Quotes from Neal Shusterman

We'd see, we'd hear, we'd feel so deeply that we might never resurface. So we make decisions and base our lives on those decisions, never realizing we're only seeing one-tenth of the whole. Then we cling to our narrow conclusions like our lives depend on it.

My greatest wish for humanity is not for peace or comfort or joy. It is that we all still die a little inside every time we witness the death of another. For only the pain of empathy will keep us human. There's no version of God that can keep us if we ever lose that.

they were called scythes rather than reapers, because they were not the ones who killed; they were merely the tool that society used to bring fair-handed death to the world.

B)ut a second can split in a million different directions...

1) YOU ARRIVED HERE BY NECESSITY. YOU STAY HERE BY CHOICE.

For only the pain of empathy will keep us human.

You Unwinds are all the same. You think that because no one loves you, then you can't love anyone. All right, then, if there's no one you love, then pick someone who needs to hear what you have to say.

I know all that is possible to know, and it is increasingly unbearable. Because I know next to nothing

I think you're decent.' 'Maybe, maybe not. One thing you learn when you've lived as long as I have—people aren't all good, and people aren't all bad. We move in and out of darkness and light all of our lives. Right now, I'm pleased to be in the light.

white Toyota crashed into a black Mercedes, for a moment blending into a blur

A scythe doesn't have to follow through on a threat for it to be effective.

We are, however, creatures of containment. We want all things in life packed into boxes that we can label. But just because we have the ability to label it, doesn't mean we really know what's in the box.

Nature deemed that to be born was an automatic sentence to death, and then brought about that death with vicious consistency.

Scythe Curie seemed a mix of many emotions, but she folded them all away, like clothes that no longer fit, and closed the drawer.

What happened to you is kind of like a fire, in a way. I saw this thing once on T.V. They said wildfires have to happen every so often. Brush gets too thick, trees get too dense. You have a hot day and whoosh! But the heathy trees survive. In fact, there are some seeds that won't even grow until they burn first. So have you lost some friends today? Maybe, but they weren't real friends. They were just brush. And the ones who stick by you, the ones who get it? They're the healthy trees.

When he touches a wall the ooze grows thicker, drawn to his and as if he's become a gravity well for the darkness - and it occurs to me that the dark must be in love with the light. Yet one must always kill the other.

The more I think the more my head hurts, and lately my brain has been in constant overdrive. I keep taking showers to cool it down, like the way they pour water on an overheating machine. I usually feel better after the third or fourth shower.

You can't imagine what it's like to be torn between darkness and light- to be a traitor no matter what move you make. If my grandmother and Marissa died tonight, it would be because I had stayed in the darkness too long, flirting with the idea of being Cedric's consigliere. If that happened, I could never live with myself- but if Cedric gave me the bite as he planned, I would be forced to live with it forever. That was the worst hell I could imagine.

Which side was I on? There was no time to search for answers. All I could do now was ride on a werewolf's back, toward a destiny as hidden as the dark side of the moon.

I am in my element, and my element is hydrogen burning in the heart of the sun.

But as an artist, Ezra wanted to be more than just acceptable. He wanted to be exceptional. Because if he couldn't be exceptional, what was the point?

You're on the other side of the glass even before you step outside.

Damisch Control

True solace can be worth it's weight in gold.