Afterlife Quotes

“That was the thing about terror: it made rational people act irrationally. From a certain perspective, the fear was more destructive than the actual killing.”
― Marcus Sakey, Afterlife

“Maybe that’s what love is. Believing in the best version of your partner, so they have the courage to believe it themselves.”
― Marcus Sakey, Afterlife

“Perhaps the truth was that Hell wasn’t a physical location; it was an idea that could be summoned into being. Hell had been created countless times before, from the Crusaders’ massacre of Jerusalem to Stalin’s “hunger-extermination” of seven million Ukrainians; from reeking, disease-ridden slave ships bound for New Orleans to the systemized horror of Auschwitz; from Lieutenant Calley to the Khmer Rouge. There was almost an equation to it. Hell was born when some decided others weren’t people.”
― Marcus Sakey, Afterlife

“The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed”
― Marcus Sakey, Afterlife

“Telegram@bestsupplies1 Buy Cocaine online in Singapore”
― Marcus Sakey, Afterlife

“To learn the true value of something, all you had to do was lose it. Brody poured drinks in crystal tumblers.”
― Marcus Sakey, Afterlife

“For as fashionable as cynicism always was, the truth was that when it came to basic human responsibility, people rose to the challenge. Pretty much always. As many times as Hell had been created, history stood as indisputable proof that the mass of humanity was good. People built more than they burned, created more than they destroyed, not by a little but by a massive surplus. To know it, all you needed to remember was that we had started as chimpanzees—and then look around.”
― Marcus Sakey, Afterlife

“Alzheimer’s was far more terrifying than death.”
― Marcus Sakey, Afterlife

“Existence was a chain. Life at one end, vibrant and powerful; nothingness at the other.”
― Marcus Sakey, Afterlife

“In the Aeroplane Over the Sea,”
― Marcus Sakey, Afterlife

“Aging was essentially decay, the exhaustion of the body’s ability to repair and renew itself.”
― Marcus Sakey, Afterlife

“Look at a chessboard. Even the most elegant of wins required sacrifice.”
― Marcus Sakey, Afterlife

“Prometheus recast as a serial killer.”
― Marcus Sakey, Afterlife

“But you can take the energy from others,” Sonny said. “Kill here, the sky gets brighter, food tastes better. Do it enough and maybe you live forever.”
― Marcus Sakey, Afterlife

“Reminded you that everyone had their own reality, and yours was just one version.”
― Marcus Sakey, Afterlife

“Hell was born when some decided others weren’t people.”
― Marcus Sakey, Afterlife

“He told her she was right. That for all they knew, they still knew nothing. That for all they knew, there were still worlds after this one, eternities that followed the abyss. And he told her that if they died tomorrow, he would follow her across them. He would chase her through existence if that’s what it took.”
― Marcus Sakey, Afterlife

“everyone had their own reality, and yours was just one version.”
― Marcus Sakey, Afterlife

“Jesus, yes. I was educated by nuns. Long ago, when I was a human girl. I learned the Bible, studied the verses, memorized the teachings of Christ. When I passed, I expected to find him there.” She stared out the window. “But in the centuries I walked beyond the world, I never saw him.”
― Marcus Sakey, Afterlife

“knew what you meant.” “Think about it, Will. That was the end. We’ve seen the whole span, beginning to end. Life to nothingness. We know every step of it. Every fading footfall.” She paused. “And still don’t really know anything, do we?”
― Marcus Sakey, Afterlife

“When a sailor’s drowned body was found tangled in lines over the port side, the men agreed he must have fallen overboard in the night. They said a rough prayer, and the cook went to work. And still there was no land. The sun burned furious and the wind did not blow. In accident and suicide, one by one the crew fell, until at last there were only two. The cook declared it was punishment from God, that they were to wander forever to pay for the crime of eating another man’s flesh. Edmund agreed, and together they prayed forgiveness. He killed the man with the same blade he’d”
― Marcus Sakey, Afterlife

“The rats that had once fouled their food became their food. But soon the rats were gone. After two more days of hunger, the barber and the cook broke down the captain’s body. All of them ate, though no man looked at the others as he did so. But Edmund, unwilling to let things lie, knew that with a split hull and no sails, any voyage to land would be a long one. A full belly made his mind sharp, and he saw that there was plenty of meat to be taken if a man had the will. The barber was discovered in the hold, razor in his hand and throat open. A mortal sin, all agreed. This time there was no delay in eating, though still the men did not look at one another. Persephone drifted, at the mercy of current and Christ.”
― Marcus Sakey, Afterlife

“No, I’m talking about undiscovered science. A thousand years ago, people believed the earth was flat. Five hundred years ago, doctors thought diseases were caused by an imbalance in the humors. A century ago, visiting the moon was the stuff of fantasists. There are always things we don’t know yet, and they always look like superstition until we understand.”
― Marcus Sakey, Afterlife

“That was the thing about terror: it made rational people act irrationally.”
― Marcus Sakey, Afterlife

“In a minor way it was, he suspected, like Machu Picchu, or the Great Pyramid—a place you always forgot you’d never have to yourself. People imagined visiting them alone, climbing the steps in quiet contemplation of the past. They forgot about the stalls selling T-shirts and kebabs, forgot the tour buses of sunburned Americans, forgot velvet ropes and security guards.”
― Marcus Sakey, Afterlife

“It was like that old riddle about replacing the handle of an axe, and later the head—when you were done, was it a new axe or the old one?”
― Marcus Sakey, Afterlife

“You wanted to believe that the sniper had a reason. That he wasn’t just a broken guy who’d been abused by his uncle or whatever. Wanting to believe that there’s a logic behind insanity.”
― Marcus Sakey, Afterlife

“The rats that had once fouled their food became their food. But soon the rats were gone.”
― Marcus Sakey, Afterlife

“He’d died before she moved to Chicago, but she’d followed the story of his shooting with the same queasy horror as the killings of Freddie Gray and Eric Garner.”
― Marcus Sakey, Afterlife

“But there was no pressing CTRL+Z on a day, no loading a previous copy.”
― Marcus Sakey, Afterlife