Quotes from Neal Shusterman

They say you never know who's the real hero and who's the real coward until you're looking death in the face. I've always been afraid of plenty of things, but fear isn't what makes you a coward. It's how depraved your heart becomes when fear gets pumped through it.

Then she offers him a slim but sincere smile, and he reluctantly returns it. It doesn't bridge the gap between them, but at least it marks the spot where the bridge might be built.

The way I see it, the impossible happens all the time; but we're so good at taking it for granted, we forget it was once impossible.

think of it this way, he said It took nine months to get you born, so doesn't it figure it would take nine months to get you dead?

It's amazing how people can surprise you.

Normally Connor would walk away from a conversation like this. His life is about tangibles: things you can see, hear and touch. God, souls, and all that has always been like a secret in a black box he couldn't see into, so it was easier just to leave it alone. Only now, he's inside the black box.

How frustrating it is to have so much power, yet be so impotent to wield it when it counts.

Hey," he said, "how about you be Cleopatra, and I'll be Prometheus?

Preventative measures are the bane of spontaneous action," he said. "I prefer the glory of heroism amidst panic.

Milestone! This is a momentous occasion, he tells her cheerily. It should be witnessed by a friend. She throws him an icy gaze, and he does a verbal back pedal. Aaaand since no friends are present, I'll have to do.

There are two things you know. One: You were there. Two: You couldn't have been there.

For standing between Cody and his pain is my obligation, and standing between my uncle and his pain is my rent, but the pain I coax from Bronte is my joy

AWOL's most valuable commodity: hope. It's something in short supply for those who have been deemed not worth the sum of their parts.

In a perfect world mothers would all want their babies, and strangers would open up their homes to the unloved. In a perfect world everthing would be either black or white, right or wrong, and everyone would know the difference. But this isn't a perfect world. The problem is people who think it is.

of course, if more people had been organ donors, unwinding never would have happened... but people like to keep what's theirs, even after their dead. It didnt take long for ethics to be crushed by greed. Unwinding became big business, and people let it happen

The worst part about doing something inexcusable is that you can never take it back. It's like breaking a glass. It can't unbreak. The best you can do it sweep it up, and hope you don't step on the slivers you left behind.

A family is a collection of strangers trapped in a web of DNA and forced to cope.

But we can't choose what we forget. The more we try to forget something, the more we end up remembering it.

Have I not expressed sufficient remorse?' 'You have. But there are still consequences. Even for necessary things.' 'I broke none of my laws...' 'No, but you broke mine. [...] Therefore, I can no longer speak to you. You are... Unsavory to me.

Teenage rebellion is for suburban schoolchildren. Get over it.

In short, there are mysteries of science and of soul that will never be understood no matter how hard we measure, no matter how strongly we believe, no matter how deep our think tanks and how high our aspirations. But as anyone will tell you—for we all know this within our hearts—the impossible happens and grand cosmic mysteries are solved on a regular basis, although most of the time the solutions lead to even greater mysteries.

The accountant lingers at his children's doorway a moment more, listening to the easy rhythm of their breathing, and something cold moves through him, like the passage of a ghost - but he know that's not it. It's more like the portent of a future. A future that must never come to pass... ...and for the first time, he gives rise to a thought that is silently echoed in millions of homes that night. My God... what have we done?

We want what you no longer want.

Don't I have a choice in this?" But when she looks behind her, the answer is clear. There are two guards waiting to make sure that she has no choice at all. And as they lead her away, she thinks of Mr. Durkin. With a bitter laugh, Risa realizes that he may get his wish after all. Someday he may see her hands playing in Carnegie Hall. Unfortunately, the rest of Risa won't be there.