Broken Monsters Quotes

“Shakespeare would have it wrong these days. It's not the world that's the stage - it's social media, where you're trying to put on a show. The rest of your life is rehearsals, prepping in the wings to be fabulous online.”
― Lauren Beukes, Broken Monsters

“Everyone lives three versions of themselves; a public life, a private life and a secret life.”
― Lauren Beukes, Broken Monsters

“He always thought a muse should be sex on legs.”
― Lauren Beukes, Broken Monsters

“People don’t want novelty – they want the reassurance of familiarity. No-one wants to be challenged, no-one wants to have their minds blown. There is an insatiable appetite for affirmation.”
― Lauren Beukes, Broken Monsters

“Everyone is broken.”
― Lauren Beukes, Broken Monsters

“This is the way the world is now. Everything is public. You have to find other people who understand.”
― Lauren Beukes, Broken Monsters

“I think Canada probably has an embargo on dicks.” “That’s why they’re so nice. No dicks allowed.”
― Lauren Beukes, Broken Monsters

“Good manners will do that; turn a situation around. You got to treat people like people.”
― Lauren Beukes, Broken Monsters

“Keep your options open, his parents told him, but they didn’t tell him that growing older is about your options shutting down, one by one.”
― Lauren Beukes, Broken Monsters

“They used to put people in stocks to shame them in public. Now you just need a wi-fi connection. On the internet, humiliation lives forever”
― Lauren Beukes, Broken Monsters

“Florrie smiles with unmoderated joy, because she can't see that most people bank their happiness like it's something you might run out of”
― Lauren Beukes, Broken Monsters

“Anyone can find they've been standing on the trapdoor when they thought they were the spotlight attraction.”
― Lauren Beukes, Broken Monsters

“World needs more angels, even plywood ones.”
― Lauren Beukes, Broken Monsters

“have a nice day’ doesn’t sound sincere anymore.” “That’s terrible.” But she can understand it, how words can get worn down like shoes.”
― Lauren Beukes, Broken Monsters

“The dream knows what they are waiting for, even if they don’t themselves.
The end of everything.
The moment when it reveals its miracle boy and all the eyes will look and their seeing will be horror and glory and wonder and it will pierce the skin of the world, collapse dimensions, and open the doors and the work will breathe and dance in his shoes and the dream will be able to escape.”
― Lauren Beukes, Broken Monsters

“An army of the beautiful deformed, from miniatures to monsters in every medium imaginable.”
― Lauren Beukes, Broken Monsters

“The original stories are mined out, and all that’s left is fool’s gold.”
― Lauren Beukes, Broken Monsters

“I’d rather be a happy Hooters waitress than a depressed out-of-work actor.”
― Lauren Beukes, Broken Monsters

“Explosions and fighting robots and shit. What’s that got to do with the heart?”
― Lauren Beukes, Broken Monsters

“In our patakis, our folk myths, we believe that we come to the world with a destiny we picked for ourselves in Arun. Obatala creates the human body, but you have to get your head from the potter who molds them out of clay in his warehouse. On a good day he makes beautiful heads, but sometimes he gets drunk and makes a bad head. It’s a divine defect. There’s no way to tell from the outside, but once you’ve chosen your head, you have to live your destiny.”
― Lauren Beukes, Broken Monsters

“Life lesson: looks plus don’t-give-a-fuck confidence mean you can have anything you want—any”
― Lauren Beukes, Broken Monsters

“Shakespeare would have it wrong these days. It’s not the world that’s the stage—it’s social media, where you’re trying to put on a show. The rest of your life is rehearsals, prepping in the wings to be fabulous online.”
― Lauren Beukes, Broken Monsters

“Everyone lives three versions of themselves; a public life, a private life and a secret life. Watch any kid and how he acts with his friends at school. Ask his momma what he’s like at home. Try and get her to believe the same kid robbed the corner store. “Not my boy,” she’ll say and she’s right. Because her boy wouldn’t do that. But we are different things to different people in different contexts.”
― Lauren Beukes, Broken Monsters

“The post-divorce lines around Gabby's mouth tugged down her whole face. She suddenly looks older. Older than the image Layla carries in her head. Of her mom back when she still wore a uniform, her dark hair in a high ballerina bun, gun at her waist, like the cops on TV. If safe was a person, her mom was it.”
― Lauren Beukes, Broken Monsters

“Everyone lives three versions of themselves; a public life, a private life and a secret life. Watch any kid and how he acts with his friends at school. Ask his momma what he’s like at home. Try and get her to believe the same kid robbed the corner store. ‘Not my boy,’ she’ll say and she’s right. Because her boy wouldn’t do that. But we are different things to different people in different contexts.”
― Lauren Beukes, Broken Monsters

“The world is condensing, attention spans narrowing to tiny screens, and there are people who are wittier and smarter, who know how to write for those nanospaces.”
― Lauren Beukes, Broken Monsters

“Gabi had felt the same way. As if the universe had abruptly expanded, like opening up a map, in a way she wouldn't have believed was possible. Love. The real thing. Huge and hungry and savage.”
― Lauren Beukes, Broken Monsters

“You got to treat people like people. Something his momma taught him, along with how to use a gun, and what the minimum going rate for a whore was.”
― Lauren Beukes, Broken Monsters

“He’s already writing the catalog copy in his mind. Dehumanizing distortions, the obliteration of self, with a nod to Francis Bacon or Steven Cohen. Heck, David Bowie. There”
― Lauren Beukes, Broken Monsters

“Anyone can find they’ve been standing on the trapdoor when they thought they were the spotlight attraction.”
― Lauren Beukes, Broken Monsters