Scott Westerfeld citations

Page 3

“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.”

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

“Now, young lady, I suppose you're here for a work assignment."
Work?" Tally said.
They both looked down at her puzzled expression, and Shay burst into laughter.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“The world needed more fireworks- especially now that there was going to be a shortage of beautiful, useless things.”

“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.”