“Never become what they made you. Be different, be better.”

“For lovers, touch is metamorphosis. All the parts of their bodies seem to change, and they seem to become something different and better.”

John Cheever (1912–1982) American novelist and short story writer

“You aren’t really jumping through time, that’s the illusion; what you’re actually doing is leaving one timestream and jumping to—maybe even creating—another. The second one is identical to the one you just left, including all of the changes you made in it—up to the instant of your appearance. At that moment, simply by the fact of your existence in it, the second timestream becomes a different timestream. You are the difference.”

David Gerrold book The Man Who Folded Himself

“the past only had whatever power you gave it; life was what you made it and if you wanted something different from what you had, it was up to you to make it happen.”

Sara Zarr (1970) American children's writer

“If you vilify someone for what they are, rather than what they do, you're no different and no better than anyone wearing an armband or a white sheet over their head.”

Bill Whittle (1959) author, director, screenwriter, editor

“Events conspired to bring you back to where you'd been. It was what you did then that made all the difference: it was all about potential.”

Sarah Dessen book The Truth About Forever

“Things are always different than what they might be… If you wait for them to change, you will never do anything.”

Henry James book The Portrait of a Lady

“If you want things to be different, perhaps the answer is to become different yourself.”

Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American writer

“In my books I have lifted bits from various religions in trying to come to a better understanding; I've made use of religious themes and symbols. Now, as the world becomes more pagan, one has to lead people in the same direction in a different way.”

Patrick White (1912–1990) English-born Australian writer

“Query: How does the never to be differ from what never was?”

Cormac McCarthy book The Road