Kenneth Oppel Quotes

I prefer the word aviatrix. It has more zing to it."
"It's very zingy," I agreed.

The world should have been in Technicolour, but seemed more like black and white.

Beyond the lake, over the mountains, the clouds were illuminated from within by a brilliant stutter of lightning, and in that split second Elizabeth and I were etched against the sky.

One of the reasons I wrote 'Airborn' was that I'd fallen in love with the great passenger airships which flew in the '20s and '30s. Their time was short-lived. They were frail, they tended to crash; and they could never be as fast, safe and efficient as the airplanes that replaced them.

What do you make of him?" I asked Elizabeth.
"Apart from the fact he's clearly insane?"
"What can he learn from Konrad's blood?" I said. "Except that he needs it in his body to live!"
"There is something ghoulish about it."
"He's like a vampyre,

It's the way you look whenever she mentions her fiance. My cat looks like that before he hacks up a hairball.

I felt like I was seeing Shannon through a new lens, undistracted by Jennifer's nuclear glow. I could see how pretty she really was, how kind her eyes were.

None of us gets to choose how we're born, it's what we make of ourselves afterwards.

Let me get you all some punch," I said.
"You're leaving us?" said Isabel, sounding panicky.
"I'll be right back," I promised. "If anyone comes near you, just scream and run.

The baby was warm against my chest. I knew I was broken too. I wasn't like other people. I was scared and weird and anxious and sad lots of the time, and I didn't know why. My parents thought I was abnormal, I was pretty sure. They said I wasn't, but you don't get sent to a therapist if you're normal.
Sometimes we really aren't supposed to be the way we are. It's not good for us. And people don't like it. You've got to change. You've got to try harder and do deep breathing and maybe one day take pills and learn tricks so you can pretend to be more like other people. Normal people. But maybe Vanessa was right, and all those other people were broken too in their own ways. Maybe we all spent too much time pretending we weren't.

We all knew no respectable physician would remove my fingers just for the asking, and we had no time anyway.

A feeling is not a fact.

It was as though, in one moment, he had become a stranger. And I a stranger to myself.

I'm just trying to spare you hurt. Her love for Konrad is like the foundation of the earth."
"The earth sometimes shifts.

The world of 'The Hunger Games' is a paranoid survivalist's dream.

The more I worked on 'Half Brother,' the more it seemed to me the story was really about love in all its possible forms - how and why we decide to bestow it, or withdraw it; how we decide what is more worthy of being loved, and what is less. We are masters of conditional love.

You've no fear of heights," puffed the girl.
"None," I said.
"I've heard that about you.

I turned around and headed back to the stairwell, planning to go downstairs and buy a chocolate bar from the vending machine. Maybe it would fall on me and end my misery.

We did it!" I said, feeling limp with relief. "It actually worked!"
Dr. Turgenev rubbed his forehead. "I had very big doubts."
"Big doubts?" I said weakly.
The Russian scientist shrugged. "I am pessimist," he said.

Madame, may I see your dog's chit, please,

'What have you done?' I whispered.
She swallowed, and the guilt in her eyes was extinguished by a flare of defiance.
'This,' she said, 'is my ticket to outer space.'

You flatter me shamelessly. I like it. Good.

I know you pretty well."
"Better than anyone I think."
I smiled. Her compliment was like a gift itself, only more precious than anything that could be bought.

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I had no idea there'd be so many Sherpas aboard!" exclaimed Miss Simpkins.
"I'm not a Sherpa," Nadira said. "I'm a gypsy."
"Oh, my goodness!" said the chaperone.

I give you my wings.

I believe there is something on this earth that you desire more than anything, and it isn't me.

Behind us I saw the water, still welling up from the tunnel, curving round in a frothing serpentine torrent to plunge down the other descending passage. For a moment we all sat there and watched, numb and exhausted.

Yes' is a very powerful word. It's like opening a door. It's like fanning a flame. It's the most powerful word in the world.

The sky pulsed with stars. Some people say it makes them lonesome when they stare up at the night sky. I can't imagine why. There's no shortage of company. By now there's not a constellation I can't name. Orion. Lupus. Serpens. Hercules. Draco. My father taught me all of their stories. So when I look up I see a galaxy of adventures and heroes and villains, all jostling together and trying to outdo one another, and I sometimes want to tell them to hush up and not distract me with their chatter. I've glimpsed all the stars ever discovered by astronomers, and plenty that haven't been.

'I really don't see what all the fuss is about, Sir Hugh,' said Kate with a polite smile. 'As a man of science you should know that urine is sterile. It's only when it's left to stand that it accumulates bacteria. So, if I were you, Sir Hugh, I'd eat my soup quickly.'

They're having a liaison!' the woman in the big hat said to her friend. 'They've found love in a jail cell ... '
'There's no liaison!' I said angrily.

His speech failed to rouse an enthusiastic cheer, but no one dared contradict him.

