Nemesis Games Quotes

“There was a button," Holden said. "I pushed it."
"Jesus Christ. That really is how you go through life, isn't it?”
― James S.A. Corey, Nemesis Games

“You can tell you’ve found a really interesting question when nobody wants you to answer it.”
― James S.A. Corey, Nemesis Games

“This is as good as it gets. Can’t expect everyone to be on the same page. We’re still humans after all. Some percentage of us are always going to be assholes.”
― James S.A. Corey, Nemesis Games

“Looking back through history, there are a lot more men who thought they were Alexander the Great than men who actually were.”
― James S.A. Corey, Nemesis Games

“Here’s the thing,” Amos said. “If you did go in there, you might feel like you had to do something. And then I might feel like I had to do something. And then we’d all be doing things, and we’d all wind up having a worse day, just in general.”
― James S.A. Corey, Nemesis Games

“A bicycle?” Amos leaned on the breakfast bar. “Sure. They don’t need fuel, they don’t get sick. Most of the repairs, you can handle on your own. You’re looking for post-apocalyptic transportation, bikes are the way to go.”
― James S.A. Corey, Nemesis Games

“What did you do?” Fred asked. “There was a button,” Holden said. “I pushed it.” “Jesus Christ. That really is how you go through life, isn’t it?”
― James S.A. Corey, Nemesis Games

“Murtry swung first, so technically, that was self-defense. And if I’d wanted him dead, don’t you think he’d be dead? It’s not like I quit hitting him because I was tired.”
― James S.A. Corey, Nemesis Games

“We’re not making any official statements, especially when James Holden’s in the room. No offense, but your track record for blurting information at inopportune moments is the stuff of legend.”
― James S.A. Corey, Nemesis Games

“Things changed, and they didn’t change back. But sometimes they got better.”
― James S.A. Corey, Nemesis Games

“Realizing you’ve got shit on your fingers is the first step toward washing your hands.”
― James S.A. Corey, Nemesis Games

“Alien superweapons were used,” Alex said, walking into the room, sleep-sweaty hair standing out from his skull in every direction. “The laws of physics were altered, mistakes were made.”
― James S.A. Corey, Nemesis Games

“Well, mostly I’m a mechanic. But the idea that the UN has a file on me somewhere that lists me as the Rocinante’s killer? That’s kind of awesome.”
― James S.A. Corey, Nemesis Games

“The pleasantries were just ritual, but ritual was important. In Amos’ experience the more dangerous any two people were, the more carefully polite their social interactions tended to be. The loud, blustering ones were trying to get the other guy to back down. They wanted to stay out of a fight. The quiet ones were figuring out how to win it.”
― James S.A. Corey, Nemesis Games

“Alex’s experience of real family—of blood relations—was more like having a lot of people who had all wound up on the same mailing list without knowing quite why they signed up for it.”
― James S.A. Corey, Nemesis Games

“It was strange how a person could be so vitally important in your life, and yet you had nothing to say to them when they weren’t sharing the same air.”
― James S.A. Corey, Nemesis Games

“Thing about civilization, it’s what keeps people civil. You get rid of one, you can’t count on the other.”
― James S.A. Corey, Nemesis Games

“No, it wasn’t. It was the scariest fucking answer to Fermi’s paradox I can think of. Do you know why there aren’t any Indians in your Old West analogy? Because they’re already dead. The whatever-they-were that built all that got a head start and used their protomolecule gate builder to kill all the rest. And that’s not even the scary part. The really frightening part is that something else came along, shot the first guys in the back of the head, and left their corpses scattered across the galaxy. The thing we should be asking is, who fired the magic bullet?”
― James S.A. Corey, Nemesis Games

“if you hear hoofbeats in the distance, your first guess is that they’re horses, not zebras. And you’re hearing hoofbeats and jumping straight to unicorns.”
― James S.A. Corey, Nemesis Games

“He’s using you as his external, aftermarket conscience.”
― James S.A. Corey, Nemesis Games

“That Holden is up to something? Have you met that guy? He’s never done anything secretly in his life.”
― James S.A. Corey, Nemesis Games

“Probably the most common last words that day were going to be Huh, that’s weird. That or Oh shit.”
― James S.A. Corey, Nemesis Games

“Avasarala laughed at that. “True. But if he’s sending his hired killer to Earth, we—” “Wait, what?” “If Holden was—” “Forget Holden. You called me his hired killer. Is that how you guys think of me? The killer on Holden’s payroll?” Avasarala frowned. “You’re not?” “Well, mostly I’m a mechanic. But the idea that the UN has a file on me somewhere that lists me as the Rocinante’s killer? That’s kind of awesome.”
― James S.A. Corey, Nemesis Games

“Amazing how much we’ve managed to do, considering how we’re doing it all with jumped-up social primates and evolutionary behaviors from the Pleistocene.”
― James S.A. Corey, Nemesis Games

“He kind of wished he had a hat.”
― James S.A. Corey, Nemesis Games

“The only right you have with anyone in life is the right to walk away.”
― James S.A. Corey, Nemesis Games

“She sat at the dining table, a steaming mug of tea in front of her, a distant look in her eyes. Holden couldn’t tell if she was melancholy or solving a complex engineering problem in her head. Those looks were confusingly similar.”
― James S.A. Corey, Nemesis Games

“Hey,” she said. “Hey.” “So I have a thing.” “Is it a thing I can fix?” Holden asked. “Point me at the thing.”
― James S.A. Corey, Nemesis Games

“Did he kill anyone?” Erich asked. When neither guard answered, he said, “Then he’s still being polite.”
― James S.A. Corey, Nemesis Games

“Things change, and they don’t change back.”
― James S.A. Corey, Nemesis Games