Scott Westerfeld Quotes

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“It doesn't take much convincing to make someone believe they're better than everyone else.”

“I expect that you must receive top marks at school, young lady."
Madeleine smiled as she stirred her tea. "There are always rewards for those who state the obvious frequently and with conviction.”

“Being pretty-minded is simply the natural state for most people. Theyto be vapid and lazy and vain… and selfish. It only takes a twist to lock in that part of their personalities.”

“Oh, this beast? It's… perspicacious loris. 'Perspicacious' meaning 'wise or canny'."
"Get stuffed," Bovril said, then giggled.
"And it insults people," Telsa said. "How peculiar.”

“Come on, it's almost midnight. Let's go watch them cut the cake.”

“Not everything made you stronger. It was possible to survive, yet still be crippled for your trouble. Sometimes it was okay to run away, to skip the test, to chicken out. Or at least to get some help.”

“What did a happy ending even mean in real life, anyway? In stories you simply said, 'They lived happily ever after,' and that was it. But in real life people had to keep on living, day after day, year after year.”

“Out here, you find out that the city fools you about how things really work.”

“Barking hard work, being a boy.”

“I’m not against thinking; I’m only against thinking that thinking on its own will get you out of a hole. Shovel also needed.”

“Even mocking people helped their face stats. In the reputation economy, the only real way to hurt anyone was to ignore them completely. And it was pretty hard to ignore someone who made your blood boil.”

“you just took on five million years of evolution again”

“Even bloody and bruised, he had an odd sort of swagger, as if he crash-landed in giant air ships every day.”

“Good books make you ask questions. Bad readers want everything answered.”

“To everyone who loves a long-secret romance, revealed at last.”

“Emperors are vain and useless things.”

“The lie took form as she spoke, pulling on as many strands of truth as it could reach.”

“He makes me feel like that. Like flying.”

“Doing what you're supposed to do is always boring. I can't imagine anything worse than being required to have fun.”

“There was a species of middle pretty who smiled at everything: happy smile, disappointed smile, you're-in-trouble smile.”

“She smiled, turning toward Alek. "You don't know what a friend you have in Dylan.”

“You can't blame a match for a house made of straw”

“You young things are too easily persuaded by the touch of lips.”

“Most men's awareness doesn't extend past their dinner plates.”

“My name is tally youngblood and my mind is very ugly”

“Wow," came a familiar voice, "Hypochondriac killed the cat."
-Dess”

“People only worry about the uncanny for about a week; that's the end of their attention span. After that, suspicions turn into shtick.”

“Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.”

“You'd think that in a fight, NOT MOVING would be a bad habit!”

“The early summer sky was the color of cat vomit. Of course, Tally thought, you’d have to feed your cat only salmon-flavored cat food for a while, to get the pinks right.”

“Fifteen!" Dess's distant cry reached him. "Where the hell are you, Rex? Ten. You're-an-idiot-nine, get-back-here-eight, you-dimwit-seven…”

“Gravity was something you could beat; all it took was hydrogen, hot air, or even a bit of rope. But being a girl was a miserable, never-ending struggle.”

“The man was allergic to sleep.”

“I love my virginity to the apocalypse.”

“Maybe kissing is sort of like nature's coffee.
-Jonathan”

“What if destiny doesn't care?”

“She thought of the orchids spreading across the plains below, choking the life out of other plants, out of the soil itself, selfish and unstoppable. Tally Youngblood was a weed. And, unlike the orchids, she wasn't even a pretty one.”

“Apparently textbooks were an endangered species here in Bixby, Oklahoma.”

“She carried a knife inside of herself now, one that was always cutting her. She could feel it every time she swallowed, every time her thoughts strayed from the splendor of the wild.”

“they walked with a pedatory grace…. one of them ripped off their hood and said, "my name is Tally Youngblood and is a special circumstance"….”

“And you know, these things don't last forever.'

I know, Mandy. Nothing does.'

That's the spirit.”

“It's just programming"
"No. It's because I love him”

“I go where the lizards tell me.”

“Nature was tough, it could be dangerous, but unlike Dr. Cable or shay, or peris-unlike people in general-it made sense. The problems it threw at you could be solved rationally.”

“All that glitters is not hovery.”

“Suddenly a pair of searchlights lanced out from the frigate. They swept across the dark expanse - bright knives slicing the night into pieces.”

“However stupid the choice seemed, Shay had made it with her eyes open, and had respected Tally's choice to stay.”

“It's just been a long week, that's all."
"It's monday night, Jess."
"My point exactly.”

“So what are those balloons for? In case you fall off your hoverboard?' -- Tally to Peris”