Charles Stross Quotes

United Kingdom, Writer
October 18, 1964

Charles David George "Charlie" Stross (born 18 October 1964) is a British writer of science fiction, Lovecraftian horror, and fantasy. Stross specialises in hard science fiction and space opera. Between 1994 and 2004, he was also an active writer for the magazine Computer Shopper and was responsible for the monthly Linux column. He stopped writing for the magazine to devote more time to novels. However, he continues to publish freelance articles on the Internet.

You say paranoia, I say surveillance state. Worried about being tracked by hidden cameras stealthy air-borne remotely piloted vehicles, and chips implanted in your skull? You’re merely a realist.

Charles Stross
- Air
- Realist
I think we may be mistaking the elephant’s tail for a bell-pull.

Charles Stross
- May
- Elephant

Manfred decides that he’s going to do something unusual for a change: He’s going to make himself temporarily rich. This is a change because Manfred’s normal profession is making other people rich. Manfred doesn’t believe in scarcity or zero-sum games or competition-his world is too fast and information-dense to accommodate primate hierarchy games.

Charles Stross
- People
- World
- Believe
A curious horror overtook him, then. His skin crawled; the back of his neck turned damp and cold. I can’t go yet, he thought. It’s not fair! He shuddered. The void seemed to speak to him. Fairness has nothing to do with it. This will happen, and your wishes are meaningless.

Charles Stross
- Cold
- Wishes
It was an okay vintage, if you could get past the fact that it was wine, and-stripped of the ability to get drunk on it-wine was just sour grape juice.

Charles Stross
- Past
- Wine
- Drunk
Novels are one of the few remaining areas of narrative storytelling where one person does almost all of the creative heavy lifting.

Charles Stross
- Lifting
If I forget, then it might as well never have happened. Memory is liberty.

Charles Stross
Pubs are, disturbingly, where I hatch most of my best idea-sculptures: possibly it's something to do with the disinhibiting effects of alcohol, or maybe it's just having company to yack at.

Charles Stross
- Alcohol

Never trust a man who thinks his religion gives him all the answers.

Charles Stross
- Trust
Human consciousness isn’t optimized for anything, except maybe helping feral hominids survive in the wild.

Charles Stross
I’m wearing black leggings and a loose top festooned with a Menger sponge of empty pockets stitched out of smaller pockets and smaller still, almost down to the limits of visibility-woven in freefall by hordes of tiny otaku spiders, I’m told, their genes programmed by an obsessive-compulsive sartorial topologist.

Charles Stross
- Black
'You have an evil mind!''And this is a bad thing how, exactly?'

Charles Stross
- Mind
- Bad
- Evil
You got overdraft at the mythology bank.

Charles Stross
Britain is relatively compact and much closer to the borders of the U.S.S.R. than anywhere in North America.

Charles Stross
- America