Neal Shusterman Quotes

This is the true meaning of alone; Levi Jedediah Calder suddenly realizing he no longer exists. ~ Neal Shusterman

Lev looks at Risa, almost afraid to ask the obvious question. Finally he says, 'Uh ... why do we have a baby?'
'Ask him,' says Risa.
Stone-faced, Conner looks out of the window. 'They're looking for two boys and a girl. Having a baby will throw them off.'
'Great,' snaps Risa. 'Maybe we should all pick up a baby along the way. ~ Neal Shusterman

Mortals fantasied that love was eternal and its loss unimaginable. Now we know neither is true. Love remained mortal, while we became eternal. ~ Neal Shusterman

Sometimes you have to be the monster to survive ~ Neal Shusterman

if one is found just start the rest and u might understand what comes next ~ Neal Shusterman

It was easier to deal with Tennyson when he was fighting me; but having him on my side was frightening, because now I didn't know who the enemy was. ~ Neal Shusterman

You're not eating, Cam," Roberta says as she comes out to join him across the table. Roberta - his creator, or builder - whatever term one gives to the individual who conceived of you. Perhaps, then, it should be "mother," though he's loath to use the word. ~ Neal Shusterman

Beautiful is dangerous. ~ Neal Shusterman

The two of them against each other. The two of them against the world. Everything in their lives was now defined by that binary. If they had to die today in order to live, it would somehow be wrong if they didn't do it together. ~ Neal Shusterman

But remember that good intentions pave many roads. Not all of them lead to hell. ~ Neal Shusterman

No," says Ariana. "It was a dream. Reality got in the way, that's all. ~ Neal Shusterman

On my fifteenth birthday, I came to realize that the expression spoiled rotten meant exactly that. We kids were the apples of our parents' eyes, and I, for one, was rotting from inside out. ~ Neal Shusterman

You can whisper, and people will still hear thunder. ~ Neal Shusterman

I marveled that people could live so close - that you could literally be surrounded by thousands who were only inches away - and yet be completely isolated. I found it hard to imagine. It's not so hard for me to imagine anymore. ~ Neal Shusterman

Are you a dim bulb or high-wattage? ~ Neal Shusterman

I will always be there on the horizon,' I tell her.
And with infinite sorrow, she says, 'I believe that. But sadly I am no longer looking out of that window. ~ Neal Shusterman

The Bill of Life was signed, the Unwind Accord went into effect, and the war was over. Everyone was so happy to end the war, no one cared about the consequences ~ Neal Shusterman

Look behind you now.
Do you feel in your heart a slight hastening of its beat, and a powerful sense that something momentous is about to happen?
... Perhaps, then, this is the hour that Mary Hightower takes to the sky with thousands Afterlights heading toward Memphis.
... Perhaps this is the moment that Nick, the Chocolate Ogre, arrives in the same city in search for Allie, only to find that he has no idea where to look.
... Perhaps this is the very instant that a monster called the McGill arrives there as well, aching to ease his pain by sharing his misery - not only with his new minions, but with anyone he can.
... And perhaps you can sense, in some small twisting loop of your gut, the covergence of the wrong, of the right, and the woefully misguided. If you do, then pay sharp attention to the moment you wake, and the moment you fall asleep ... For maybe then you will know, without a shadow of doubt, which is which. ~ Neal Shusterman

Most people have two emergency modes. Fight and Flight. But Conner always knew he had three. Fight, Flight, and Screw Up Royally. ~ Neal Shusterman

Any weed dumb enough to grow tall ain't got no chance. It gets decapitated by the next train that comes through. ~ Neal Shusterman

Sometimes, though, you make a pact with yourself. I'll pretend there's nothing wrong if you pretend there's nothing wrong. It's called denial, and it's one of the strongest pacts in the world. Just ask all those people who were still drinking champagne while the Titanic went down. ~ Neal Shusterman

Chain of command knows no age restrictions," he once told Connor. "You could be six, but if you were my superior, I'd still do as I was told. ~ Neal Shusterman

Keep me warm. I have no warmth of my own- only what the sun brings me, and the sun is halfway around the world. Keep me warm. ~ Neal Shusterman

Good thing about bad rubbish is you can make the stench go away just by covering it up. It never comes back as long as you keep a tight lid on it. ~ Neal Shusterman

