Jeanne Duprau Quotes

Her face, which had never seemed especially remarkable, looked almost beautiful, because she looked so happy. ~ Jeanne DuPrau

When someone has been mean to you, why would you want to be good to them?' 'You wouldn't want to. That's what makes it hard. You do it anyway. Being good is hard. Much harder than being bad. ~ Jeanne DuPrau

People find a way through just about anything. ~ Jeanne DuPrau

The idea seemed to be that if you prayed extremely hard
especially if a lot of people prayed at once
maybe God would change things. The trouble was, what if your enemy was praying, too? Which prayer would God listen to? ~ Jeanne DuPrau

People in Ember rarely threw anything away. They made the best possible use of what they had. ~ Jeanne DuPrau

The rhythm of his steps said, Happy to be here, happy to be here. Rays of sunlight shot between the clouds, making spots of light like polka dots on the ground. ~ Jeanne DuPrau

A person who thought he knew everything simply didn't understand how much there was to know. ~ Jeanne DuPrau

Wouldn't it be strange, she thought, to have a blue sky? But she liked the way it looked. It would be beautiful - a blue sky. ~ Jeanne DuPrau

Now Doon seemed to care for his new friends more than he did for her. Every time she thought about him she felt a thud of pain, like a bruised place inside her. ~ Jeanne DuPrau

Poppy was now almost well. She still slept more than usual, but when she wasn't sleeping she tromped around the doctor's house pulling spoons off the table and spilling cups of water and crumpling pages of books. That is, she was almost her old self. ~ Jeanne DuPrau

What could be more interesting than thinking of mysterious happenings, finding the answers to intriguing questions, and making up new worlds? ~ Jeanne DuPrau

He found his aunt in the kitchen, and he grabbed her by the waist of her pants ~ Jeanne DuPrau

It would be something that another person had written down without understanding its significance; just a sentence or two that would be like a flash of light. ~ Jeanne DuPrau

She flicked off the TV. ~ Jeanne DuPrau

Why, if its going to be allright, do we see it getting worse every day? ~ Jeanne DuPrau

A darkness different from Ember's, but just as frightening ... ~ Jeanne DuPrau

Sure", he said. He started moving the bits around. "Lets see. This looks like it must say . . . and so then this would go here . . . and this . . . " He paused and looked up at her. "Haven't we done this before? ~ Jeanne DuPrau

The trouble with anger is, it gets hold of you. And then you aren't the master of yourself anymore. Anger is. And when anger is the boss, you get unintended consequences. ~ Jeanne DuPrau

They lifted their faces to the astonishing warmth. The sky arched over them, a pale, clear blue. Lina felt as though a lid that had been on her all her life had been lifted off. Light and air rushed though her, making a song, like the songs of Ember, only it was a song of joy. She looked at Doon and saw that he was smiling and crying at the same time, and she realized that she was, too. ~ Jeanne DuPrau

You should THINK about what's the right thing to do. Not just take someone's word for it" -Grover ~ Jeanne DuPrau

Down the stone steps to the windswept beach, her raven tresses flowing out behind her. She scanned the empty sands, and when she saw no sign of Blaine, a great cry of anguish escaped her lips. She could not live without him! She would sooner die! ~ Jeanne DuPrau

There is so much darkness in Ember, Lina. It's not just outside, it's inside us, too. Everyone has some darkness inside. It's like a hungry creature. It wants and wants and wants with a terrible power. And the more you give it, the bigger and hungrier it gets. ~ Jeanne DuPrau

The main thing is to pay attention. Pay close attention to everything, notice
what no one else notices. Then you'll know what no one else knows, and
that's always useful. ~ Jeanne DuPrau

Unintended consequences, he thought miserably.
He was angry at his anger, the way it surged up
and took over. ~ Jeanne DuPrau

All these words, written so long ago, seemed to say to her, Remember us. We were here. We were real. ~ Jeanne DuPrau

In the second row was a boy named Doon Harrow. He sat with his shoulders hunched, his eyes squeezed shut in concentration, and his hands clasped tightly together. His hair looked rumpled, as if he hadn't combed it for a while. He had dark, thick eyebrows, which made him look serious at the best of times and, when he was anxious or angry, came together to form a straight line across his forehead. His brown corduroy jacket was so old that its ridges had flattened out. ~ Jeanne DuPrau

