Quotes from Neal Shusterman

Ice layered the marble steps leading up to the Capitol, making the stairs treacherous. More than one scythe slipped, spraining an ankle or breaking an arm.

This Porsche was a gift from an antique car dealer," Scythe Curie explained to her. "He wanted immunity?" Citra asked, assuming the man's motive. "On the contrary. I had just gleaned his father, so he already had immunity." "Wait," said Citra. "You gleaned his father, and he gave you a car?" "Yes." "So he hated his father?" "No, he loved his father very much." "Am I missing something?

The Isle of Unemployed Bureaucrats

submission. Is that the world you want to live in?

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 help us if we lose that.

We became unnatural the moment we conquered death

Tomorrow is going to have to take care of itself for a while. Yesterday too.

Today I am determined to rejoice in what we've gained, rather than what was lost. Both in the world, and personally.

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

Well, don't just stand there, she says. Give us a love scene worthy of the ages, or at least a viral meme.

If not me, who? Will the scythe who replaces me be as compassionate and fair? I can accept a world without me in it . . . but I can't bear the thought of other scythes gleaning in my absence.

They knew what had happened at school and what was happening now, but they dismissed it in that self-serving way parents often had of pretending anything they can't solve isn't really a problem.

Rowan let out his breath, not even realizing he had been holding it.

aren't all good, and people aren't all bad. We move in and out of darkness and light all of our lives.

Over these many years, I have observed both profound folly and breathtaking wisdom among humankind. They balance each other like dancers in the throes of a passionate tango. It is only when the brutality of the dance overwhelms the beauty that the future is threatened.

Take with water and within seconds your fingers will secrete a transdermal poison. Anyone you touch for the next hour will be instantly and painlessly gleaned." The Weaponsmaster was so impressed, he came up to the stage to take a dose, then, in the ultimate demonstration, proceeded to glean the saleswoman. She sold fifty vials of the stuff to the Scythedom posthumously.

Citra ate, even though she didn't have an appetite. Even though the whole world had slid off its axis. Breakfast was breakfast. How dare it be?

I can't believe you're being taught by the Scythe Curie. The Grandma of Death!

There are choices we make, choices that are made for us, and things we ignore long enough until all choices have fallen away.

W)hen you cover up strange things, they never go away completely, do they?

So is there a reason why you chose your robes to be the color of piss?

The human body is sixty percent water. Well, now I know what the rest is. The rest is dust, the rest is ash, it's sorrow and it's grief... But above all that, in spite of all that, binding us together... is hope. And joy. And a wellspring of all the things that still might be.

Because Dirk is different. Dirk is missing the spark. Which means there's nothing holding him together but stitches.

Una especie no puede crecer si nunca se enfrenta a las consecuencias de sus acciones.