Quotes from Neal Shusterman

Conner Lassiter. Scheduled to be unwound the 21st of November-until you went AWOL. You caused an accident that killed a bus driver, left dozens of others injured, and shut down an interstate highway for hours. Then, on top of it, you took a hostage AND shot a Juvey-cop with his own tranq gun. ...He's the Akron AWOL?!

How many kids are in the Graveyard? A bunch. Who sends your supplies? George Washington. Or is it Abraham Lincoln? I forget. How often do you receive new arrivals? About as often as you beat your wife.

How can you do the right thing when you can't figure out what that is? When all you have before you are choices in various shades of wrong?

Outside the rain finally began to fall, surging in fits and starts. "I love the way it rains here," he told her. "It reminds me that some forces of nature can never be entirely subdued. They are eternal, which is a far better thing to be than immortal.

Which is worse, Risa often wondered, to have tens of thousands of babies that no one wanted or to silently make then go away before they were even born

If your heart tells you something but your mind tells you something else, which do you believe? Both are just as apt to lie. In fact, they play at deceit all the time. Mostly they balance each other, giving us that crucial reality check. But what happens on the rare occasions when they conspire together?

There's ordinary people out there doing extraordinary things.

Fine, Connor tells him. Think about stuff until your head explodes. But the only thing I want to think about is surviving to eighteen. I find your shallowness both refreshing and disappointing at the same time. Do you think that means I need therapy?

Forget solar energy—if you could harness denial, it would power the world for generations.

How ironic, then, and how poetic, that humankind may have created the Creator out of want for one. Man creates God, who then creates man. Is that not the perfect circle of life? But then, if that turns out to be the case, who is created in whose image?

We never know what choices will lead to defining moments in our lives. A glance to the left instead of right could define who we meet and who passes us by. Our life path can be determined by a single phone call we make, or neglect to make.

Wars are often waged not because of what we believe, but because of the things we want others to believe.

One cannot let the events of one's past murder one's future.

Cowards hide [...] but warriors lie and wait [...] the only difference is whether you're motivated by fear or purpose.

You never realize the holes a person leaves behind until you fall into them.

A successful lie is not fueled by the liar; it is fueled by the willingness of the listener to believe. You can't expose a lie without first shattering the will to believe it.

In time, all storms settle to a pleasant breeze.

Heaven might shine bright, but so do flames.

The only thing you have for measuring what's real is your mind . . . so what happens when your mind becomes a pathological liar?

Tools are neither demonic nor divine. It's all about who wields them.

Therin lies the paradox of the profession,' Faraday said. 'Those who wish to have the job should not have it...and those who would most refuse to kill are the only ones who should.

You think you want to know the secrets of the universe. You think you want to see the way things all fit together. You believe in your heart of hearts that enlightenment will save the world and set you free. Maybe it will. But the path to enlightenment is rarely a pleasant one.

And you know the darkness beyond despair, just as intimately as you know the soaring heights. Because in this and all universes, there is balance. You can't have the one without facing the other. And sometimes you think you can take it because the joy is worth the despair, and sometimes you know you can't take it and how did you ever think you could?

I'm Switzerland; neutral as can be, and also with great chocolate.