Cory Doctorow - Little Brother (2008)

14 Sourced Quotes

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Never underestimate the determination of a kid who is time rich and cash poor.

Cory Doctorow
If you've never programmed a computer, you should. There's nothing like it in the whole world. When you program a computer, it does exactly what you tell it to do. It's like designing a machine — any machine, like a car, like a faucet, like a gas-hinge for a door — using math and instructions. It's awesome in the truest sense: it can fill you with awe.

Cory Doctorow
I'd never been a tall guy, and the girls I'd dated had all been my height — teenaged girls grow faster than guys, which is a cruel trick of nature.

Cory Doctorow
Skipping school isn't a crime. It's an infraction. They're totally different.

Cory Doctorow
The opposite of esprit d'escalier is the way that life's embarrassments come back to haunt us even after they're long past. I could remember every stupid thing I'd ever said or done, recall them with picture-perfect clarity. Any time I was feeling low, I'd naturally start to remember other times I felt that way, a hit parade of humiliations coming one after another to my mind.

Cory Doctorow
What if I got hit by lightning while walking with an umbrella? Ban umbrellas! Fight the menace of lightning!

Cory Doctorow
I fireballed him as he was seeking out treasure after we wiped out a band of orcs, playing rock-paper-scissors with each orc to determine who would prevail in combat. This is a lot more exciting than it sounds. It's quite civilized, and a little weird. You go running after someone through the woods, catch up with him, bare your teeth, and sit down to play a little roshambo.

Cory Doctorow
If you stare at someone long enough, they'll eventually look back at you.

Cory Doctorow
Once you get to naming your laptop, you know that you're really having a deep relationship with it.

Cory Doctorow
I don't know anything about press conferences." "Oh, just Google it. I'm sure someone's written an article on holding a successful one. I mean, if the President can manage it, I'm sure you can. He looks like he can barely tie his shoes without help.

Cory Doctorow
Take it from someone who's read the Wikipedia entry: this is how the Ottoman Empire was won: madden horsemen fueled by lethal jet-black coffee-mud.

Cory Doctorow
I can't go underground for a year, ten years, my whole life, waiting for freedom to be handed to me. Freedom is something you have to take for yourself.

Cory Doctorow
This is why I loved technology: if you used it right, it could give you power and privacy.

Cory Doctorow
The important thing about security systems isn't how they work, it's how they fail.

Cory Doctorow