Quotes from Scott Westerfeld

Or maybe when they do the operation - when they grind and stretch your bones to the right shape, peel off your face and rub all your skin away, and stick in plastic cheekbones so you look like everybody else - maybe after going through all that you just aren't very interesting anymore.

Pretty? Think again." She smiled. "I'm Tally Youngblood. My mind is very ugly. And I'm taking your car.

We're too busy being special.

But having a brain hurt so much sometimes.

I've always thought that science and fiction writing have a lot in common because they're both about modeling reality.

Necessity is the mother of invention

And even though her journal was just random sentences, she did spin stories in my head. The sound of her voice made dreams happen.

The world's beauty hurt like razors, and Tally knew she'd never have to cut herself again. She carried a knife inside herself now, one that was always cutting her.

The beauty of the world . . . has two edges, one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder. —Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own

I knew what she was asking, of course. I'd been asking it myself a moment before. But I wasn't sure how you went from dreams to reality without the magic leaking out - or becoming too wild and powerful.

I wonder if she ever wants to trade lives with me, if only for the chance to punch something.

Todo el mundo estaba condicionado por el lugar donde nacía, confinado por sus propias creencias, pero al menos había que intentar que la mente se desarrollara más allá de dichos límites. De lo contrario, era como su uno viviera en una reserva, adorando a un puñado de falsos dioses.

She squeezes my hand, and I feel that certainty I always had as a littlie. That I'm more than expendable. More than a body double.

Yeah, you should have seen your face. Actually, I should have seen your face. Stupid sneak suits.

My protag likes to play with matches. Then she finds out she doesn't need the matches.' I would totally totally TBR that, Sagan said.

I wouldn't have it any other way.

It perplexes me how many people write books where everyone comes from the same basic set of backgrounds—middle class, white, straight, etc. It's like writing a book set in a world without coincidences, accidents, and colors. WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT? It reduces drama and conflicts and narrows the possible variety of points of view. And really, the whole magic of books is to show us the world through someone else's eyes. Experiencing the Other is what novels are for.

Would the hydrogen catch fire? Alek grasped the edge of the window, hardly feeling the broken glass against his palms. "Deryn" he sobbed. Anything but this.

Una franja en la que se mezclaban el naranja y el amarillo prendía fuego al cielo, espléndida e inesperada, tan espectacular como los fuegos artificiales, aunque cambiaba a un ritmo majestuoso y apenas perceptible. Tally estaba descubriendo que así era la naturaleza. Peligrosa o bella. O ambas cosas a la vez.

getting what you wanted never turned out the way you'd thought it would.

Maybe they didn't want you to realize that every civilization has its weakness. There's always one thing we depend on.

He took his own saber by the blade and handed it to Alek, pommel first, as if offering it to a victor.

Don't. Shoot. The air is full of hydrogen!

That was the trick - to keep punching, no matter what.