I'm glad being shipwrecked appeals to you."
"Captain Walken made a point of avoiding that word."
"Well, he was trying to keep everyone jolly, wasn't he. It's no good having everyone running around screaming and eating each other."
"I wouldn't run around screaming," she said. "I can see eating someone in a pinch, though. If it really came down to it, I mean."
"I don't doubt it."
"Come on, Matt Cruse, don't you find it just a bit exciting, being here?"
"No."
She looked at me as if I'd suggested we stop breathing for a few hours.

We used to flock to watch gladiators, public torture and executions. In more recent times, our appetite for mortal violence has been sublimated in sports, photorealistic video games, film and literature.

This way," she said, veering toward the roof's edge. "Can you jump?"
"Oh, I can jump!"
"Then jump!

There's fancy math to explain all this, of course. ( ... ) But when you saw the Aurora, saw her floating and rising, you forget all about the match and just stared.

Flying into a storm, even its outer edges, did not seem like a good idea to me. And this was no ordinary tempest. Everyone on the bridge knew what it was: the Devil's Fist, a near-eternal typhoon that migrated about the North Indian basin year-round. She was infamous, and earned her name by striking airships out of the sky.

It's somewhat disquieting that the same parents and educators who are horrified by the notion of child soldiers have bestowed upon 'The Hunger Games' a double mantle of critical praise and global bestsellerdom.

Traveling at night toward the stars, I thought yet again how very far away they were, and how you could travel your whole lifetime and never reach even the closest one. But even if you knew you couldn't have something, it didn't stop you wanting it. I wondered if Kate was to be my star, and I'd spend my life gazing upon her but never reaching her.

Individuality: ten. Cautiousness: three. Combativeness: nine." She looked over and gave me a wink. "Well, what did you expect from a pirate's daughter? Hope: eight. Amativeness. What's that?"
Kate acutally blushed. "I think it has something to do with your attractiveness to the opposite sex."
"Ten," said Nadira, smiling modestly.
(Skybreaker by Kenneth Oppel)

The preface? Why would he waste time with the preface? Skip the preface and move on to the meat of the thing!

Realistically, the chance of any book becoming a film is slim.

Everyone watched, wondering if this could be the same lunatic who'd nearly berthed his ornithopter in the restaurant.
I swallowed, for it seemed he was headed straight for my table.
He pulled off his helmet and a mass of dark auburn hair spilled out. Off came the goggles, and I was looking at the beaming face of Kate de Vries.

A masterpiece of vagueness.

I tried to lure sleep to me, but she slowly shook her raven tresses and would not come back.

You see, when medicine works, it is blessed science, and when it fails, it is witchcraft. - Polidori

You're like something drawn with the sun's fire, and I can take only little glimpses of you.

I think good art should always be entertaining, or at least give pleasure of some sort. And my chief goal as a writer has always been to tell a good story and give my readers a good time.

No, indeed, 'pig' is very expressive. And an excellent description of a fellow who flirts with his brother's beloved.

You two were in a cave together?' said Miss Simpkins in horror.
'Yes,' said Kate, 'and it was very, very dark.

Marry me." I said.
She lowered her teacup, shaking slightly, to the saucer. "Aren't you going to get down on one knee?"
I got down on one knee and took her hand.
"Will you marry me, Kate?"
You can't propose properly without a ring." She said.
I reached into my pocket and took out James Sanderson's ring, which I'd picked up off the floor of the Starclimber when we'd crash landed.
"That's a nice looking ring." said Kate with a grin.
"Cost a fortune." I said. "And now, for the third time. Kate de Vries, will you marry me?"
She leaned forward and took my face in her hands and kissed me.
"Yes," "Yes, and yes and yes. But it will probably be terrible."
"Probably," I agreed.
"Honestly," she sighed, "I don't know what kind of life we'll have together, with me always flying off in one direction and you in the other."
I smiled. "It's a good thing the world's round," I said.

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The noise kept up and did not stop. My head rang. I saw Shepherd take the chewing gum from his mouth, break it into two, and stick it in both ears. He kept working.

Never climb a tree in a long dress," Kate panted, coming up behind me.
"I'll remember that," I said.

I stared at Kate in disbelief.
"I know, I know," she said, walking toward me, hands raised as if to calm a dangerous beast.
"She's not coming," I said.
"She's coming."
"She can't."
"She's coming.

IMBECILE!" the chef shouted. "Next time why don't you just put your whole HAND in the food, hey? Yes, your whole hand, or maybe your FACE! I arrange the food on plates with care, are you understanding what I am telling you? It is part of the art form of cooking, yes? A lovely plate of food is a thing of beauty! And then you, NUMBSKULL, come along and put your fat greasy FINGERS all over my plate, and SHAKE the plate, and move my food all around the plate until it looks like pigs' vomit!"
"Chef Vlad!" I cried out in delight.

I poo poo the chit.'
The attendant looked stunned. 'You cannot poo-poo the chit!'
I do.' Kate said solemnly. 'I do poo-poo.'
We'll walk.

I couldn't imagine such men at rest, their faces smooth and innocent despite the wickedness of their hearts.