Quotes from Scott Westerfeld

As one does a bear riding a bicycle. One sees it so rarely. (Spoken by Volger, on Deryn)

In a novel you always knew the moment when something Happened, when someone Changed. But real life was full of gradual, piecemeal, continuous transformation. It was full of accidents and undefineables, and things that just happened on their own. The only certainty was 'It's complicated,' whether or not unicorns tolerated your touch.

He chuckled, shaking his head. Man, you hunters. I break a pencil and there's hell to pay. I can see how that's deeply unfair, Chip. Especially if that pencil should try to kill you with it teeth and claws, or launch its brood of a thousand deadly paper clips against you.

She was a soldier, not some girl twisting her skirts at a village dance.

I'll tell him I astral-projected. Butt-head.

That's the worst thing they do to you, to any of you. Whatever those brain lesions are all about, the worst damage is done before they even pick up the knife: You're all brainwashed into believing you're ugly.

there was a beautiful princess with a prince kissing her lips only the prince was totally ugly

Making ourselves feel ugly is not fun. We are ugly.

Okay... That's still blind-making.

Sometimes Tally felt she could almost accept brain damage if it meant a life without reconstituted noodles.

Being fathomed was even better than being flattered, it turned out.

Wisdom tells me i'm nothing, love tells me I'm everything.

Keep challenging the gods

And what can we conclude from this lesson, Your Highness? Alek glared at the man. We can conclude, Count Volger, that discussing politics while fencing is idiotic.

Fuzzy Tally is no more.

I'm not the one going for a biology degree. I'm just a philosophy major who eats people.

You have a bad habit of listing anything that can go wrong, Volger. I have always considered that a good habit

You'd best ask the lady boffin, sir," Newkirk said. "Midshipmen aren't allowed to have opinions.

He squeezed her hand. Then I'll come get you, wherever you are when it happens. We'll be okay. But what about everybody else? He stared out across the river, nodding slowly. My guess is, everybody else is in big trouble.

Lace: Are you saying that your fat-ass cat has turned me into a vampire? Cal: Um, maybe?

This beauty would remain whether he was here to see it or not.

I make it a policy never to appear surprised - Dr Barlow

And here's what I realized: You Sly Girls don't cry when you watch the big-face parties on the feeds, just because you weren't invited. You don't stay friends with people you hate, just to bump your face rank. And even though nobody knows what you're doing out here, you don't feel invisible at all. Do you? No one answered, but they were listening. Fame is radically stupid, that's all. So I want to try something else.

Hoverboarding looks so fun, like being a bird. But actually doing it is hard work. Shay shrugged. Being a bird's probably hard work too. Flapping your wings all day, you know?