Quotes from Lois Lowry

Now, seeing the newchild and its expression, he was reminded that the light eyes were not only a rarity but gave the one who had them a certain look—what was it? Depth, he decided; as if one were looking into the clear water of the river, down to the bottom, where things might lurk which hadn't been discovered yet.

For a contributing citizen to be released from the community was a final decision, a terrible punishment, an overwhelming statement of failure.

Boy, said Anastasia, you know what I wish? I wish that everybody who loved each other would die at exactly the same time. Then nobody would ever have to miss anyone. Well, said her father slowly, it just doesn't work that way. It just doesn't seem to work that way very often.

There are German soldiers on every corner.

Delwyth, Bethan, and Eira be their names—I midwifed each one, same year.

They sat silently for a moment.

The Willoughby parents frequently forgot that they had children and became quite irritable when they were reminded of it.

Back and back and back. Jonas repeated the familiar phrase. Sometimes it had seemed humorous to him. Sometimes it had seemed meaningful and important. Now it was ominous. It meant, he knew, that nothing could be changed.

Squalor has nothing to do with money. Squalor happens when people are sad. And

Trademaster, he said..... Who is he? Claire asked again. He is Evil. I don't know how else to describe it. He is Evil, and like all evil, he has enormous power. He tempts. He taunts. And he takes.

You can stand at the edge of the meadow and look across to Sweden!

He saw Forest and understood what Seer had meant. It was an illusion. It was a tangled knot of fears and deceits and dark struggles for power that had disguised itself and almost destroyed everything.

The books in his own dwelling were the only books that Jonas had ever seen. He had never known that other books existed. But this room's walls were completely covered by bookcases, filled, which reached to the ceiling. There must have been hundreds—perhaps thousands—of books, their titles embossed in shiny letters. Jonas stared at them. He couldn't imagine what the thousands of pages contained.

Then, in the same way that his own dwelling slipped away behind him as he rounded a corner on his bicycle, the dream slipped away from his thoughts. Very briefly, a little guiltily, he tried to grasp it back. But the feelings had disappeared. The Stirrings were gone.

Frie Danske

A teenage girl wrote that she had been considering suicide until she read The Giver.

JONAS DID NOT want to go back. He didn't want the memories, didn't want the honor, didn't want the wisdom, didn't want the pain. He wanted his childhood again, his scraped knees and ball games.

Fear dims when you learn things

In the Fen, iffen they give you something special, it be a kick in your buttie.

occasions of release which were not punishment. Release of the elderly, which was a time of celebration for a life well and fully lived; and release of a newchild, which always brought a sense of what-could-we-have-done.

Two children—one male, one female—to each family unit.

Alys told her that it was the way of women, to tote a newborn and then adjust as it grew until by the time the child was plump and heavy, the weight seemed naught.

This is the time, she began, looking directly at them, when we acknowledge differences. You Elevens have spent all your years till now learning to fit in, to standardize your behavior, to curb any impulse that might set you apart from the group. But today we honor your differences. They have determined your futures.

Artist?" Thomas suggested. "That's a word. I've never heard anyone say it, but I've read it in some of the books. It means, well, someone who is able to make something beautiful. Would that be the word?