Apocalyptic Fiction Quotes

“In the place Calliope had bled, a trail of corn sprouted behind her. She picked the two tallest corn shoots then sat beside two large, smooth stone metates for grinding. From within her husk rebozo, she pulled a mano, shucked the corn, laid it on the altar, and with the mano in both hands, she began moving with the weight of her whole body, the strength of her shoulders and back pressing down through her arms, back and forth, shearing, until the corn became a fine yellow powder.
The Ancients sang her on as she worked. When the Earth has had enough, she will shake her troubles off. She will shake her troublemakers off. She scooped this and mashed it into the butter of her hands. Rolled it into a ball, flattened it again. Shaped and shaped until the corn grew into a child, who sprang from the stone of her hands, laughing.
For she was finished, and sank into the earth, solid, hardened, at peace. And as her corn-made child ran from the mound to the grass below, the spirits intoned. The Earth has all the power she needs.
When she decides to use her power, you will know.”
― Jennifer Givhan, Trinity Sight

“We have just detected a sort of ‘Fire Storm’ over the South Pole, and it’s spreading north.” Dr Maxine DeNulett”
― Jax Farr

“Now that it has come, our doom hasn’t arrived from outer space, but inner space. No death star pulsing gamma rays or behemoth killer asteroid spells our demise; the Earth itself will see to that. Something stirs within the heart of this abused sphere, making all man-made disasters look like child’s play. Gaea is finally having her revenge.”
― Richard H. Fay, Trio of Terror: Three Horror Stories

“Flynn staggered one eye at a time into a nightmare. He was awake.”
― Thomas Geoffroy, The Pick

“In Dimond Library, on the way to the basement stairs, I see a pale boy hunched over a desk in the carrel, sipping from a Styrofoam cup, surrounded by books, reading. His face is gaunt and his hair a greasy mess. On the ground beside him is a clotted leaking pile of discarded teabags and beside him a bucket that I realize with horror is full of urine. There's a tall stack of books on one side of him and a taller stack on the other: out pile, in pile. I stand for a second watching this guy, frozen in place but alive with small action: muttering to himself as he reads, almost humming like an electric motor, his hands twitching at the edges of the pages, until with a sudden flash of motion, he turns the page, flings it over like he can't consume the words fast enough.

"Come on," says Nico, and we continue down the hall, passing four more of these carrels, each with its quiet, intent occupant-- earnestly, frantically reading.”
― Ben H. Winters, Countdown City

“This world is no paradise;
People try to disguise;
People care about lies
And love is dying

This world wasn't meant to unite;
It's all a construction
For every kingdom's strategy;
There is no place for love

…Here you'll only find fake wishes
That you may Rest In Peace

RIP Love”
― Jazalyn, vViIrRuUsS: I Never Forget

“The dreams of men are older than brooding Egypt or the contemplative Sphinx, or garden-girdled Babylon, and this was fashioned in my dreams.”
― H.P. Lovecraft

“—which is to say I’ve had the opportunity to speak with a great many people about postapocalyptic literature. I’ve heard a great many theories about why there’s such interest in the genre. One person suggested to me that it had to do with economic inequality, that in a world that can seem fundamentally unfair, perhaps we long to just blow everything up and start over—”
― Emily St. John Mandel, Sea of Tranquility

“He was facing an open door. He took a deep breath and stepped forward.
He stepped into the stars.
It hit him in the lungs first, shoving the breath from his chest. A feeling of pure physical panic, as if he'd stepped onto nothing, onto the night sky itself.”
― Justin Cronin, The Passage

“A crack in times saves ninety-nine”
― D.M. Siciliano, Under Another Sun

“We're idiots. Creatures of denial who have learned not to be afraid of our closets. We need to see the monster in the room before we scream."
-The End of the World Running Club”
― ADRIAN J WALKER

“You never realize how much you will miss someone until they are no longer there. Just like you never realize how easy something is until the thing that makes it simple is removed.”
― D.L. Fletcher

“What were you doing when the world ended?”
― Robert Reisler, The Four Myths

“The Voice of Prophecy kept not sounding like what one would expect a voice of prophecy to sound like. Where were all the thees and thous?”
― Robert Reisler, The Four Myths

“Jack hadn’t let on, but he was already more convinced than the average skeptic that this was, in fact, the real deal. He didn’t need another book to tell him these Native Americans had had too much time on their hands.

