Quotes from The Simulacra ( 1964 )

"One year ago, in Birmingham, he appeared before fifty Negro millionaires for benefit purposes; the funds raised went to help with afro Moslem lunar type colonization."

These amateur talent shows, put on so frequently, meant nothing to him; he recalled the old days when the TV set had carried entertainment, good shows put on by professionals. Now of course all the professionals who were any good wre under contract to the White House, and the TV had become educational, not entertaining.

Now there was just the one party, which had ruled a stable and peaceful society, and everyone, by law, belonged to it.

What was marriage, anyhow? An arrangement of sharing things…Yes, it meant an arrangement in which one could get another person to do certain things one didn't like to do, such as cooking meals…

…there's no accounting for people's tastes, especially at eight in the morning.

In his own individual car he felt as if he were participating in a black-magic ritual - as if he and the other commuters had put their lives into the hands of a force better left undiscussed.

It was, for him, impossible to imagine a civilization - of any kind of life form - that had not contrived Coke. Otherwise, how could it authentically be called a 'civilization' ?

He could, as it came through the crack, kill it. It was alive, terribly mortal; the ad agencies, like nature, squandered hordes of them.   The commercial, fly-sized, began to buzz out its message as soon as it managed to force entry. "Say! Haven't you sometimes said to yourself, I'll bet other people in restaurants can see me! And you're puzzled as to what to do about this serious, baffling problem of being conspicuous, especially-"   Chic crushed it with his foot.

"When you deal with psychotics you're drawn in; you become mentally ill yourself."

It must be terrific to be an artist…You're exempt from all the rules and responsibilities; you can do just as you like.

"You simply can't fathom that; you've got a cop's mind."

"Musicians are funny people…They don't think like other people, I've discovered. They live in their own private fantasy world…"

"You're under arrest." "Sure…we had nothing to do with it so arrest us."

"This woman isn't really Nicole and even worse there is no Nicole anywhere; there's just the TV image after all, the illusion of the media, and behind it, behind her, another group entirely rules. A corporate body of some kind. But who are they and how did they get power? How long have they had it? Will we ever know? We came so far; we almost seemed to know what's really going on…"

On the TV screen she was smiling directly at him, it seemed. And so he smiled back. And then, reluctantly, feeling a great weight descend over him, he at last turned back to his reference books. Back to the harsh realities of his daily endless life.

"Politics…if I may remind you, is the art of getting other people to do what you want them to, by force if necessary."

"They were frightened…And frightened people lose the ability to think."