Mrs. Murdo, walkind even more briskly to keep her spirits up, was crossing Harken Square when something fell to the pavement just in front of her with a terrific thump. How extraordinary, she thought, bending to pick it up. It was sort of a bundle. She began to untie it. ~ Jeanne DuPrau

And you, Mackie," said the doctor. "It's been a long time. ~ Jeanne DuPrau

Then came "The Song of Darkness," the last of the three songs, and the one most filled with longing and majesty. The soul of Ember was in this song. Its tremendous chords held all the sorrow and all the strength of the people of the city. The song reached its climax: "Darkness like an endless night," sang the hundreds of voices, so powerfully the air seemed to shiver.
And at that moment, the lights once more went out. The voices faltered, but only for an instant. Then they rose again in the darkness, stronger even than before. Lina sang, too. She stood up and sang with all her might into the deep, solid blackness. ~ Jeanne DuPrau

Remember the city, the city remember
Where treasure is hidden under the ground
The city, the city, always remember
That's where the treasure will be found. ~ Jeanne DuPrau

Lina liked going to the market plaza. It was always alive with people and animals, and the market had things she'd never seen before-sandals made of old truck tires, hats and baskets woven of straw. ~ Jeanne DuPrau

Lina looked out at the lighted streets spreading away in every direction, the streets she knew so well. She loved her city, worn out and crumbling though it was. ~ Jeanne DuPrau

Clearly not all these people who said that God spoke to them heard the same thing. All the fighting nations said God was on their side. How could God be on everyone's side? ~ Jeanne DuPrau

It's for my God, the god of dogs, and snakes and dust mites and albino bears and Siamese twins, the god of stars and starships and other dimensions, the god who loves everyone and makes everything marvelous. ~ Jeanne DuPrau

What you need to learn, children, is the difference between right and wrong in every area of life. And once you learn the difference, you must always choose the right. ~ Jeanne DuPrau

Nickie was so tired of the Crisis. It had been going on now for months. On TV and the radio, it was all you ever heard about: how Our Side and Their Side had come almost, but not quite, to the point of declaring all-out war. In the last week or so, the radio had started broadcasting frightening instructions every hour: In the event of a declaration of war or a large-scale terrorist attack, cities will be evacuated in an orderly fashion ... . Residents will be directed to safe locations ... . Citizens should remain calm ... . ~ Jeanne DuPrau

She started back down the trail. If no dogs find the food, she thought, maybe squirrels will. Or that white bear. Or if no one finds it, then it can all be for God. Only not for the Prophet's God, her mean, picky God who dislikes so many things. It's for my God, the god of dogs and snakes and dust mites and albino bears and Siamese twins, the god of stars and starships and other dimensions, the god who loves everyone and who makes everything marvelous. ~ Jeanne DuPrau

Doon was touched. Kenny looked like a tiny little wisp, but there was something strong inside him.
People of Sparks
~ Jeanne DuPrau

We were underground', she said. 'Not just the pipeworks, everything! ~ Jeanne DuPrau

Nickie didn't like listening to him because his voice always sounded too smooth. ~ Jeanne DuPrau

You know, son, I don't think there's such a thing as an easy life. There's always going to be hard work and there will always be misfortunes we can't control, lurking out at the edges - storms, sickness, wolves. But there is such a thing as a good life and I think that we have one here. ~ Jeanne DuPrau

This world was huge. There must be another place in it for the people of Ember. ~ Jeanne DuPrau

It wasn't because they had extraordinary powers, really, but because of how well they used the ordinary powers everyone had: the power of courage, the power of kindness, the powers of curiosity and knowledge. ~ Jeanne DuPrau

Pressed up against the rear wall, half hidden by shirts and dresses dangling from hangers, was a tall, thin girl with wide, terrified eyes. Her hands were wrapped around the muzzle of a small, wildly squirming dog. ~ Jeanne DuPrau

His sympathy made tears spring to Lina's eyes. Doon looked startled for a moment, and then he took a step toward her and wrapped his arms around her. He gave her a squeeze so quick and tight that it made her cough, and then it made her laugh. She realized all at once that Doon
thin, dark-eyed Doon with his troublesome temper and his terrible brown jacket and his good heart
was the person that she knew better than anyone now. He was her best friend. ~ Jeanne DuPrau