Get to work, Jack. This is why you became an archaeologist. He was wondering if he was going to need to buy that whip and hat after all, along with some bags of russets.

And I might need to move the sofa to make room for Potato Mountain.”
― Robert Reisler, The Four Myths

“But first I’ve got to get another book: How to Break the [SPOILER] When Native Americans Have Had Too Much Time on Their Hands.”
― Robert Reisler, The Four Myths

“One second after an EMP attack, it will be too late to ask two simple questions: what should we have done to prevent the attack and why didn't we do it?”
― William R. Forstchen, One Second After

“Like all apocalyptic writers, the author despises people in general and fantasizes about the destruction of everyone different from him and his chosen group.”
― Steven Moore, The Novel: An Alternative History: Beginnings to 1600

“The greatest battle in life is between letting go and holding on.”
― Brandon LeMar Bass, How to Overcome Apocalyptic Events

“Has anyone ever been foolish enough to think to themselves, "Well surely this is as bad as it can possibly get?”
― Truant D. Memphis, Post Oh!pocalypto Poppycock

“Now, get your head right and get out of that bed Danny boy. There is a war going on between good and evil on this planet and you have been drafted to fight. You have work to do. It could be a bunch of tiny things or a few giant things. A big moment, or a bunch of small moments. It could happen tomorrow or 20 years from now. This is the beginning for you. Get up and get it started.”
― Truant D. Memphis, Post Oh!pocalypto Poppycock

“Lońka mówi, że wszystko jest w cząstkach
i wszystko jest ze sobą powiązane.
Powiązane jak włóczki w swetrze.
Magia to energia, energia jest w cząstkach.
Im silniejsza magia, tym większa energia,
tym silniej naładowane cząstki.
Cząstki magiczne.”
― Salcia Hałas, Potop

“Świat ma wbudowany w siebie mechanizm samodestrukcji.
Część świata dąży ku pierwotnemu nieistnieniu.”
― Salcia Hałas, Potop

“As children, our lives are like a game of tic-tac-toe—a game like many that are only possible under rules. Only two letters, never more. We are not allowed to imagine past the threshold of nine boxes. Any goal past achieving three in a row is futile.” —Birds On The Wall”
― FinPoet

“Sometimes, we like to imagine that we know a person because of how they used to be. Sadly, the reality of this is that people change. They love you at some point then 'move on' and resent you for the rest of your life." —Birds On The Wall”
― FinPoet

“Tomorrow I will be reincarnated as the sun, and when I die the birds will migrate north and the world will be cold," —Birds On The Wall”
― FinPoet

“The mask that we all thought was our real face — that of civility, morality, and adherence to law and order — sloughed away quickly like the skin of a snake. It revealed underneath the vile degeneracy of mankind.”
― Jeff Butler, The Ahavah Decision: a novella

“The world doesn’t go back. Only forward.”
― Minerva Hart, The Deadlands

“Tal como a pandemia da covid-19, em sua lúgubre asserção das fragilidades e incertezas que nos cercam, essas narrativas vampirescas com viés epidêmico-apocalíptico convidam reflexões acerca do papel da humanidade na construção desses cruéis cenários de desastre; inevitavelmente, rumamos a um futuro pelo qual teremos de nos responsabilizar.”
― Thiago Sardenberg, À Noite não Restariam Rosas: A Ameaça Epidêmica em Narrativas Vampirescas

“Humanity has been fetishizing the end of the world ever since we invented its beginning. It’s just easier to destroy it than to heal it, I guess. Chalk it up to our intellectually lazy nature.”
― Casey Fisher, The Subtle Cause