Scott Westerfeld Quotes

“Never give us what we really want. Cut the dream into pieces and scatter them like ashes. Dole out the empty promises. Package our aspirations and sell them to us, cheaply made enough to fall apart.”

“… I want those perfect eyes and lips, and for everyone to look at me and gasp. And for everyone who sees me to think Who's that? and want to get to know me, and listen to what I say."
"I'd rather have something to say.”

“That's how things were out here in the wild, she was learning. Dangerous or beautiful. Or both.”

“What you do, the way you think, makes you beautiful.”

“But it's always taking a risk, when you… kiss someone new.”

“Did you really think I was too fragile to know what Deryn was?"

"Fragile?" Volger looked about. "I hadn't thought so, but now I find you brooding in a bathroom. This doesn't speak well of your sturdiness.”

“Becoming pretty doesn't just change the way you look," she said. "No," David said. "It changes the way you think.”

“He turned to face her again, his late-pretty composure crumbling. "But you're…"

"Pretty? Think again." She smiled. "I'm Tally Youngbood. My mind is very ugly. And I'm taking your car.”

“Alek said, "Do you think I'm being a fool?"

"I think you're trying to do something good. But doing good is rarely easy, and no weapon has ever stopped a war.”

“But you weren't born expecting that kind of beauty in everyone, all the time. You just got programmed into thinking anything else is ugly.”

“And the worst thing was, there were no mirrors out there in the wild, so the princess was left wondering whether she in fact was still beautiful… or if the fall had changed the story completely.”

“The flowers were so beautiful, so delicate and unthreatening, but they choked everything around them.”

“Frighteningly Beautiful, Dangerously Strong, Breathtakingly Fast.
Face it Tally-wa you're special…”

“So, there was this beautiful princess.
She was locked in a high tower(…)She was stuck up there(…)So the only thing was to jump.”

“Your personality - the real you inside - was the price of beauty.”

“Sometimes you can’t choose what you love.”

“It's amazing how quickly nature consumes human places after we turn our backs on them. Life is a hungry thing.”

“The human heart is a strange vessel. Love and hatred can exist side by side.”

“You see, freedom has a way of destroying things.”

“Nature didn't need an operation to be beautiful. It just was.”

“Perhaps the logical conclusion of everyone looking the same is everyone thinking the same.”

“I guess sometimes you have to lie to find the truth.”

“Sometimes the facts in my head get bored and decide to take a walk in my mouth. Frequently this is a bad thing.”

“When she awoke, the world was on fire.”

“Shay sometimes talked in a mysterious way, like she was quoting the lyrics of some band no one else listened to.”

“I love you all. But it's time to say good-bye, for now.
be careful with the world, or the next time we meet, it might get ugly.
-Tally Youngblood”

“We're not freaks, Tally. We're normal. We may not be gorgeous, but at least we're not hyped-up Barbie dolls.”

“I don't want to hurt you but I will if I have too - Tally Youngblood”

“What happens when perfection isn't good enough?”

“Tally smiled. At least she was causing trouble to the end. "I'm Tally Youngblood," she said. "make me pretty.”

“Having a brain hurt so much sometimes.”

“I can’t imagine anything worse than being required to have fun.”

“The early summer sky was the color of cat vomit.”

“Everyone in the world was programmed by the place they were born, hemmed in by their beliefs, but you had to at leastto grow your own brain.”

“Maybe they didn't want you to realize that every civilization has its weakness. There's always one thing we depend on. And if someone takes it away all that's left is some story in a history class.”

“Her only way home was to betray her friend.”

“Maybe this was how you stayed sane in wartime: a handful of noble deeds amid the chaos.”

“Which was worse: a friend with brain damage, or one who despised you?”

“And over all those sleepy weeks, the dream always ended the same way, with the dragon coming for the princess saying the same words every time….
"Face it, Tally-wa, you're Special.”

“I spilled more times than a glass of milk on a roller coaster.”

“Their reasons don't mean anything unless I have a choice.”

“With everything so perfect, reality seemed somehow fragile, as if the slightest interruption could imperil her pretty future… all of it felt as tenuous as a soap bubble, shivering and empty.”

“It didn't matter what you looked like. It was how you carried yourself, how you saw yourself.”

“Sometimes, the hardest thing was doing
nothing.”

“Left alone, human beings are a plague. They multiply relentlessly, consuming every resource, destroying everything they touch.”

“Never bored on a hoverboard.”

“Do you love him?"
Deryn swallowed, then pointed at the screen. "He makes me feel like that. Like flying.”

“And a special thanks for not burning up the whole ship. Including yourself, you daft bum-rag.”

“Cure for writer's block: blow something up(in the story)”

“That Shay was in possesion of hand grenades was a comforting thought showed what kind of night this had become.”

“It's not the traveling that takes courage Tally. I've done much longer trips on my own. It's leaving home.”

“At least one thing was consistent about her life: It just kept on getting more complicated.”

“Let others wage war. You, lucky Austria, shall marry.”

“Why are you still wearing…?" Aya began. "Oh, that's not smart plastic? You're really an ugly?"
David rolled his eyes and Shay said quietly, "David's never had any surge at all. But I wouldn't use the word ugly… Tally might eat you.”

“your not alone, Tally. Don't pretend you are”

“you dont see me, now you do, but only if i want you to”

“In a world of extreme beauty, anyone normal is ugly.”

“Tally, do you ever suffer from sudden flashes of anger or euphoria, countersocial impulses, or feelings of superiority?”

“I'd watched too many schoolmates graduate into mental institutions, into group homes and jails, and I knew that locking people up was paranormal - against normal, not beside it. Locks didn't cure; they strangled.”

“Reality had no gears, and you never knew what surprises would come spinning out of its chaos.”

“Listen, you bubblehead-up-until-five-minutes-ago…”

“Have a little faith in me, Volger."
"I have great faith, tempered with vast annoyance.”

“High school wasn't a trial by fire or some ordeal that had to be survived. It was all a big joke. You just had to provide the laugh track.”

“Be careful with the world, or the next time we meet, it might get ugly.”

“Sometimes it felt like her life was a series of falls from ever-greater heights.”

“The very idea of making shoes by hand boggled her mind.”