But that was what made things so exciting--nothing was ever how you expected it to be. ~ Jeanne DuPrau

she loved exploring every nook and cranny ~ Jeanne DuPrau

Lina couldn't sleep at first, thinking of the old songs and what they meant. Someone, long ago, had hoped that at least a few people would survive and had wanted them to remember her city and the treasure it held, the treasure that was most valuable of all - herself, her family, and all of the generations of people who had lived in that secret place, their purpose, though they didn't know it, to make sure that human beings did not vanish from the world, no matter what happened above. ~ Jeanne DuPrau

That's the city I see in my dreams, Poppy. It isn't like Ember at all. The sky is light and the buildings are tall and sort of sparkle." (Lina) ~ Jeanne DuPrau

Instead of getting at the other side with something just as bad as they did to you - or something worse - you do something good. Or at least you keep yourself from doing something bad ~ Jeanne DuPrau

I try to remind myself that we are never promised anything, and that what control we can exert is not over the events that befall us but how we address ourselves to them. ~ Jeanne DuPrau

Go for it, Jeanne. Just dig right in. ~ Johanna Moran

Am I odd?Is there something wrong with me,like Mrs.Tifton Said?"
Skye knelt down on the wet grass and looked straight into Batty's eyes. "No you stupid idiot,there's nothing wrong. with you. ~ Jeanne Birdsall

All peace-loving women shut up when they sense they have stepped onto Guy Turf. Guy Turf is a murky realm of ego and pride and chivalry and testosterone and heroism. ~ Jeanne Marie Laskas

Parenting is not logical. If it were, we would never have to read a book, never need a family therapist, and never feel the urge to call a close friend late at night for support after a particularly trying bedtime scene ... We have moments of logic, but life is run by a much larger force. Life is filled with disagreement, opposition, illusion, irrational thinking, miracle, meaning, surprise, and wonder. ~ Jeanne Elium

If gay Americans are not allowed to get married and have all the benefits that American citizens are entitled to by the Bill of Rights, they should get one hell of a tax break. That is my opinion. ~ Jeanne Phillips

I'd really been wanting to do a television series. I was looking for a comedy. ~ Jeanne Tripplehorn

In life, people sometimes make rotten deals. ~ Jeanne Calment

Some people are addicts. If they don't act, they don't exist. ~ Jeanne Moreau

You cannot deport 110,000 people unless you have stopped seeing individuals. Of course, for such a thing to happen, there has to be a kind of acquiescence on the part of the victims, some submerged belief that this treatment is deserved, or at least allowable. ~ Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston

In these days people take up with each other and drop each other too easily. Pleasure is practiced like a sport, and the easy game of love leads to the dissolution of the feeling of love. ~ Jeanne Moreau

The main reason we learn any habit, as Drs. Frederick Kanfer and Jeanne Phillips tell us in Learning Foundations of Behavior Therapy, is that even a seemingly counterproductive habit like procrastination is immediately followed by some reward. Procrastination reduces tension by taking us away from something we view as painful or threatening. The more painful work is for you, the more you will try to seek relief through avoidance or through involvement in more pleasurable activities. The more you feel that endless work deprives you of the pleasure of leisure time, the more you will avoid work. ~ Neil A. Fiore

One thing you have to give up is attaching importance to what people see in you. ~ Jeanne Moreau

One of my teachers at the psychoanalytic institute where I trained used to say, only half humorously, that 'the most important prerequisite for a vocation as a psychotherapist is a depressed mother'; based on my history, I think that a suffering but inaccessible father and a damaged sibling should be added to the list of qualifications. ~ Jeanne Safer

Fences, unlike punishments, clearly mark out the perimeters of any specified territory. Young children learn where it is permissible to play, because their backyard fence plainly outlines the safe area. They learn about the invisible fence that surrounds the stove, and that Grandma has an invisible barrier around her cabinet of antique teacups. ~ Jeanne Elium

It's the job of the young to push the societal envelope. ~ Jeanne Cordova

The GPS still has return coordinates programmed, although when I crank over the engine, I get the "reprogramming route" message. I hate the tone of these things-it manages to be mechanical yet condescending at the same time. All systems have it. Some frustrated engineer's idea of a joke, I suppose. ~ Jeanne C. Stein