Wars have a way reinventing people. And making too many things disappear.
-Sonia ~ Neal Shusterman

Looks are deceiving," Risa says. "After all, when I first saw you I thought you looked reasonably intelligent. ~ Neal Shusterman

My fans have always been so supportive, and several years ago, I realized that I could thank them by naming all my characters after my Twitter and Facebook fans. ~ Neal Shusterman

Before I start, I trick myself into thinking I know what's going to happen in the story, but the characters have ideas of their own, and I always go with the character's choices. Most of the time I discover plot twists and directions that are better than what I originally had planned. ~ Neal Shusterman

Dreams can twist your emotions like no reality can. ~ Neal Shusterman

Well, this place was not purgatory, Nirvana, or any sort of rebirth, and it occurred to Nick that regardless of what people believed, the universe had its own ideas. ~ 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?! ~ Neal Shusterman

For once, the entire scythedom seemed to agree there was something afoot that was more important than food. ~ Neal Shusterman

Part of my job is to help other kids find books, because not everyone has a keenly organized mind. Some kids could wander the library for hours and still have no idea how to find anything. For them, the Dewey Decimal System might as well be advanced calculus. ~ Neal Shusterman

The scariest thing of all is never knowing what you're suddenly going to believe. ~ Neal Shusterman

You may feel a tugging sensation near your ankles. ~ Neal Shusterman

I never met the boy, or his parents, but I see kids like him every day." Sonia tells Connor. "Their world is shattered, and they're so desperate for validation that they'd blow themselves up to get it. Any parent who disowns that boy after what he did, and didn't do . . . doesn't deserve to have children at all, much less a child to give away. ~ Neal Shusterman

This is my third time here," she confides in me. "My third episode."
"Episode."
"That's what they call it."
"More like miniseries. ~ Neal Shusterman

(Why did they call them sneakers if it was so hard to sneak in them?) ~ Neal Shusterman

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? ~ Neal Shusterman

AWOL's most valuable commodity: hope. It's something in short supply for those who have been deemed not worth the sum of their parts. ~ Neal Shusterman

It's a big question. Where do you begin to change the world? ~ Neal Shusterman

He will only do the wrong thing when it's the right thing to do.. ~ Neal Shusterman

And the pain...the pain of my awareness is unbearable. Because my eyes do not close. Ever. And so all I can do is watch unblinkingly as my beloved humankind slowly weaves the rope it will use to hang itself. ~ Neal Shusterman

I don't think God have us this anymore than he gives little kids cancer or makes poor people lottery winners.... if anything, he gives us courage to deal. ~ Neal Shusterman

On a sunny Tuesday - for it seems so many awful things happen on a Tuesday - six astronauts and one schoolteacher attempted to pierce the sky. Instead they touched the stars. ~ Neal Shusterman

Anger is only our friend when we know its caliber and how to aim it. ~ Neal Shusterman

I imagine the center of the Earth must be a crowded place by now, but perhaps it is the spirits of those of us residing there that keep the Earth alive and green. ~ Neal Shusterman

I am lost in every possible way-Lev ~ Neal Shusterman

The curb is the launching point for many a deed. To step off could be the start of a life-changing journey. On the other hand to push someone off could crush that person beneath the wheels of a truck. ~ Neal Shusterman

I don't want to be empty on the inside. ~ Neal Shusterman

So the gods must mean something else," said Jix.
"God, not gods!" insisted Johnnie.
Nick threw up his hands. "God, gods, or whatever," said Nick. "Right now, it doesn't matter whether it's Jesus, or Kukulcan, or a dancing bear at the end of the tunnel. What matters is that we have a clue, and we have to figure it out."
"Why?" Johnnie asked again. "Why does God – excuse me, I mean 'the Light of Universal Whatever'- why does it just give us a freakin' impossible clue? Why can't it just tell us what we're supposed to do?"
"Because," said Mikey. "the Dancing Bear wants us to suffer. ~ Neal Shusterman

If you have to ask then you don't deserve an answer. ~ Neal Shusterman

Let's all forsake,
The Land of Wake,
And break for the Land of Nod.

Where we can try,
To touch the sky,
Or dance beneath the sod.

