Yes, I Know I’m on Google Quote of the Day
Posted on October 8, 2010 Posted by John Scalzi 25 Comments
You don’t have to send me an e-mail/Tweet/Facebook note about it. Thank you, though.
For those of you who lack context, the quote is from Old Man’s War, and John Perry talking about his marriage. It’s not a direct assessment from me about my marriage.
That’s really odd. Attributing a quote to you that was something one of your characters said.
Any idea if this is common practice?
Yet another 15 minutes of fame for Scalzi!
@Miles “Any idea if this is common practice?”
Extremely common.
No disrespect to John or his writing, but I scratch my head and wonder why someone chose that particular quote as quotable. It’s a nice sentiment (and one I share, so even though it’s a fictional character saying it I relate to it) but John has written other things that are more profound, or funnier, or both.
I didn’t even know Google had a “quote of the day”. What was the quote? (I can kinda guess, but my copy of OMW is at home.)
Is there any way for those of us who don’t have Google Desktop to see the quote somewhere?
So what is the quote? I don’t have the gadget.
Don’t want to install the app just to see the quote. Can someone re-quote the quote?
For the quote see http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/40503.html.
Here’s one place to find it:
http://www.google.com/ig/directory?type=gadgets&url=www.quotationspage.com/data/qotd.rss
Carp! Beaten by mere seconds.
Loopy: I do what I can!
The quote is: “My marriage had its ups and downs like anyone’s, but when it came down to it, I knew it was solid. I miss that sort of security, and that sort of connection with someone.”
Have to agree with Dave H. The quote is just fine and all, but I would have preferred something more meaty…like:
“…the idealized world Ayn Rand has created to facilitate her wishful theorizing has no more logical connection to our real one than a world in which an author has imagined humanity ruled by intelligent cups of yogurt. ”
I mean, I hear someone even wrote a story based on that one!
Re: Quoting the author for something a character said … you always cite the person who actually did the writing. The character did not write it, John Scalzi wrote it. Therefore it is John Scalzi’s quote. The one common exception to that is movie quotes which always are attributed to the character.
The quote I would use (which is listed in my FB quotes section), although not related to marriage, would be “The story of how I left Huckleberry begins – as do all worthy stories – with a goat.”
When I first saw this quote, my first thought was “Wow — What happened to Krissy?” So I chased it down and saw it was from Old Man’s War. Then I realized why it sounded so familiar. But you folks are right, John has said much more quotable things.
I just finished reading most of Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded, and just off the top, the piece about grading hate mail was hilarious. I’m thinking Krill Fucker right now. But I guess that can’t be quoted, can it?
Damn Old Man’s War was a good book. Should I read that or The Diamond Age again this afternoon? Coinflip sez…
Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer.
Strange coin.
Maybe not direct, but I’ve always thought his marriage would have been nearly impossible for someone to write, who didn’t have the experience of a happy and solid marriage of their own. I do *not* believe that all happy families are alike, but there are some common threads.
The quote would have been more funny if it was referring to someone who just got convicted of murdering his wife….
Too bad they didn’t quote the Yogurt, “No, we’ve got this.”
I should re-read OMW. Great book.
I think I would have rather seen this quote:
“So, would you mind if I taped bacon to the cat?”
Or perhaps, “Clearly you people thought I was kidding.”
But what if we WANT to send you all these things? Sometimes, flowers just don’t say it all.
Bryan@23
As a new-hatched Schlock Mercenary fan, I agree about flowers, but grenades are always an option. :)
However, I don’t think Mr. Scalzi needs them.
Google Quotes? Bah. I’ve had a quote from “Old Man’s War” on my web site’s quote board for several months. It’s John Perry’s assessment of his ability to judge dangerous situations, “I’m not insane, sir. I have a finely calibrated sense of acceptable risk.” Though the quotes show up based on a random number generator, yours is #59 (out of a current count of 86). I know there are other quotable quotes, but, hey, I don’t want you to get a big head or anything.