Quotes from Scott Westerfeld

She was nothing in particular. But at least she had a purpose.

Sleep is a little slice of death.

Barking machines! Dylan exclaimed. Didn't I tell you? I've never seen a beastie that couldn't get up on its own. Well, except a turtle. And one of my auntie's cats. Alek raised an eyebrow. And I'm sure your auntie's cat would have survived that aerial bomb. You'd be surprised. He's quite fast.

She'd never have to cut herself again. She carries a knife inside herself now, one that was always cutting her. She could feel it every time she swallowed, every time her thoughts strayed.

I kissed him once, she whispered. Well done. What did he do? Um... Deryn sighed. He woke up.

There was something magic in their large perfect eyes, something that made you pay attention

I took a rant-sized breath.

She turned to Frizz. So you understand the problem? You can't let Tally know about Radical Honesty. There's no telling what she'll do if she finds out you could ruin her plans. Frizz's eyebrows rose. So let me get this straight, Aya-chan. You want me, a person who can't lie, to lie about the fact that I can't lie? We need another plan, Hiro said.

Nature can blow me.

This is the power of the Goliath, that no one on earth, Clanker or Darwinist, can escape. So we all must learn to share the globe, or perish together!

Maybe the natural world wasn't so jaw-droppingly horrible, appaling, nasty, vile. Sometimes nature could be quite sweet, really, as delicate as a confused and horny butterfly.

Anything more than friendship with her would destroy his chances of taking the throne. But every time one of them had fallen – in the snows of the Alps, in Istanbul, on the stormy topside, in that dusty canyon – the other had been there to pick them up. She couldn't imagine Alek leaving her for some daft crown and scepter.

Writers can live everywhere. It's our superpower.

Typographical laziness was slowly destroying our culture, according to Lexa and her pals. Inexactitude was death.

It's exciting. But you can't keep fighting the way things are forever.

God, you mean I lost my virginity to the apocalypse?!

Make a list of all the varieties of aliens you can come up with. (And if it's less than 3,000, then THE PEARS ARE LAUGHING AT YOU, MY FRIEND.) -Scott Westerfeld from NaNoWriMo Pep Talk.

Nature, at least, didn't need an operation to be beautiful. It just was.

He shook with another sob, sinking to one knee and realizing that the survival of that one ship – one girl, really – had been for a moment more important than the war itself, or a city's millions. Then the wind shifted, and Alek breathed in the burnt-meat smells that filled the room behind him. Important enough for him to kill a man, it seemed.

I would have killed him to save the Leviathan. To save you." He put his hands on her shoulders. "It was the only thing in my mind, when it came time to choose – that I couldn't lose you. That's when I knew.

But you know what? It's not my behavior I'm worried about anymore. It's yours.

So my foolhardiness has produced the correct strategy, Count?" "Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

The Shrink always warned me that carriers stay wracked with lifelong guilt. It's not an uplifting thing having turned lovers into monsters. We feel bad that we haven't turned into monsters ourselves--survivor's guilt, that's called. And we feel a bit stupid that we didn't notice our own symptoms earlier. I mean, I'd been sort of wondering why the Atkins diet was giving me night vision. But that hadn't seemed like something to worry about...

Sometimes the thoughts in my head get so bored they go out for a stroll through my mouth. This is rarely a good thing.