Quotes from Scott Westerfeld

It doesn't take much convincing to make someone believe they're better than everyone else.

The very idea of making shoes by hand boggled her mind.

Now,young lady,I suppose you're here for a work assignment. Work? Tally said. They both looked down at her puzzled expression, and Shay burst into laughter.

Frighteningly Beautiful, Dangerously Strong, Breathtakingly Fast. Face it Tally-wa you're special...

That letter was your whole future, you daft prince. It was my past. I lost that the night my parents died. But I found you, Deryn. Maybe I wasn't meant to end the war, but I was meant to find you. I know that. You've saved me from having any reason to keep going. We save each other. That's how it works.

He turned to face her again, his late-pretty composure crumbling. But you're... Pretty? Think again. She smiled. I'm Tally Youngbood. My mind is very ugly. And I'm taking your car.

Being pretty-minded is simply the natural state for most people. They want to be vapid and lazy and vain . . . and selfish. It only takes a twist to lock in that part of their personalities.

I expect that you must receive top marks at school, young lady. Madeleine smiled as she stirred her tea. There are always rewards for those who state the obvious frequently and with conviction.

And the worst thing was, there were no mirrors out there in the wild, so the princess was left wondering whether she in fact was still beautiful... or if the fall had changed the story completely.

Not everything made you stronger. It was possible to survive, yet still be crippled for your trouble. Sometimes it was okay to run away, to skip the test, to chicken out. Or at least to get some help.

Oh, this beast? It's...perspicacious loris. 'Perspicacious' meaning 'wise or canny'. Get stuffed, Bovril said, then giggled. And it insults people, Telsa said. How peculiar.

What did a happy ending even mean in real life, anyway? In stories you simply said, 'They lived happily ever after,' and that was it. But in real life people had to keep on living, day after day, year after year.

Come on, it's almost midnight. Let's go watch them cut the cake.

Out here, you find out that the city fools you about how things really work.

It's not the way Zane looks, David, she said, her voice trembling with anger. It's because he makes me bubbly, and because we took a lot of risks together. It could just as easily be me lying there, and he would stay with me if it was. It's just programming! No. It's because I love him.

humanity is a disease, a cancer on the body of the world.

You all say you need us. Well, maybe you do, but not to help, with the millions of bubbly new minds about to be unleashed, with all the cities coming awake at last. Together, you're more than enough to change the world without us. So from now on, David and I are here to stand in your way. You see, freedom has a way of destroying things.

Good books make you ask questions. Bad readers want everything answered.

Even mocking people helped their face stats. In the reputation economy, the only real way to hurt anyone was to ignore them completely. And it was pretty hard to ignore someone who made your blood boil.

Sometimes you can't choose what you love.

Tally sighed, tipping her feet again to follow. Maybe that's because they have better stuff to do than kid tricks. Maybe partying in town is better than hanging out in a bunch of old ruins. Shay's eyes flashed. 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 everyone else-maybe after going through all that you just aren't very interesting anymore.

Barking hard work, being a boy.

To everyone who loves a long-secret romance, revealed at last.

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.