Quotes from book
Zodiac

Zodiac

Neal Stephenson

Zodiac: An Eco-Thriller is a novel by American writer Neal Stephenson. His second novel, it tells the story of an environmentalist, Sangamon Taylor, uncovering a conspiracy involving industrialist polluters in Boston Harbor. The "Zodiac" of the title refers to the brand of inflatable motor boats the hero uses to get around the city efficiently. His opponents attempt to frame him as an ecoterrorist.

“There was a white man sitting at the kitchen table, warming his hands by wrapping them around a hot cup of tea. He had kind of an oblong face, curly red hair piled on top, a close-cropped but dense red beard, shocking blue eyes that always looked wide open. He face was ruddy with the outdoors, and the way he was sitting there with that tea, he looked so calm, so centered, almost like he was in meditation. When I came in, he looked at me and smiled just a trace, without showing his teeth…”

Neal Stephenson book Zodiac

The legendary S.T. finally meets the legendary Hank Boone (proto-Enoch Root character), end of chapter 24
Zodiac (1988)

“Talking to cancer victims never makes me feel righteous, never vindicated. It makes me slightly ill and for some reason, guilty. If people like me would just keep our mouths shut, people like him would never suspect why they got cancer. They’d chalk it up to God or probability. They wouldn't die with hearts full of venom.
It is a strange world that Industry has made. Kind of a seething toxic harbor, opening out on a blue unspoiled ocean. Most people are swimming in it, and I get to float around on the surface, on my Zodiac, announcing that they're in trouble. What I really want to do is make a difference. But I'm not sure I have, yet.”

Neal Stephenson book Zodiac

Source: Zodiac (1988), Chapter 11

“He had a sense of irony that ruled his life, made it impossible for him to use his considerable brains in any kind of serious job. Kind of like me.”

Neal Stephenson book Zodiac

Source: Zodiac (1988), Chapter 22

“Sangamon’s Principle,” I said. “The simpler the molecule, the better the drug. So the best drug is oxygen. Only two atoms. The second-best, nitrous oxide—a mere three atoms. The third-best, ethanol—nine. Past that, you’re talking lots of atoms.”
“So?”
“Atoms are like people. Get lots of them together, never know what they’ll do.”

Neal Stephenson book Zodiac

Source: Zodiac (1988), Chapter 1

“Most of my colleagues go on backpacking trips when they have to do some thinking. I go to a good hardware store and head for the oiliest, dustiest corners. … If they're really good, they don't hassle me. They let me wander around and think. Young hardware clerks have a lot of hubris. They think they can help you find anything…. Old hardware clerks have learned the hard way that nothing in a hardware store ever gets bought for its nominal purpose. You buy something that was designed to do one thing, and you use it for another.”

Neal Stephenson book Zodiac

Source: Zodiac (1988), Chapter 8

“In four years of work, I've idled my Zodiac down every one of its thousands of inlets, looked at every inch of its fractal coastline and found every single goddamned pipe that empties into it. Some of the pipes are big enough to park a car in and some are the size of your finger, but all of them have told their story to my gas chromatograph. And often it's the littlest pipes that cause the most damage. When I see a big huge pipe coming right out of a factory, I'm betting the pumpers have at least read the EPA regs. But when I find a tiny one, hidden below the waterline, sprouting from a mile-wide industrial carnival, I put on gloves before taking my sample.
And sometimes the gloves melt.”

Neal Stephenson book Zodiac

Source: Zodiac (1988), Chapter 4

“Jim and his crew of a dozen or so specialize in loud, sloppy publicity seeking…. Myself, I like the stiletto-in-the-night approach. That's partly because I'm younger, a post-Sixties type, and partly because my thing is toxics, not nukes or mammals. … there are all kinds of direct, simple ways to go after toxic criminals.
You just plug the pipes.”

Neal Stephenson book Zodiac

Source: Zodiac (1988), Chapter 6

“The corporations have already planted their own bombs. All we have to do is light the fuses.”

