollars. The rich and powerful lived under the dome because they considered themselves separate and superior. Few of them left the comfort and security of Atlantis. To them the outside world was weak. Second Sector citizens where miscreant dregs of a defunct society. In order to enter the Atlantian dome one first had to be cleared by a resident. Gate security personnel strictly enforced this rule, even when outsiders carried a badge and gun.”
― Benjamin R. Smith, Atlas

“I’m sure the ‘I wouldn’t fuck a murder conspirator’ argument wins over many an internal affairs review board. Bring him in. It’ll be in your favor.”
― Benjamin R. Smith, Atlas

“That’s right you little fucktart, she thought. Time to eat shit and die.”
― Benjamin R. Smith, Atlas

“I’ve spent half my night lugging a three-ton slab of asshole up a gazillion stairs.”
― Benjamin R. Smith, Atlas

“Since you haven’t got a name,” he said. “I guess you can pick one for yourself. Would you like to pick one for me to write down?”
She stopped rocking and looked at him. “I can do that? It’s legal and everything?”
He smiled. “It’s a free country again,” he said. “At least in theory.”
She nodded. “And when I pick a name it can be any name I want?”
He nodded.
“What’s your name?”
“Victor,” he said. “Vic, for short.”
“Okay,” she said, leaning forward and taking the pad from under his large thing hands. “How do you spell that?”
He spelled it and she wrote it down. Her handwriting was perfectly small and legible. “Can I be Victor, too?” she said, looking up from the pad.
He smirked. “It’s a boy’s name,” he said. “You’re a girl. You have to add an i and an a to the end if you want to make it a girl’s name.”
She looked down at the name she had written and added the letters i and a to the end. “Victoria,” she said, passing the notepad back to the cop.
“Hello, Victoria,” he said, smiling, taking the pad and pen back and presenting his hand for a shake. “It’s nice to meet you, officially.”
― Benjamin R. Smith, Atlas

“. “We’re both... I mean, you’re more so, but we’re both really fucked up emotionally. I mean, how do I know you’re not still loopy from being shot full of... of...”
“Benzodiazepine,” he said.
“Yes, that.” Victoria’s eyes met with his a moment and then looked away. “It’s been awhile for me,” she said at last. “I mean, I’ve slept with people...”
“So have I,” he said.”
― Benjamin R. Smith, Atlas

“And when he was suddenly gone -- no, not just gone, dead in every possible meaning of the word to me because of what he had done -- I found doubt. And what’s more than that, I found my own slow spiral downward into the depths of hell. A world where shadows scared me, and the thought of people with their eyes looking through me, seeing what I really was underneath all of this shine and polish. When one domino falls, others follow and that is where I was. That is where I’d been until yesterday morning, when suddenly I was in the rain, looking out at a sea of those same faces that terrified me and I saw you.”
― Benjamin R. Smith, Atlas

“I see a cathedral, for instance, one that’s stood for centuries and I marvel and I wonder... How many people passed through the doors? What did they pray for? How many wars did they wish to see ended? How many christenings, weddings, and funerals? Same thing with a record, I guess. Who bought it? Did they ever make love while it was playing? How many times did they read the notes in the cover? Did a song on the album change their life? I suppose it's odd to think about things like that.”
― Benjamin R. Smith, Atlas

“Sentiment isn't a bad thing.”
― Benjamin R. Smith, Atlas