How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Abkhazia had been part of the Soviet f***ing Union. A new immigrant from Abkhazia trying to operate a microwave was like a deep-sea tube worm doing brain surgery. Where did they get these guys? Weren't there any Americans who could bake a f***ing pizza? (1.42)
This is a typical American strategy: delegating the grunt work to the lowest man on the totem pole, typically immigrants. Here we see that it doesn't always work so well, since one of the Abkhazians started a microwave fire that caused Hiro to receive the Delayed Pizza of Doom.
Quote #2
"I wasn't really happy when I was a hacker. I never thought about the important things. God. Heaven. The things of the spirit. It's hard to think about those things in America. You just put them aside. But those are the really important things—not programming computers or making money." (34.50)
So sayeth the brain-dead hacker chick Y.T. interviews in the Falabala camp of Griffith Park. She's got a point, that life in America encourages materialistic pursuits and thoughts—but how seriously should we take her obsession with her new religion, given that they had to burn out her brain to convert her?