Jonathan Maberry

“It was harder to let yourself sink if someone else needed you to be their rock.”

“I did not and do not want my life tied up in cloak-and-dagger bullshit, dead guys, or pissing contests with either the testosterone crowd in there or some prissy-assed Earl Grey-drinking, scone-munching major who isn't even my freaking boss. I don't know you and I don't give a rat's ass if you trust me.”

“She gathered the cat up in her arms and held it to her chest as if it was the most precious thing in the world.”

“So, basically if we keep trying to save the country and maybe the world from a bunch of murderous assholes with outer space weapons, then we're the bad guys?""In a nutshell.""Then, hey ... let's be bad guys.”

“The word "impossible" used to mean something. It was a line that couldn't be crossed. It was the outer edge of the safe zone.I can't find that line anymore”

“I'm not entirely sure who you are. I mean, you're not really a kid anymore and you're not an adult. ... So, you're going through all these changes, and I don't know who you'll be at the end of it.”

“It's just that I'm fifteen, and I have this crazy idea I might actually have a life in front of me. I don't see how it's going to do me much good to believe that the world is over and this is just an epilogue.”

“...the whole world turned into an all-you-can-eat buffet...”

“Benny Imura was appalled to learn that the Apocalypse came with homework. "Why do we have to study this stuff?" he demanded. "We already know what happened. People started turning into zoms, the zoms ate just about everyone, everyone who dies becomes a zom, so the moral of this tale is: Try not to die.”

“Boy, there are people who conquered half the world, slaughtered whole populations, wiped cultures off the face of the planet, and you know what history calls them? Heroes! Kings, presidents, champions, explorers. You think America was settled by white men because the Indians invited us her? No, we took this land because we were stronger, and that's how every page of human history is written. It's just our nature. We're a predator species, top of the food chain. Survival of the fittest is written in our blood, it's stenciled on every gene of our DNA. The strong take and the strong make, and the weak are there only to help them do it. End of story.”

“He never did get right all the way again. And every once in a while he'd come down all bitey.”

“He's a ghost, not a carnival magician.-Benny Imura”

“I don't ever want to live in a world where something like mercy...or maybe it's compassion...is the wrong choice.”

“Things said and done innocently should never be used as weapons.”

“The world is bigger and harder to understand than you think... You have to keep your mind as wide-open as your eyes, because almost nothing is what it seems.”

“Guilt and rage, hatred and fear were pathways to weakness and clumsy choices.”

“Rage was sometimes a useful ally in the heat of a fight, but it was a trickster. It made everything seem possible.”

“So is that it? Will I have to live the rest of my life like this? Not doing the right thing? Not saying the right words?""That's your choice. You can't change the past. Ah, but the future. . .you own the future." The Greenman smiled. "So, you tell me. . .what choice do you want to make now?”

“Courage is tricky, oily. Easy to drop, easy to misplace." "I thought that if you had courage you always had it.". . ."Lilah, nothing is always there. Not courage, not joy, not hate or hope or anything else. We find courage, lose it, sometimes misplace it for years, and sometimes live in its grace for a while.”

“I've managed to stay alive out here in the Ruin because I'm a realist. I allow the truth to be the truth, no matter how much I might want it to be something else.”

“I got this," said Nix, raising her bokken.”

“Even though Tom wasn't moving, he seemed to be a little farther away. For the first time Benny realized that there were other people in the hallways. They were indistinct, more of a sense of movement in the gray light rather than specific shapes. He thought he recognized one of them, though. "Chong?" The figure stopped moving, but he stood with his back to Benny. "Tom-is that Chong?" "Is that Chong?" Benny asked again. "Is...is he going with you?”

“Hell was something the Lost Girl knew. She has lived it all her life.”

“How do you know that?""Because,"Chong said with raised eyebrows,"when you open those things called 'books',there are words as well as pictures.Sometimes the words tell you stuff.”

“You have to keep your mind as wide-open as your eyes, because almost nothing is what it seems.”

“Point is, people lie a lot. Sometimes out of habit. Not many people are good at telling the truth.”

“The truth is the truth. What changes is what we know about it and what we're willing to believe.”

“Is he nuts?""I think the expression used to be 'touched by God'.""So that would be a yes.”

“Except that death collected everyone. Death is like that. Relentlessly efficient.”

“Yo! Deadheads," he yelled, waving his sword to taunt them. "Nice try, but you're messing with Benny-freaking-Imura, zombie killer. Booyah!”

“Lilah growled low in her throat, grabbed his shirt with both hands, and hauled him toward her. Into a kiss that was fierce and hot and instantly intense. After several scalding seconds, she shoved him roughly back.She got to her feet and snatched up her spear, then looked pityingly down at him. "Stupid town boy," she muttered, then turned and jogged into the forest.Chong lay sprawled, eyes glazed and face flushed.Holy moley...," he gasped.”

“When Chong made to sit down next to her, Lilah drew her knife and stabbed the point into the earth between them."I can see that you need some quiet time," he said and scuttled quickly away.”

“Lilah stood above them, tall and beautiful, her white hair whipping in the fresh breeze, her clothes streaked with gore, her hazel eyes glowing with fire.She turned slowly to Nix and in her ghostly whisper of a voice said, "I hate boys.”

“Zoms never tired.”

“Benny took a steadying breath and let it out slowly."Nix, I do understand what you're going through. I'm going through it too.""It's not the same thing," she said very quietly. An elk poked its head out from behind some sagebrush, studied them for a moment, then bent to eat berries from another bush."Then why won't you tell me what it is?"She glared at him. "Honestly, Benny, sometimes I think you don't even know who I am."With that she turned and stalked away, her spine as stiff as a board. Benny stood openmouthed until she was almost back to the tree where Chong sat with Eve."What the hell was that all about?" he asked the elk.The elk, being and elk, said nothing.”

“She said, "Look down at your chest." I held the cell phone to my ear as I bend my head. Two red dots, quivering slightly, danced right over my heart. "You are one second away from death," said the caller.”

“Tom adjusted his sword and checked his knives and his pistol. If there had been anyone to see his face, they would have seen a man at peace with himself and the world. And if they were wise they would know that such a man was the most dangerous of all opponent - one who fights to preserve love rather than perpetuate hate.”

“But sometimes shame is a more powerful engine than rage. Like rage, it burns hot; and like rage it tends to consume its own furnace.”

“His specialty was interrogation. Imagine it, gentlemen. Being strapped to a table so that you are entirely at the mercy of a monster such as this. A person who delights in your pain. A person to whom your screams are more delicious than a lover's whisper. A creature who knows how to keep you alive while he skillfully and meticulously deconstructs those things that define you as human?”

“Hell's a-coming and we all gotta learn to play the blues. (347)”

“Do you work for Starbox? If so, I can't say I dig your new marketing strategy.”

“My whole body is a lethal weapon, you know. I know more ways to kill you than you know how to die.”

“She wept for the hurt that he owned, a hurt she could never hope to remove.”

“Language.”

“All concerns of men go wrong when they wish to cure with evil. -SOPHOCLES”

“Yippie ki-yay and all that shit"- Desdemona Fox”

“Goat made no move to get out. "Billy...this is nuts.""Yeah, well we left 'sane and normal' behind the first time Volker said 'zombie”

“Basher shook his head. "No, we climbed in through a ground-floor guest bedroom all ninja-like. Snuck up the back stairs.""Then you might be the cavalry," said Tom, "but I'm Santa Claus. Let's go downstairs and open some presents.”

“He could laugh, though, and there was no bluesman who ever lived who didn't know how to laugh at the craziness of life.”

“That's stupid.""That's people.”