Ghost in the Shell Quotations

Ghost in the Shell is a Japanese science fiction manga created by Masamune Shirow.

Major Motoko Kusanagi

Just a whisper. I hear it in my ghost.

If we all reacted the same way, we'd be predictable, and there's always more than one way to view a situation. What's true for the group is also true for the individual. It's simple: overspecialize, and you breed in weakness. It's slow death.

When I float weightless back to the surface, I'm imagining I'm becoming someone else. It's probably the decompression.

There are countless ingredients that make up the human body and mind, like all the components that make up me as an individual with my own personality. Sure, I have a face and voice to distinguish myself from others, but my thoughts and memories are unique only to me, and I carry a sense of my own destiny. Each of those things are just a small part of it. I collect information to use in my own way. All of that blends to create a mixture that forms me and gives rise to my conscience.
I feel confined, only free to expand myself within boundaries.

Well, I guess cyborgs like myself have a tendency to be paranoid about our origins.

So what happens if she turns over in her sleep? Won't her ghost separate from her body?

Maybe someday your "maker" will come … haul you away, take you apart, and announce the recall of a defective product. What if all that's left of the "real you" is just a couple of lonely brain cells, huh?

What we really need, Togusa, is not sharpshooting skills, so much as the ability to get close enough to make sure the enemy can be killed. If you want to play at long-range sniping, you can always go shoot an elephant at 500 miles with a miniature cruise missile …

As revenge for the fact that two of my men were killed, I even set it up so he would shoot his own son – through a door.

Puppet Master

What we see now is like a dim image in a mirror. Then we shall see face to face.

Life perpetuates itself through diversity, and this includes the ability to sacrifice itself when necessary. Cells repeat the process of degeneration and regeneration until one day they die, obliterating an entire set of memory and information. Only genes remain. Why continually repeat this cycle? Simply to survive by avoiding the weaknesses of an unchanging system.

Your effort to remain what you are is what limits you.

Major Motoko Kusanagi/Puppet Master

And where does the newborn go from here? The net is vast and infinite.

Batou

That's all it is: information. Even a simulated experience or a dream; simultaneous reality and fantasy. Any way you look at it, all the information that a person accumulates in a lifetime is just a drop in the bucket.

You and the chief are the only ones out of the whole section whose bodies don't come with a warranty.

I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it.

You're treated like other humans, so stop with the angst.

Nice indeed. Everything's accounted for, except your old shell.

Hm … pressure sensitive triggers and a gorgon mine? Or is it a dummy …? Either way, what a waste! I oughta take it home as a souvenir.

When I die, since I'm a real skeptic, I'm gonna gripe to the lord and make sure I get back my original investment when I'm reincarnated …

Togusa

Yes siree, the excitement never stops.

Jesus Christ, what a mess! You didn't have to go that far.

Tough chick needs backup? Since when did she ever need a hand?

Dialogues

Batou: Got him, huh? Well, the breech and the barrel really screwed up. That's what happens when you use AP bullets in one of these things. Oh yeah.

Fugitive: It's no use arresting me! I'm not talking to you god damn cops!

Batou: Talk?! And just what are you going to talk about? You don't even know your own name, you stupid dickhead!

Fugitive: Huh?

Major Motoko Kusanagi: Can you remember your mother's name or what she looks like? Or how about where you were born? Don't you have any happy childhood memories? Do you even know who you are?

Batou: Ghost-hacked humans are so pathetic, it's a shame. And this poor bastard has been hacked pretty badly.

Batou: Chief, you've ever questioned the ethics of the neural sergeants who monkey around inside your brain?

Chief Aramaki: They undergo psychiatrical evaluations, especially those in security. They're subjected to a stringent screening of their personal lifes. Of course, the ones who check are only human.

Batou: I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it.

Major Motoko Kusanagi: That robot. Did we seem similar to you?

Batou: Of course not.

Major Motoko Kusanagi: No, I don't mean physically.

Batou: Just what, then?

Major Motoko Kusanagi: Well, I guess cyborgs like myself have a tendency to be paranoid about our origins. Sometimes I suspect I am not who I think I am, like maybe I died a long time ago and somebody took my brain and stuck it in this body. Maybe there never was a real me in the first place, and I'm completely synthetic like that thing.

Batou: You've got human brain cells in that titanium shell of yours. You're treated like other humans, so stop with the angst.

Major Motoko Kusanagi: But that's just it, that's the only thing that makes me feel human. The way I'm treated. I mean, who knows what's inside our heads? Have you ever seen your own brain?

Batou: It sounds to me like you're doubting your own ghost.

Major Motoko Kusanagi: What if a cyber brain could possibly generate its own ghost, create a soul all by itself? And if it did, just what would be the importance of being human then?

Puppet Master: As a sentient life form, I hereby demand political asylum.

Chief Aramaki: Is this a joke?

Nakamura: Ridiculous! It's programmed for self-preservation!

Puppet Master: It can also be argued that DNA is nothing more than a program designed to preserve itself. Life has become more complex in the overwhelming sea of information. And life, when organized into species, relies upon genes to be its memory system. So man is an individual only because of his own undefinable memory. But memory cannot be defined, yet it defines mankind. The advent of computers and the subsequent accumulation of incalculable data has given rise to a new system of memory and thought, parallel to your own. Humanity has underestimated the consequences of computerization.

Nakamura: Nonsense! This is no proof at all that you're a living, thinking life form.

Puppet Master: And can you offer me proof of your existence? How can you, when neither modern science nor philosophy can explain what life is?

Nakamura: I don't understand anything anymore. Why would Project 2501 run to Section 9?

Dr. Willis: No one can be sure. But whatever the motive, or whatever's pushing him, there must surely be a reason. I don't know. Maybe he's got a girlfriend there he's got the hots for.

Nakamura: Utter nonsense.

Major Motoko Kusanagi: What the hell did you use?

Batou: Your standard issue big gun.

Major Motoko Kusanagi: You talk about redefining my identity. I want a guarantee that I can still be myself.

Puppet Master: There isn't one. Why would you wish to? All things change in a dynamic environment. Your effort to remain what you are is what limits you.

Quoternity