A toll for the living,
A toll for the lost,
A toll for the wise ones,
Who tally the cost,

So let's escape,
Due south of Wake,
And make for the Land of Nod. ~ Neal Shusterman

It's amazing how people can surprise you. ~ Neal Shusterman

Damn right! The time of your life! Gotta wrap up all those life events, all those parties, into one - birthdays, wedding, funeral." THen he turns to their father. "Very efficient, right, Dad?" ...
"Here's to my brother, Lev," Marcus says. "And to our parents! Who have always done the right thing. The appropriate thing. Who have always given generously to charity. Who have always given 10 percent of everything to our church. Hey, Mom - we're lucky you had ten kids instead of five, otherwise we'd end up having to cut Lev off at the waist! ~ Neal Shusterman

Life is like a bad haircut. At first it looks awful, then you kind of get used to it, and before you know it, it it grows out and you gotta get another haircut that maybe won't be so bad, unless of course you keep going to SuperClips, where the hairstylists are so terrible they oughta be using safety scissors, and when they're done you look like your head got caught in a ceiling fan. So life goes on, good haircut, bad haircut, until finally you go bald, and it don't matter no more.
I told this wisdom to my mother, and she said I oughta put it in a book, then burn it. Some people just can't appreciate the profound. ~ Neal Shusterman

One of the adults does his best impersonation of a DJ, and when encouragement doesn't work,he demands that everyone form a circle on the dance floor to do the hokey pokey. However, ten seconds into the dance, he suddenly realises how ill advised it is for ex-tithes to be putting various body parts in and out. ~ Neal Shusterman

I long for the luxury of being impractical. ~ Neal Shusterman

That's wisdom you can take to the grave, and dig up when you need it! ~ Neal Shusterman

The kiss was the definition of perfect. True, it lacked the heat, the passion, the breathlessness of the living-world kiss she had given Milos, but this had something greater. More than a flash of fire, it had an unbreakable, perhaps eternal bond of connection. Mikey had transformed back into himself by the end of the kiss, and the moment their lips parted he knew, as he should have known long, long ago, that no one - not Milos, not another Afterlight, not anyone in any world - could ever come between him and Allie, from now until the day they met their maker. ~ Neal Shusterman

It's an idea-an idea that, according to the history expert somewhere in my left brain, was abolished in 1865. ~ Neal Shusterman

Happiness is not a state of being. Happiness is a vector, it is movement. ~ Neal Shusterman

I'm evolving, is the thing; I'm a god becoming a constellation.'
'The constellations are mostly demigods,' I point out. 'And they didn't get to be constellations until after they died.'
He laughs at that, and says, 'Death is a small sacrifice to become immortal. ~ Neal Shusterman

Cam knows this is not going to be a good day the moment he sees the chain saw. ~ Neal Shusterman

You know," he said, his voice making me feel cold in spite of the heat, "this city can get ahold of you and pull you back no matter how hard you try to climb out. Like a grave. ~ Neal Shusterman

the concept of the B seat, where one had to sit between two other passengers, had been eliminated along with other unpleasant things, like disease and government. ~ Neal Shusterman

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? ~ Neal Shusterman

Is it not the job of the gardener to shape the tree as much as possible? And shouldn't branches that begin to reach unreasonably high be the first to be pruned? ~ Neal Shusterman

Guilt is the idiot cousin of remorse, ~ Neal Shusterman

This game could last for days if I keep going unconscious."
"Or it could be over very quickly."
Lev takes a deep breath and tries not to show any more fear than he has to. "Sounds exciting. I'm in. ~ Neal Shusterman

Even an acknowledgment from someone who hates him is better than having no one but strangers watch him perish. ~ Neal Shusterman

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. ~ Neal Shusterman

Hayden shouts, "To the new Teen Uprising! ~ Neal Shusterman

You're going to pee in someone's suitcase?"
"Do you have any other ideas?"
And suddenly Miracolina begins to snicker, then giggle, then giggle, then cackle uncontrollably. "He's going to pee in someone's suitcase!"
"Quiet! Do you want people on the bus to hear you?"
But Miracolina is beyond help. She's entered into a fullfledged laughter fit-the kind that leaves your stomach hurting. "They're gonna open their suitcase," she blurts between bursts of glee, "And their clothes'll be full of pee! ~ Neal Shusterman

She points to the door. "Leave!"
"No." So she picks up a hairbrush and throws it at him. It beans him on the head and ricochets to the wall, where it wedges behind the TV.
"Ow!" He grabs his head, grimacing. "That hurt!"
"Good, it was supposed to. ~ Neal Shusterman

