Lauren Beukes Quotes

She would disappear folded like origami into her own dreams

Traffic in Joburg is like the democratic process. Every time you think it's going to get moving and take you somewhere, you hit another jam.

Fashion is only different skins for different flavours of you.

There are only so many plots in the world. It's how they unfold that makes them interesting.

The problem with snapshots is that they replace actual memories. You lock down the moment and it becomes all there is of it.

Can't reinvent the wheel. But you can put your own spin on it.

Everyone lives three versions of themselves; a public life, a private life and a secret life.

Memory is curated. All this paraphernalia you collect to ward off forgetting

Only other people can make you feel real.

You have to get up pretty early in the morning to invent the news.

There are patterns because we try to find them. A desperate attempt at order because we can't face the terror that it might all be random.

World needs more angels, even plywood ones.

What I love about collaborating is that you're working with other minds that work differently to yours.

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.

It's hard to get justice in the real world. It's possible in fiction.

The biggest fairy tale is that justice works because it doesn't.

The future is not as loud as war, but it is relentless. It has a terrible fury all its own.

Time heals. Crushes let up. Splinters work their way out. Doesn't mean they don't leave scars that itch.

It's why you need other fingers, other tongues. Only other people can make you feel real.

She laughs, and that's really all he wanted.

Next time, can you ask him to bring cookies? I don't like to put up with that level of insane unless there's some kind of high-calorie compensation.

Dope don't have no sympathy, not for love or family, definitely not for fear. Put dope and the devil up against each other in the ring, and dope will win out. Every single time.

I smile thinly, to make it clear that this will happen when hell turns into a family friendly summer resort.

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

The original stories are mined out, and all that’s left is fool’s gold.

you're deluding yourself that you have some deep spiritual connection, like you didn't just read it on Wikipedia. There's a difference between tradition and culture.

(…) everything is finite. Life. Love. All this.' (…) 'Sadness too. Although that's harder to let go of than happiness.

This is my idea of family, actually, a sticky morass you can't chew your way out of.

Explosions and fighting robots and shit. What’s that got to do with the heart?