Quotes from Lois Lowry

Sad parts are important. If I ever get to train a new young dreamgiver, that's one of the things I'll teach: that you must include the sad parts, because they are part of the story, and they have to be part of the dreams. ? Gossamer

and she asked to be released.

He relit the extinguished candle.

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.

The life where nothing was ever unexpected

All of it-all the things they had thought through so meticulously- fell apart

Because change begets change.

They were forcing the children to describe the future they wanted, not the one that could be.

What if they were allowed to choose their own mate? And chose wrong? "Or what if," he went on, almost laughing at the absurdity, "they chose their own jobs?" "Frightening, isn't it?" The Giver said. Jonas chuckled. "Very frightening.

WAS ALMOST December, and Jonas was beginning to be frightened. No. Wrong word, Jonas thought. Frightened meant that deep, sickening feeling of something terrible

Together the fugitives slept though the first dangerous day.

Things will be sacrificed; people will suffer. That is the way life works when we are human.

I will take care of that, sir. I will take care of that, sir, Jonas mimicked in a cruel, sarcastic voice. I will do whatever you like, sir. I will kill people, sir. Old people? Small new born people? I'd be happy to kill them, sir. Thank you for your instructions, sir. How may I help y- He couldn't seem to stop.

It was one more time, Annemarie realized, when they protected one another by not telling.

Jonas looked down through the dusk at the little head against his chest. Gabriel's curly hair was matted and filthy, and there were tearstains outlined in dirt on his pale cheeks. His eyes were closed. As Jonas watched, a snowflake drifted down and was caught briefly for a moment's sparkle in the tiny fluttering eyelashes.

But the bicycle stopped. It would not move. He got off and let it drop sideways into the snow. For a moment he thought how easy it would be to drop beside it himself, to let himself and Gabriel slide into the softness of snow, the darkness of night, the warm comfort of sleep.

What is in here?" he asked loudly.

I cooked for him like a wife and washed his clothes and was a wife in other ways too terrible to mention.

The reader brings his or her own history and beliefs and concerns, and reads in solitude, creating each scene from his own imagination as he does.

Things could change Gabe. Things could be different. I don't know how, but there must be some way for things to be different. There could be colors. And grandparents. And everybody would have memories. You know about memories...Gabe, there could be love.

still clutched Ellen's necklace. She looked down, and saw that she had imprinted

Fear was always a part of life for the people. Because of fear, they made shelter and found food and grew things. For the same reason, weapons were stored, waiting. There was fear of cold, of sickness and hunger.

And the nakedness, too. It was against the rules for children or adults to look at another's nakedness; but the rule did not apply to newchildren or the Old.

It was a question she did not want to be asked. When she asked it of herself, she didn't like her own answer.