Quotes from Scott Westerfeld

The difference between being a part-time writer and a full-time writer is like the difference between dating someone and living with them. Some of the romance is gone, but you learn things you'd never know just by dating.

Warning stickers on books would be a nightmare.

Maybe kissing is sort of like nature's coffee. -Jonathan

Nature was tough, it could be dangerous, but unlike Dr. Cable or shay, or peris-unlike people in general-it made sense. The problems it threw at you could be solved rationally.

It's amazing how quickly nature consumes human places after we turn our backs on them. Life is a hungry thing.

What happens when perfection isn't good enough?

Maybe they didn't want you to realize that every civilization has its weakness. There's always one thing we depend on. And if someone takes it away all that's left is some story in a history class.

It's not the traveling that takes courage Tally. I've done much longer trips on my own. It's leaving home.

Luckily for writers - and unluckily for history - every scientific idea creates human conflict.

I think any List of Best X creates arguments and people saying 'You listed that rubbish?' That's what lists like this are for.

That's how things were out here in the wild, she was learning. Dangerous or beautiful. Or both.

When the term 'machine gun' enters common parlance, the word 'machine' becomes much more sinister.

I have no formal training as a writer at all, not even a single English class in college.

With everything so perfect, reality seemed somehow fragile, as if the slightest interruption could imperil her pretty future... all of it felt as tenuous as a soap bubble, shivering and empty.

It's amazing how quickly nature consumes human places after we turn our backs on them. Life is a hungry thing.

Left alone, human beings are a plague. They multiply relentlessly, consuming every resource, destroying everything they touch.

It didn't matter what you looked like. It was how you carried yourself, how you saw yourself.

Sometimes, the hardest thing was doing nothing.

Barking spiders!

It's not the traveling that takes courage Tally. I've done much longer trips on my own. It's leaving home.

Your father always suspected that being pretty-minded is simply the natural state for most people. They want to be vapid and lazy and vain—Maddy glanced at Tally—and selfish. It only takes a twist to lock in that part of their personalities. He always thought that some people could think their way out of it.

Do you love him? Deryn swallowed, then pointed at the screen. He makes me feel like that. Like flying.

And a special thanks for not burning up the whole ship. Including yourself, you daft bum-rag.

Let me get this stright, Aya-Chan. You want me, a person who can't lie, to lie about the fact that I can't lie? -Frizz mizuno