My soul was not only brought into harmony with itself and with God, but with God's providence. In the exercise of faith and love, I endured and performed whatever came in God's providence, in submission, in thankfulness, and silence. ~ Jeanne Marie Bouvier De La Motte Guyon

The first rule for success? Show up. ~ Jeanne Robertson

What is amazing for a woman of my age is that I change as the world is changing-and changing very, very fast. I don't think my mother had that opportunity to change. ~ Jeanne Moreau

There is sadness and evil in the world, yes. There is also goodness and beauty and justice. The one is as real as the other, and we must keep that fact firmly in mind or lose all sense of proportion. ~ Jeanne M. Dams

Love isn't really about what we think of the other person, but how we feel about ourselves when we are with that person. ~ Jeanne Mackin

It has its perks, being Mrs. Chancellor, and if I have to use it, by golly, I'll use it. I'm through standing in lines at my age. ~ Jeanne Cooper

To go out with the setting sun on an empty beach is to truly embrace your solitude. ~ Jeanne Moreau

You have only one life to live, so live it without worrying about what others may think. ~ Jeanne Phillips

We are tanks and guns. We are force of history. We will crush them beneath our heels like bugs. ~ Jeanne Ray

Change is a more complicated process involving brain integration than is data gathering. ~ Jeanne Segal

I've always liked wrinkles. When I was a young girl, I used to make lines on my face with my nails because I loved Jeanne Moreau. I always wanted to be older; I always added years to my life. For the longest time, if people thought I was older, I would take it as a compliment. ~ Diane Von Furstenberg

You call me but I can't hear. I speak a language you don't know. The body falling by the side of the bed. Eyes closed contemplating the night. I conjugate language that doesn't exist. The imaginary and its child the failurative. I speak stiff, the language she didn't teach me before she left. I speakstiff with all my stiffened body. I want to come back to you but I can't. Because of the red liqueur which is spreading in my blood. Because of the red liqueur which paralyses my brain. I can't come back to you. I'm slipping out to sea as I look back at the harbour. You're holding my hand but you're only holding on to wood. You're speaking to me but I hear only the walls. You're smiling but I'm on the other side of the mirror. The woman in mauve is carrying me off to her castle. And the silent coachman accompanies her. ~ Jeanne Hyvrard

Oh! how many times we die before death! ~ Jeanne Julie Eleonore De Lespinasse

Skye." "Lima-Oscar-Victor-Echo ~ Jeanne Birdsall

Death doesn't frighten me; now I can think peacefully of ending a long life. ~ Jeanne Calment

I see badly, I hear badly, and I feel bad, but everything's fine. ~ Jeanne Calment

Beyond the beauty, the sex, the titillation, the surface, there is a human being. And that has to emerge. ~ Jeanne Moreau

And then last autumn his heart had stopped working properly. The veterinarian said that they just had to care for him and love him, and Batty had loved him, and loved him, and loved him, but it hadn't been enough. No one in her family had ever said that Hound's dying was her fault, but she knew the truth. She hadn't been able to keep him with her, to stop him from leaving her behind. ~ Jeanne Birdsall

Jeanne de Chantal, seventeenth-century founder of the Order of the Visitation, said, No matter what happens, be gentle with yourself. ~ Shane Claiborne

Brooding is more something I do when I'm working. I know so much more about sitting around worrying about a work project than I do about worrying about kids. This could just be a fact of life for older moms. We've worked and worked and worked and if we are lucky enough to finally have a child or two, we find ourselves suddenly catapulted into a most alien kind of chaos.
Work is so much easier. Anyone will tell you that. To have a desk, where you have everything all lined up, and a schedule you more or less get to agree to. Work. I am a worker. This is so funny because I never really think of my work as work. I certainly never though of myself as having a career. Writing, work, this is just who I am. I am a person who sits at a desk and makes phone calls and taps at a computer keyboard and sips coffee and calls her mom at five. That I am anything better or smaller than that has come as sudden news to me.
Brand new.
News. ~ Jeanne Marie Laskas

Toward the urn the three children raced in a dead heat, Jane still shouting . FOR CHURCHILL, NELSON, AND PRINCE WILLIAM! ~ Jeanne Birdsall

To begin to use cultural forces for the good of our daughters we must first shake ourselves awake from the cultural trance we all live in. This is no small matter, to untangle our true beliefs from what we have been taught to believe about who and what girls and women are. ~ Jeanne Elium