The Great Zoo of China Quotes

“Hamish shrugged. “It’s all pretty cool and impressive … if you never saw fucking Jurassic Park.”
― Matthew Reilly, The Great Zoo of China

“Fairytales cleanse and sanitise what were once true stories. In fairytales, knights are chivalrous, clean-shaven and wear shining armour—when in truth they were swarthy, filthy rapists and thugs. Castles are bright and gay when in truth they were grim fortresses.”
― Matthew Reilly, The Great Zoo of China

“A monster movie is only as good as the monster in it.”
― Matthew Reilly, The Great Zoo of China

“If dragons were real, then in all likelihood they were not graceful, high-chested, noble creatures; rather they would have been dirty, ugly, reptilian and mean.”
― Matthew Reilly, The Great Zoo of China

“Holy shit, she thought. The dragons are throwing cars at me!”
― Matthew Reilly, The Great Zoo of China

“The airliner-sized dragon blew apart in a monumental spray of blood and pulp. Great chunks of flesh the size of boulders rained down from the sky.
“The empire is striking back,” Ambassador Syme observed, peering out the window beside CJ.”
― Matthew Reilly, The Great Zoo of China

“Convincing someone to believe something that was inherently unbelievable often meant getting that person to make a quick and easy comparison to something they already knew.”
― Matthew Reilly, The Great Zoo of China

“Are you a doctor?” Li said.
“I’m better than that. I’m a vet. Vets do everything: brain surgery, heart surgery, lab analysis, dislocations –”
― Matthew Reilly, The Great Zoo of China

“Over twenty men died during the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, Dr Lynch. Does anyone regret that? No, all anyone sees is a marvel of its time, a great achievement in human ingenuity.”
― Matthew Reilly, The Great Zoo of China

“The man who fights too long against dragons becomes a dragon himself. —Friedrich Nietzsche”
― Matthew Reilly, The Great Zoo of China

“The myth of the dragon is a very peculiar one, precisely because it is a truly global myth. Giant serpents appear in mythologies from all over the world: China, Scandinavia, Greece, Persia, Germany, Central America, the United Kingdom, even Africa. There is no discernible reason for this. How could the myth of a large serpentine creature be so consistent across the ancient world? From: Dragons in History by Eleanor Lock (Border Press, London, 1999)”
― Matthew Reilly, The Great Zoo of China

“Come not between the dragon and his wrath. —William Shakespeare King Lear”
― Matthew Reilly, The Great Zoo of China

“Myths arise from actual events, remarkable events that get talked about precisely because they are remarkable and which then get embellished in the retelling.”
― Matthew Reilly, The Great Zoo of China

“One of the things I have come up against time and again in my career is the notion that because a book is easy to read it was somehow easy to write.”
― Matthew Reilly, The Great Zoo of China

“Yo. Salt-and-Pepper. The name is Go-Go or Mr Go-Go, okay?”
― Matthew Reilly, The Great Zoo of China

“Feels like we’re driving into Mordor,” Hamish muttered. “What’s Mordor?” Syme asked. “Never mind.”
― Matthew Reilly, The Great Zoo of China

“The dragons are throwing cars at me!”
― Matthew Reilly, The Great Zoo of China

“It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him. —J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit (George Allen & Unwin Ltd, London, 1937)”
― Matthew Reilly, The Great Zoo of China

“The Legend of the Dragon Fairytales cleanse and sanitise what were once true stories. In fairytales, knights are chivalrous, clean-shaven and wear shining armour—when in truth they were swarthy, filthy rapists and thugs. Castles are bright and gay when in truth they were grim fortresses. If dragons were real, then in all likelihood they were not graceful, high-chested, noble creatures; rather they would have been dirty, ugly, reptilian and mean. From: The Power of Myth by Craig Ferguson (Momentum, Sydney, 2013)”
― Matthew Reilly, The Great Zoo of China

“German-made Heckler & Koch MP-7 submachine guns with special compact M40 grenade launchers under the barrels.”
― Matthew Reilly, The Great Zoo of China

“The zoo’s “image consultants” from New York had been very clear about this: establish your believability first, then go tabloid.”
― Matthew Reilly, The Great Zoo of China

“In fairytales, knights are chivalrous, clean-shaven and wear shining armour—when in truth they were swarthy, filthy rapists and thugs. Castles are bright and gay when in truth they were grim fortresses.”
― Matthew Reilly, The Great Zoo of China

“auspicious”
― Matthew Reilly, The Great Zoo of China

“Dragons in History by Eleanor Lock (Border Press, London, 1999)”
― Matthew Reilly, The Great Zoo of China

“A limitless supply of cheap labor might build you a new city every year, but it ultimately just makes you the factory floor for other countries’ companies.”
― Matthew Reilly, The Great Zoo of China

“When the President asks you to do something, you’d be surprised how keen you are to oblige,” Syme said.”
― Matthew Reilly, The Great Zoo of China

“Sometimes you had to make the animals perform.”
― Matthew Reilly, The Great Zoo of China

“The most dangerous animal in a zoo is Man.”
― Matthew Reilly, The Great Zoo of China

“Other intelligent animals—like chimps, wolves and hyenas—might set simple traps. Crocodiles often set traps several days in advance. If a six-metre saltwater crocodile saw you coming down to a riverbank at 7:30 a.m. for four days in a row to check your lobster cages, on the fifth day it would wait at the water’s edge, just below the surface, and pounce when you arrived. Crocodiles had extraordinary patience and amazing memories. Their ability to spot routine was incredible: sometimes they would set up ambushes based on the weekly, even monthly routines of their prey.”
― Matthew Reilly, The Great Zoo Of China

“Over twenty men died during the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, Dr Lynch. Does anyone regret that? No, all anyone sees is a marvel of its time, a great achievement in human ingenuity. So it will be here. This place will be beyond great. It will be the envy of the entire world.”
― Matthew Reilly, The Great Zoo Of China