Neal Shusterman Quotes

page 2

“He does not deserve this. He has done many things, not all good, but he does not deserve this. And he never did get his priest.”

“They signed the unwind order just to spite each other, but laugh, laugh, laugh, Hayden, because if you ever stop laughing, it might just tear you apart worse than a Chop Shop.”

“You have robbed me, and everyone here, of their purpose. That's not salvation, that's damnation.”

“You should never apologize for existing, Lev. Not even to all those people out there who wish you didn't.”

“Already Roland feels his limbs starting to go numb. He swallows hard.
"I hate this. I hate you. I hate all of you."
"I understand.”

“This book is so interesting. I always wonder what's going to happen next.”

“I think all mothers are alike, regardless of cultural background, when it comes to illogical cleaning.”

“Great tragedies have great consequences. They ripple through the fabric of this world and the next. When the loss is too great for either world to bear, Everlost absorbs the shock, like a cushion between the two.”

“Maybe we're standing like coins on the edge?"
Allie considered this. "Meaning?"
"Meaning, we might be able to shake things up a little, and find a way to come up heads."
"Or tails," suggested Allie.
"What are youabout?" said Lief.
"Life and death.”

“But now we've finally taken full possession of what is rightfully ours, because everyone must feel their own pain--and as awful as that is, it's also wonderful.”

“Beautiful is dangerous.”

“Respect doesn't come without a little resentment.”

“Small victories are bet­ter than none.”

“We'll never be ready. So I guess that means we're as ready as we'll ever be.”

“Love turns a heart to crystal… Much more valuable, but much more fragile.”

“They were the screams of riders torn apart by the twisted reflections of their own inner selves.”

“It's a curse to see all that might happen but never know what will.”

“… facts never prevent the ignorant from jerking their knees into the groin of science.”

“This game's stupid," said Lief. "Who the heck is Zelda, anyway?”

“Good in Crisis; Sucks at Normal.’ That about sums up my whole life, doesn’t it?”

“What can fingerprints mean when they’re not necessarily yours?”

“Incredible. It never ceases to amaze Starkey how far society will go to protect the children it loves and to discard the ones it doesn’t.”

“History is written by the victors--and when there is no victors, it all winds up in the corporate shredders.”

“They all think medicine should be magic, and they become mad at me when it's not.”

“Happiness is not a state of being. Happiness is a vector, it is movement.”

“Suddenly it was obvious to Connor why they don't teach it. Once education was restructured and corporatized, they didn't want kids knowing how close they came to toppling the government. They didn't want kids to know how much power they really had.”

“When you truly start to care about someone you become vulnerable to all sorts of things.”

“A pedestal is the most insidious prison ever devised.”

“The only thing you have for measuring what's real is your mind… so what happens when your mind becomes a pathological liar?”

“So," says Lev, as casually as he can, "you wanna dance?" "Do you believe in the end of the world?" she responds. Lev shrugs. "I don't know. Why?" "Because the day after that is when I'll dance with you.”

“Everything feels right with the world…
… and the sad thing is that I know it's a dream. I know it must soon end, and when it does I will be thrust awake into a place where either I'm broken, or the world is broken.”

“His life has been like a ballpark, hasn't it? All lines, structure, and rules, never changing. But now he's been hit over the wall into unknown territory.”

“Lord, if what I'm doing is wrong, then by all means strike me down. Otherwise set me free.”

“… survival is a dance between our needs and our consciences.”

“Love, Allie concluded, wasn't blind, it simply saw alternate dimensions.”

“I think all young women are cursed with a streak of unrelenting foolishness, and all young men are cursed with a streak of absolute stupidity.”

“Sometimes, Lev, I just want to smack you."
"You already hit him with a car.”

“This is not going to be easy. I'm good at being bad, but I'm bad at being good. I don't know the first thing about good deeds.”

“Hole…" He grips Risa's hand tighter. "Hole, Risa, hole…" And she smiles "Yes, Connor," she says. "You're whole. You're finally whole.”

“The thing was, if I had found a way to escape- even for just a little while- I knew the pain would be there waiting for me when I got back.”

“There are mysteries in Everlost. Some of them are wonderful, and others scary. They should all be explored, though- perhaps that's why we're here: to experience the good and the bad that Everlost has to offer.”

“It was at that moment he realized that his spirit was truly human once more. For he no longer remembered how to be alone without being lonely.”

“He's become like that briefcase in the ground-full of gems yet void of light, so nothing sparkles, nothing shines.”

“He also keeps his silence when Bible passages become shredded to justify unwinding, and kids start to see the face of God in the fragments.”

“What? Were you born stupid, or did you just die that way?”

“You may feel a tugging sensation near your ankles.”

“How can you pass laws about things that nobody knows?"
"They do it all the time," says Hayden. "That's what law is: educated guesses at right and wrong.”

“On a sunny Tuesday - for it seems so many awful things happen on a Tuesday - six astronauts and one schoolteacher attempted to pierce the sky. Instead they touched the stars.”

“I’ve never really defined myself by a single identity—and in these times where identity means so much, I sometimes feel like I’m a bit of an outsider to every identity. Perhaps that makes me uniquely suited to writing about teens, who often feel on the outside”