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50 Ernest Cline Quotes That Capture What's Running Through Every Millennial's Mind

Going outside is overrated. 
Holly Riordan
September 14, 2016
“I’d spent my entire life overdosing on uncut escapism, willingly allowing fantasy to become my reality.”
— Ernest Cline, Armada
Tagged: Life, Escapism, Fantasy, Reality
“I know that the future is scary at times. But there's just no escaping it.”
— Ernest Cline, Armada
Tagged: Future, Escape, Worrying
“If there were other civilizations out there, why would they ever want to make contact with humanity? If this was how we treated each other, how much kindness could we possibly show to some race of bug-eyed beings from beyond?”
— Ernest Cline, Armada
Tagged: civilizations, humanity, Aliens
“We were all probably stuck here for the duration, on the third rock from our sun. Boldly going extinct.”
— Ernest Cline, Armada
Tagged: Earth, extinction, humanity
“I tried to remain skeptical. I reminded myself that I was a man of science, even if I did usually get a C in it.”
— Ernest Cline, Armada
Tagged: skeptic, Science, Logic
“You cannot escape your destiny.”
— Ernest Cline, Armada
Tagged: Destiny, Escape, Fate
“It’s not useless, and neither am I.”
— Ernest Cline, Armada
Tagged: useless, meaningful, Worth
“Humans were still just a bunch of bipedal apes, divided into arbitrary tribes that were constantly at war over their ruined planet’s dwindling natural resources.”
— Ernest Cline, Armada
Tagged: humans, War, Suffering, Violence
“I think it's a bit silly to brand the Internet as the downfall of youth.”
— Ernest Cline, Being Present: A Book of Daily Reflections
Tagged: Internet, Technology, Youth
“If I was feeling depressed or frustrated about my lot in life, all I had to do was tap the Player One button, and my worries would instantly slip away as my mind focused itself on the relentless pixelated onslaught on the screen in front of me. There, inside the game's two-dimensional universe, life was simple: It's just you against the machine. Move with your left hand, shoot with your right, and try to stay alive as long as possible.”
— Ernest Cline, Ready Player One: A Novel
Tagged: Video Games, Escapism, Depression
“The farther I went, the more confident I became.”
— Ernest Cline, Ready Player One: A Novel
Tagged: Confidence, Moving Forward, Success
“If there was a bright center to the universe, I was on the planet it was farthest from.”
— Ernest Cline, Armada
Tagged: Happiness, beauty, Earth
“We spread across the entire planet like an unstoppable virus.”
— Ernest Cline, Ready Player One: A Novel
Tagged: humanity, humans, virus
“The reason so many people are starving is because we’ve wrecked the planet. The Earth is dying, you know? It’s time to leave.”
— Ernest Cline, Ready Player One
Tagged: Earth, starving, Destruction
“We sat there awhile, holding hands, reveling in the strange new sensation of actually touching one another.”
— Ernest Cline, Ready Player One: A Novel
Tagged: human contact, touching, Holding Hands
“The only legitimate use of a computer is to play games.”
— Ernest Cline, Armada
Tagged: computers, Video Games, Escapism
“I’m not crazy about reality, but it’s still the only place to get a decent meal.”
— Groucho Marx, Ready Player One
Tagged: Reality, food, Funny
“City-sized shopping malls were erected in the blink of an eye, and storefronts spread across planets like time-lapse footage of mold devouring an orange.”
— Ernest Cline, Ready Player One
Tagged: Shopping, commercialism, Cities
“I couldn’t bear the idea that the girl with whom I was virtually smitten might actually be some middle-aged dude named Chuck, with back hair and male-pattern baldness.”
— Ernest Cline, Ready Player One: A Novel
Tagged: catfishing, Love, Online
“I never knew how to act or what to say, and when I did work up the courage to speak, I always seemed to say the wrong thing.”
— Ernest Cline, Ready Player One: A Novel
Tagged: Communication, Mistakes, embarrassed