Neal Shusterman Quotes

“I'd rather be partly great than entirely useless.”

“What's the point of living if you're going to hate the world? Guard your heart if you have to, but don't shut it away.”

“The moment you're loved, that's when you got your soul.”

“We move in and out of darkness and light all our lives. Right now I'm pleased to be in the light.”

“Would you rather die, or be unwound? Now he finally knows the answer. Maybe this is what he wanted. Maybe it's why he stood there and taunted Roland. Because he'd rather be killed with a furious hand than dismembered with cool indifference.”

“Adulthood can do the most horrific things to the best of people.”

“Most people have two emergency modes. Fight and Flight. But Conner always knew he had three. Fight, Flight, and Screw Up Royally.”

“In a perfect world everything would be either black or white, right or wrong, and everyone would know the difference. But this isn't a perfect world. The problem is people who think it is.”

“The sad truth about humanity… is that people believe what they're told. Maybe not the first time, but by the hundredth time, the craziest of ideas just becomes a given.”

“In a population of hundreds of millions, such a small number of people is a mere drop in the bucket… but enough drops can make any bucket overflow”

“Statistically speaking, there's a better chance that some part of me will go on to greatness somewhere in the world. I'd rather be partly great than entirely useless.”

“Words don't hurt you." Which is one of the hugest criminal lies perpetrated by adults against children in this world. Because words hurt more than any physical pain.”

“Forget solar energy—if you could harness denial, it would power the world for generations.”

“But this isn't a perfect world. The problem is people who think it is. -Connor”

“In this world, there is a fine line between enlightenment and brain damage.”

“Getting to know someone in blind darkness changes your impression of them.”

“Either things happen for a reason, or they happen for no reason at all. Either one's life is a thread in a glorious tapestry or humanity is just a hopelessly tangled knot.”

“… One thing you learn when you've lived as long as I have-people aren't all good, and people aren't all bad. We move in and out of darkness and light all of our lives. Right now, I'm pleased to be in the light.”

“You see, a conflict always begins with an issue - a difference of opinion, an argument. But by the time it turns into a war, the issue doesn't matter anymore, because now it's about one thing and one thing only: how much each side hates the other.”

“You can't change laws without first changing human nature.'
-Nurse Greta

You can't change human nature without first changing the law.'
-Nurse Yvonne”

“It's funny how a flame can only burn your hand if you move too slow, you can tease it all you want and it never gets you, if your quick enough.”

“I'm scared," he says.
"I know," says the nurse.
"I want you all to go to Hell."
"That's natural.”

“Unwinds didn't go out with a bang-they didn't even go out with a whimper. they went out with the silence of a candle flame pinched between two fingers.”

“Looks are deceiving," Risa says. "After all, when I first saw you I thought you looked reasonably intelligent.”

“Fight, flight, and screw up royaly.”

“That's what law is: educated guesses at right and wrong.”

“The measure of a man is not how much he suffers in the test, but how he comes out at the end.”

“What he's really saying is: Please be a human being. With a life so full of rules and regiments, it's so easy to forget that's what they are. She knows—she sees—how often compassion takes a back seat to expediency.”

“Dead kids are put on pedestals, but mentally ill kids get hidden under the rug.”

“Hope can be bruised and battered. It can be forced underground and even rendered unconscious, but hope cannot be killed.”

“Once in a while our school has half days, and the teachers spend the afternoon 'in service,' which I think must be a group therapy for having to deal with us.”

“… the first sign of civilization is always trash.”

“I gotta go to the bathroom," Emby mumbles.
"You should have thought of that before you left," says Hayden, putting on his best mother voice. "How many times do we have to tell you? Always use the potty before climbing into a shipping crate.”

“No true hero ever believes that they are one.”

“Anger is only our friend when we know its caliber and how to aim it.”

“Hey," says Hayden, "I'm Switzerland; neutral as can be, and also with great chocolate."
"Get lost," Roland tells him.
"Already am." And Hayden strolls away.”

“The good thing about being explosive is that no one can beat you.”

“The woman wears a floral print blouse with lots of leaves and pink flowers. Risa would like to attack her with a weed whacker.”

“How do you judge the brightness of a light when you’re the source? A spotlight can never see the shadows it casts.”

“You never realize the holes a person leaves behind until you fall into them.”

“Which is worse, Risa often wondered, to have tens of thousands of babies that no one wanted or to silently make then go away before they were even born”

“How can you do the right thing when you can't figure out what that is? When all you have before you are choices in various shades of wrong?”

“How many kids are in the Graveyard?"
"A bunch."
"Who sends your supplies?"
"George Washington. Or is it Abraham Lincoln? I forget."
"How often do you receive new arrivals?"
"About as often as you beat your wife.”

“Cowards hide […] but warriors lie and wait […] the only difference is whether you're motivated by fear or purpose.”

“One cannot let the events of one's past murder one's future.”

“There's ordinary people out there doing extraordinary things.”

“Wars are often waged not because of what we believe, but because of the things we want others to believe.”

“The scariest thing of all is never knowing what you're suddenly going to believe.”

“Heaven might shine bright, but so do flames.”

“And he thinks that if his soul had a form, this is what it would be. A baby sleeping in his arms.”

“Connor smiles with mocking warmth at him, and glances at the tattoo on his wrist. "I like your dolphin.”

“It's amazing that something as simple as a kiss can overpower the worst of worries.”

“I'm Switzerland; neutral as can be, and also with great chocolate.”

“Would you rather die, or be unwound?”

“I'll never understand how a man can live his life
With his finger on the self-destruct button,
Holding it there day after day,
Blinded by an obsession to press it
But lacking the conviction to do even that.”

“… if more people had been organ donors, unwinding never would have happened… but people like to keep what's theirs, even after they're dead.”

“It holds no fear for her now, because the shark has been tamed by the soul of a boy. No--the soul of a man.”

“Monster only had the power that you gave them”

“Whether consciousness is implanted in us by something divine, or whether it is created by the efforts of our brains, the end result is the same. We are.”

“When you live a life without questions, you're unprepared for the questions when they come.”

“Your hair looks funny," Lief said, as soon as the Ugloids left. "It stands straight up!"
No," said Nick, intensely irritated, "It's hanging straight down."
Lief just gave him an upside-down shrug. "Up is down in China and you're part-Chinese.”

“Who says I'm insane?""

""Oh you're sane alright.
You're so sane, you scare me.
You're so sane, it's insane.”

“Tools are neither demonic nor divine. It’s all about who wields them.”

“She plays music to heal herself, but nothing can heal her brokenness.”

“Walls don't fall without effort.”

“I used to be afraid of dying. Now I’m afraid of not living. There’s a difference. We go through life planning for a future, but sometimes that future never comes.”