Quotes from Kenneth Oppel

I raised my hands, trying to shush her. Don't shush me, she said, eyes blazing. I hate being shushed.

Yes' is a very powerful word. It's like opening a door. It's like fanning a flame. It's the most powerful word in the world.

Honestly," she sighed, "I don't know what kind of life we'll have together, with me always flying off in one direction and you in the other." I smiled. "It's a good thing the world's round," I said.

I think good art should always be entertaining, or at least give pleasure of some sort. And my chief goal as a writer has always been to tell a good story and give my readers a good time.

The more I worked on 'Half Brother,' the more it seemed to me the story was really about love in all its possible forms - how and why we decide to bestow it, or withdraw it; how we decide what is more worthy of being loved, and what is less. We are masters of conditional love.

I wrote 'Airborn' after completing three books about bats. I loved my bats, but what a treat it was to write about humans again. They could eat food other than midges and mosquitoes, they wore clothing, they slept in beds - all this struck me as wonderfully novel.

One of the reasons I wrote 'Airborn' was that I'd fallen in love with the great passenger airships which flew in the '20s and '30s. Their time was short-lived. They were frail, they tended to crash; and they could never be as fast, safe and efficient as the airplanes that replaced them.

Flying into a storm, even its outer edges, did not seem like a good idea to me. And this was no ordinary tempest. Everyone on the bridge knew what it was: the Devil's Fist, a near-eternal typhoon that migrated about the North Indian basin year-round. She was infamous, and earned her name by striking airships out of the sky.

Realistically, the chance of any book becoming a film is slim.

His speech failed to rouse an enthusiastic cheer, but no one dared contradict him.

Everyone watched, wondering if this could be the same lunatic who'd nearly berthed his ornithopter in the restaurant. I swallowed, for it seemed he was headed straight for my table. He pulled off his helmet and a mass of dark auburn hair spilled out. Off came the goggles, and I was looking at the beaming face of Kate de Vries.

Here's all I know: that the world is uncontrollable. Chaos reigns. That anything and everything might be possible. I won't subscribe to any rational system again. Nothing will bind me.

I'm just trying to spare you hurt. Her love for Konrad is like the foundation of the earth." "The earth sometimes shifts.

I glanced over at him warily. "Don't start getting any ideas about her. The last time someone took a fancy to Kate, things went very badly for him." "What happened?" "He got shot." "You shot him?" "Well, no, but he did get shot.

I give you my wings.

No, indeed, 'pig' is very expressive. And an excellent description of a fellow who flirts with his brother's beloved.

I turned around and headed back to the stairwell, planning to go downstairs and buy a chocolate bar from the vending machine. Maybe it would fall on me and end my misery.

I had no idea there'd be so many Sherpas aboard!" exclaimed Miss Simpkins. "I'm not a Sherpa," Nadira said. "I'm a gypsy. " "Oh, my goodness!" said the chaperone.

If she can bite a vulture, she can jump a crack. ~Victor Frankenstein

A feeling is not a fact.

None of us gets to choose how we're born, it's what we make of ourselves afterwards.

We did it!" I said, feeling limp with relief. "It actually worked!" Dr. Turgenev rubbed his forehead. "I had very big doubts." "Big doubts?" I said weakly. The Russian scientist shrugged. "I am pessimist," he said.

Nadira gave Kate a long hard look. "Mr. Slater has the ship. Mr. Cruse has the coordinates. I have the key. What exactly do you have?" For the first time Kate looked flustered.

Beyond the lake, over the mountains, the clouds were illuminated from within by a brilliant stutter of lightning, and in that split second Elizabeth and I were etched against the sky.