World War Z Quotes

Find quotes from this novel, with commentary from Shmoop.  Pick a theme below to begin.

Fear Quotes

They warned me not to touch him, that he was "cursed." (2.1.11)

Education Quotes

My father was a simple man, a day laborer. I can't blame him for his lack of formal education, his dream of a better life for his family. And so we settled in Khayelitsha, one of the four main town...

Warfare Quotes

I though I was ready for anything. [He looks out at the valley, his eyes unfocused.] Who in his right mind could have been ready for this?

Primitivity Quotes

I'm saying I made a lot of people rich: border guards, bureaucrats, police, even the mayor. These were still good times for China, where the best way to honor Chairman Mao's memory was to see his f...

Man & the Natural World Quotes

Few of you Yankees asked where your new kidney or pancreas was coming from, be it a slum kid from the City of God or some unlucky student in a Chinese political prison. You didn't know, you didn't...

Politics Quotes

[The cops] helped explain to my other patients that a homicidal maniac had broken into the clinic and killed both Herr Muller and Doctor Silva. They also made sure that none of the staff said anyth...

Prejudice Quotes

I happened to be born into a group of people who live in constant fear of extinction. It's part of our identity, part of our mind-set, and it had taught us through horrific trial and error to alway...

Change Quotes

I asked the villagers who had been taking care of these people. They said no one, it wasn't "safe." I noticed that the door had been locked from the outside. The villagers were clearly terrified. T...

Love Quotes

These [refugees] were desperate. They were trapped between their infections and being rounded up and "treated" by their own government. If you had a loved one, a family member, a child, who was inf...