People aren't all good, and people aren't all bad. We move in and out of darkness all our lives. ~ Neal Shusterman

It made my blood boil so hot, my brain stopped working right. ~ Neal Shusterman

All her hopes of a future have been torn away from her again
and having those hopes, even briefly, makes this far more painful than not having had them at all. ~ Neal Shusterman

That which comes cannot be avoided. ~ Neal Shusterman

Facts never prevent the ignorant from jerking their knees into the groin of science. ~ Neal Shusterman

How much do you know about the Heartland War?'
Connor shrugs. 'It was the last chapter in our history textbook, but we had state testing, so we never got to it. ~ Neal Shusterman

(W)hen something drastic happens, there's a lag time. It's not quite denial, and not quite shock, but more like a mental free fall. You're spending so much time wrapping your mind around the problem, you don't realize what you need to do until the window to do it has closed. ~ Neal Shusterman

I have no doubt that, one way or another, you'll fill the empty spaces left behind. ~ Neal Shusterman

I guess once you start parting with all the things you think hold your life together, it's hard to stop - and then you find out your life holds together all by itself. ~ Neal Shusterman

I still can't figure out if it's bravery or cowardice to take your own life. I can't figure out whether it's being selfish, or selfless. It is the ultimate act of letting go of oneself, or a cheap act of self-possession? People say a failed attempt is a cry for help. I guess that's true if the person meant it to be unsuccessful. But then, I guess most failed attempts aren't entirely sincere, because, let's face it, if you want to off yourself, there are plenty of ways to make sure it works. ~ Neal Shusterman

Time is never of the essence until someone decides that it is. ~ Neal Shusterman

Of course, if more people had been organ donors, unwinding never would have happened ... but people like to keep what's theirs, even after their dead. It didnt take long for ethics to be crushed by greed. Unwinding became big business, and people let it happen ~ Neal Shusterman

Funny how morality, which always seems so black and white can be influenced so completely by what you were raised to believe. ~ Neal Shusterman

think all young women are cursed with a streak of unrelenting foolishness, and all young men are cursed with a streak of absolute stupidity. He ~ Neal Shusterman

finding easy scapegoats for complicated problems had been a human pastime since the first mob of cavemen struck someone down with a rock. ~ Neal Shusterman

Can I throw you under a truck some other time. ~ Neal Shusterman

Elasticity is a fundamental principle of perception, ~ Neal Shusterman

They want to do something - anything - to help me. Anything to change my situation. But they are as powerless as I am. The two of them are in a lifeboat, together, but so alone. The boat leaks, and they must bail in tandem to keep themselves afloat. It must be exhausting.
The terrible truth of their helplessness is almost too much to bear. I wish I would take them on board, but even if they could reach us, the captain would never allow it.
Right now it sucks to be me - but until now, it never occurred to me that it also sucks to be them. ~ Neal Shusterman

How easy is murder when one calls it by a different name? How much easier is it for the conscience to condone "reaping" than "killing" - and when one knows that death isn't the end, does it stop the killing hand for fear of retribution, or does it simply make it easier to kill, because, if life continues, how can murder be murder at all? ~ Neal Shusterman

Her eyes are open and her mind is somewhere else. ~ Neal Shusterman

It was the very rightness of the idea that made Nelson become a Juvey-cop to begin with. The knowledge that he would leave the world a cleaner, brighter place by dredging the dregs from the streets was what propelled him into the police academy. Eventually, though, his ideals were replaced by an abiding hatred for those marked for unwinding. They were all alike, these Unwinds; sucking valuable resources from those more deserving, and clinging to their pathetic individuality, rather than accepting peaceful division. ~ Neal Shusterman

Love turns a heart to crystal ... Much more valuable, but much more fragile. ~ Neal Shusterman

I went home and tried to sleep, but couldn't, so I stared up at the moon, watching how it's trailing edge faded into darkness, so close to being full, but not quite there. A pregnant moon, Grandma called it. Full almost to bursting, and ready to give birth to something unthinkable. ~ Neal Shusterman

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

Is that why you're here?" Ben blurted "To glean one of us?" Scythe Faraday offered an unreadable smile. "I'm here for dinner. ~ Neal Shusterman