Quotes from Scott Westerfeld

Ignorance doesn't lead to salvation, nor does knowledge pave the way to sin. - Cinda Williams Chima

David's never had any surge at all. But I wouldn't use the word ugly—Tally might eat you.

The stitches in my forehead itched, loud noises made me jump, and I'd been wearing the same socks for three days in a row. Everyone

I stayed against the back wall, as far away as I could get. Not just to stay away from the Plague Lady but to be farther away from the weird old dolls that lined the shelves of her office. Real-looking hair sprouted from their crumbling heads and all their faces were painted with smiles. Kids in the old days must have loved nightmares or something.

When a single nation's armies are ordered against each other, all is lost.

I'm sick of the rules and boundaries. The last thing I want is to become some empty-headed new pretty, having one big party all day.

There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.

Face it, Tally-wa, you're Special.

Some history clique had applied averaging software to the world's great spiritual books, then programmed it to spit out godlike decrees. For some reason, the software had told them not to eat pigs.

One faces the future with one's past. —Pearl S. Buck

Tally's journey from ugly to pretty to special and then out the other side is not just a physical journey. It's also a journey through language, as Tally takes on the slang of her various new cliques and then slowly comes to realize that when your body keeps changing, sometimes the way you speak is the only piece of you that you can hold on to.

The exposure effect is also good news for those of us who weren't born gorgeous. It means that the people who know us best—our parents and children, our best friends and true loves—ultimately 'forget' what we look like. How symmetrical or clear-skinned we are disappears into the experiences we've shared with someone.

I don't want to be ugly all my life. I want those perfect eyes and lips, and for everyone to look at me and gasp. And for everyone who sees me to think Who's that? and want to get to know me, and listen to what I say." "I'd rather have something to say.

Well, well, imperfect gods." Tally allowed herself a chuckle. "What would your father say, Andrew?" He shook his head. "I am not sure. But he isn't here. I am the holy man now.

It's wrong to live in nature, unless you want to live like an animal.

Never happens. I've spilled more times than a glass of milk on a roller coaster.

If a tree falls and nobody's watching, then it doesn't make a sound

One faces the future with one's past.

Along its raw dirt floor, puddles of afternoon rain reflected the starlit sky, like jagged slivers of mirror.

and kisses are a better fate than wisdom —e. e. cummings, "since feeling is first

The dangers of life are infinite, and among them is safety.

Während Alek zuschaute, begriff er, wie primitiv er das Gerät benutzt hatte, so wie eine Katze, die Klavier spielt.

Their reasons don't mean anything unless I have a choice

My compliments, Alek said slowly and evenly. Your contempt was most convincing. I am your servant.