Lois Lowry citations

“It was almost December, and Jonas was beginning to be frightened.”

“And they are beginning to realize that the world they live in is a place where the right thing is often hard, sometimes dangerous, and frequently unpopular.”

“For all for children
To whom we entrust the future”

“The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It's the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared.”

“Memory is the happiness of being alone.”

“If you were to be lost in the river, Jonas, your memories would not be lost with you. Memories are forever.”

“Even trained for years as they all had been in precision of language, what words could you use which would give another the experience of sunshine?”

“I knew that there had been times in the past-terrible times-when people had destroyed others in haste, in fear, and had brought about their own destruction”

“It is very risky. But each time a child opens a book, he pushes open the gate that separates him from Elsewhere.”

“We gained control of many things. But we had to let go of others.”

“For the first time, he heard something that he knew to be music. He heard people singing. Behind him, across vast distances of space and time, from the place he had left, he thought he heard music too. But perhaps, it was only an echo.”

“It's the choosing that's important, isn't it?”

“Of course they needed to care. It was the meaning of everything.”

“It is much easier to be brave if you do not know everything.”

“I feel sorry for anyone who is in a place where he feels strange and stupid.”

“The life where nothing was ever unexpected. Or inconvenient. Or unusual. The life without colour, pain or past.”

“They were satisfied with their lives which had none of the vibrance his own was taking on. And he was angry at himself, that he could not change that for them.”

“He wept, and it felt as if the tears were cleansing him, as if his body needed to empty itself.”

“Teasing's part of the fun that comes before kissing”

“There is something about that moment, when literature becomes accessible, and a door of the world opens.”

“Gabe?"
The newchild stirred slightly in his sleep. Jonas looked over at him.
"There could be love", Jonas whispered.”

“Today is declared an unscheduled holiday.”

“Ellen had said that her mother was afraid of the ocean, that it was too cold and too big. The sky was, too, thought Annemarie. The whole world was: too cold, too big. And too cruel.”

“If everything's the same, then there aren't any choices! I want to wake up in the morning and decide things!”

“Behind him, across vast distances of space and time, from the place he had left, he thought he heard music too. But perhaps it was only an echo.”

“You may lie.”

“He knew that there was no quick comfort for emotions like those. They were deeper and they did not need to be told. They were felt.”

“I don't know what you mean when you say 'the whole world' or 'generations before him.'I thought there was only us. I thought there was only now.”

“He hunched his shoulders and tried to make himself smaller in the seat. He wanted to disappear, to fade away, not to exist.”