Neal Stephenson book Zodiac

Source: Zodiac (1988), Chapter 4, Sangamon Taylor on why violent action is not necessary against polluting corporations

“I don't like sewing machines. I don't understand how a needle with a thread going through the tip of it can interlock the thread by jamming itself into a little goddamn spool. It's contrary to nature and it irritates me.”

Neal Stephenson book Zodiac

Source: Zodiac (1988), Chapter 9

“Any property that's open to common use gets destroyed. Because everyone has incentive to use it to the max, but no one has incentive to maintain it.”

Neal Stephenson book Zodiac

Source: Zodiac (1988), Chapter 8

“"It might interest you to know that our state is tired of being used as a chemical toilet so that people in Utah can have plastic lawn furniture."
"I can't believe an assistant attorney general came right out and said that."
"Well, I wouldn't say it in public."”

Neal Stephenson book Zodiac

"Cohen," the assistant attorney general of an unnamed East Coast state meeting covertly with Sangamon Taylor near the Jersey Shore. Chapter 11
Zodiac (1988)

“One of the problems, hanging out with me, is that I can turn any topic into a toxic horror story. I've lost two girlfriends and a job by reading an ingredients label out loud, with annotations, at the wrong time.”

Neal Stephenson book Zodiac

Source: Zodiac (1988), Chapter 1

“It's the ultimate Boston transportation. On land…all those slow cars get in the way. There's public transit – the T — but if you're in good shape, it's usually faster to walk. Bicycles aren't bad. But on water, nothing stops you and there isn't anything important in Boston that isn't within two blocks of being wet. The harbor and the city are interlocked like wrestling squid, tentacles of water and land snaking off everywhere, slashed with bridges or canals.”

Neal Stephenson book Zodiac

Source: Zodiac (1988), Chapter 4

“It might interest you to know that our state is tired of being used as a chemical toilet so that people in Utah can have plastic lawn furniture.”

Neal Stephenson book Zodiac

"I can't believe an assistant attorney general came right out and said that."
"Well, I wouldn't say it in public."
"Cohen," the assistant attorney general of an unnamed East Coast state meeting covertly with Sangamon Taylor near the Jersey Shore. Chapter 11
Zodiac (1988)

“You can't get most people to believe how wildly the eco-laws get broken, but if I say "More than twice the legal limit," they get comfortably outraged.”

Neal Stephenson book Zodiac

Source: Zodiac (1988), Chapter 2

“My nighttime attitude is, anyone can run you down and get away with it. Why give some drunk the chance to plaster me against a car? That's why I don't even own a bike light, or one of those godawful reflective suits. Because if you've put yourself in a position where someone has to see you in order for you to be safe — to see you, and to give a fuck — you've already blown it.”

Neal Stephenson book Zodiac

Source: Zodiac (1988), Chapter 5 (Taylor on riding a bike at night)

Similar authors

Neal Stephenson photo

Neal Stephenson167

American science fiction writer 1959

Jenny Han photo

Jenny Han226

American writer None

Cassandra Clare photo

Cassandra Clare2041

American author None

Monica Bellucci photo

Monica Bellucci1

Italian actress None

Patrick Rothfuss photo

Patrick Rothfuss236

American fantasy writer None

Chuck Palahniuk photo

Chuck Palahniuk555

American novelist, essayist None

Nicholas Sparks photo

Nicholas Sparks646

American writer and novelist None

Laurell K. Hamilton photo

Laurell K. Hamilton261

Novelist None

Gerard Way photo

Gerard Way1

American musician and comic book writer None

Sherrilyn Kenyon photo

Sherrilyn Kenyon752

Novelist None

Similar authors

Neal Stephenson photo

Neal Stephenson167

American science fiction writer 1959

Jenny Han photo

Jenny Han226

American writer None

Cassandra Clare photo

Cassandra Clare2041

American author None

Monica Bellucci photo

Monica Bellucci1

Italian actress None

Patrick Rothfuss photo

Patrick Rothfuss236

American fantasy writer None