Quotes from Lois Lowry

Over and over. They be making me remember everythings. Me old songs, they just be natural. But now they be stuffing new things into me and this poor head hurts horrid.

Henry glared at Anastasia. 'You quit planning on a rich husband, Anastasia. You're gonna get rich on your own. You and me, if we want husbands, fine. But we won't need them. Like our mothers. My mom could do just fine being a waitress, and your mom could do just fine being an artist. They got husbands 'cos they want them. That Bambie, now maybe she'll need a husband. But not you and me. Got it?

Frequently the new ones were damaged. They hobbled on canes or were ill. Sometimes they were disfigured by wounds or simply because they had been born that way. Some were orphans. All of them were welcomed.

I left home at the correct time but when I was riding along near the hatchery, the crew was separating some salmon, I guess I just got distraught, watching them.

It was simply a marking of time with no meaningful changes.

No one had told her what "birth" meant.

Odd, she thought of him as her friend though in truth they had shared only one brief conversation.

That day had changed him. It had changed the entire village. Shaken by the death of a boy they had loved, each person had found ways to be more worthy of the sacrifice he had made. They had become kinder, more careful, more attentive to one another.

It sure doesn't take long to start to love a kid.

Dying is a very solitary thing. The only thing we can do it be there when she wants us there.

The guardians with their stern faces had no creative power. But they had strength and cunning, and they had found a way to steal and harness other people's powers for their own needs. They were forcing the children to describe the future they wanted, not the one that could be.

I cannot but remember such things were, That were most precious to me.

Although he had through the memories learned about the pain of loss and loneliness, now he gained too, an understanding of solitude and its joy.

His thoughts seemed to be elsewhere, and his eyes were very troubled.

It was my journey and i had to do it without help. I had to find my own strengths, face my own fears.

The next morning, for the first time, Jonas did not take his pill. Something within him, something that had grown there through the memories, told him to throw the pill away.

No one mentioned such things; it was not a rule, but was considered rude to call attention to things that were unsettling or different about individuals.

Be one of many. Be sure that they never have reason to remember your face.

He had waited a long time for this special December. Now that it was almost upon him, he wasn't frightened, but he was . . . eager, he decided. He was eager for it to come. And he was excited, certainly. All of the Elevens were excited about the event that would be coming so soon.

Oh the weather outside is frightful...

Why do you and I have to hold these memories?' 'It gives us wisdom.

I have great honor. So will you. But you will find that that is not the same as power.

But his mother laughed again in a reassuring, affectionate way. "No, no," she said. "It's just the pills. You're ready for the pills, that's all. That's the treatment for Stirrings.

We thank you for your childhood.