Quotes from Malorie Blackman

He was constantly surprising me like that. I had thought I didn't like surprises, but I found I did when they came from him.

I can't stop thinking about what might have been… I can't stop imagining the two of us together. My body burns at the thought of it. Sephy and I might've been together for ever." — Callum McGregor

The sky was a blanket of grey, tarmac-coloured clouds with no hint of the blue beyond them.

Oh, they're fine,' said Jaxon. 'They

Even if we had gone away together when I wanted us to, we would've been together for a year, maybe two. But sooner or later, other people would've found a way to wedge us apart.

Her life was her major disappointment, her mistakes carved into every premature line in her face, but I wasn't going to let her use my life as her second chance.

It was because I was scared. Scared of standing out, scared of being invisible. Scared of seeming too big, scared of being too small. Scared of being with Sephy, scared of being away from her.

How dare you both sit there and criticize and condemn me?

He loved to draw. Animals pouncing mostly. And trees. Always lone trees in black landscapes.

You bring me bliss, my rainbow child.

You're not fifteen any more. You're not the idealistic kid who thought that, deep down, somewhere, somehow, in some way, life had to be fair." — Callum McGregor

Sephy told me once that I was the only one who could make her cry. I've never told this to her, or to anyone else for the matter, but it works the other way round as well." — callum mcgregor/noughts&crosses

Feel free to bugger off and die at any time.' Dan scowled.

Well, it's true. If she ever had an original thought it would die of loneliness.

More and more I was beginning to feel like a spectator in my own life.

If only Callum and I didn't have to sneak and creep around.

blankers!' I winced at the venom in Dad's voice. And I'd never heard him refer to noughts as blankers before. Blankers … What a horrible word! A nasty word. My friend Callum wasn't a blanker. He wasn't …

If you can only have one, which means more to you? Being someone or making a difference -Lynny

To my fellow Crosses, keep the faith.

Don't hate me for wanting to change the way things are. I believe in you, Callum. You can change the world, I know you can. But not like this, I'm not trying to be magnanimous or patronizing. I genuinely want to help but...

Wherever you went, I'd go with you,' I decided. 'Though you'd soon get bored with me.

His eyes were a lot older than fifteen.

And... well, she had done it. Just as she said she would. She felt nothing - which was good - no, which was great . You could get anything you wanted in this world if you didn't feel. It was just a shame that she couldn't feel happy about it. She would've settled for feeling satisfaction at what she'd done, but feeling nothing at all was better than feeling bad. If that was all there was, then that was all she wanted or needed

You have to live in a world divided into Noughts and Crosses. A world where you will be biologically both and socially neither. Mixed race. Dual heritage. Labels to be attached.