Ally Condie

“Things aren’t fair. It’s our job to do what we can to change that.”

“My father has always broken the rules for those he loves, just as my mother has always kept them for the same reason. [...] 'We can't give you the life you want,' my father says, his eyes wet. He looks at my mother and she nods at him to continue. 'We wish we could. But we can help you have a chance to decide which life you want.”

“He's never taught to dance, and yet he's guiding me.He dosen't notice because he's concentrating so hard on what he dosen't have-- what he thinks he can't do”

“My mother holds Bram tightly. I draw i ragged breath, the kind you take when the pain is too deep to cry, when you can;t cry because all you are is pain, and if you let some of it out, you might cease to exist.I want to do something to make this better, even though I know tha nothing can change the fact of my father gone and under ground”

“Parents are always giving things that are not taken”

“When thigs liek this happen-when what was meant to help results in harm, whenn salve brings pain instead of healing- it is clear how wrong even choices intended to be right can become”

“For a moment, I'm part of it all. Then I'm just apart”

“I should be with Ky in the infirmary. i should be with Xander in prinson. I should be sorting for a cure. can only try to do all three and hope these pieces of myself are enough to find something that can make me whole”

“Things happen whether you deserve them or not”

“Climbing into dark for youWill you wait in stars for me?”

“I think how this is always the way he is, giving me something even when most would think there was nothing left to do but let go”

“I wouldn't have seen the light if she hadn't pointed out, but once sje did, it became impossible to ignore.”

“Mountains, I realize. That's what the ocean is. Those waves are peaks. The stars are lights in houses and on streets. The earth reflects the sky and the sky meets the earth and, every now and then, if we're lucky, we have a moment to see how small we are”

“Because if you can't dream you can't pretend that he's still there”

“i wouldn't care how small the world became as long as i had Cassia at the center of mine”

“I realize now how much courage it takes to choose the life you want, whatever that might be.”

“I wish I could have one without the other, but that's the problem with being alive. You don't usually get to choose the measure of suffering or the degree of joy you have.”

“If you let hope inside, it takes you over. It feeds on your insides and uses your bones to climb and grow. Eventually it becomes the thing that is your bones, that holds you together. Holds you up until you don't know how to live without it anymore. To pull it out of you would kill you entirely.”

“And it strikes me that this is how writing anything is, really. A collaboration between you who give the words and they who take them and find meaning in them, or put music behind them, or turn them aside because they were not what was needed.”

“Which goes to show that caring about anyone leaves you vulnerable.”

“It's nice, isn't it... to be part of something greater than yourself.”

“But I feel separated now, as though a clear thin wall rises up distinctly between myself and those staring at me. We can see each other, but we can't cross over.”

“He unknowingly throws me a lifeline with those words. I am not drowning in worry anymore. I am neck deep and it still washes over me in cold waves, but now I can breathe.”

“I draw in a ragged breath, the kind you take when the pain is too deep to cry, when you can't cry because all you are is pain, and if you let some of it out, you might cease to exist.”

“For some reason, the act of writing them down makes me remember. Each word I write brings me closer to finding the right one.”

“[..] I know he won't stop fighting. Even if it's the kind of quiet fight on the inside that you can't always see.”

“I'll go over again and again until I've finally crossed to where he is”

“If I could find one, I would cover the bark with her name the way I used to cover her hand with mine on the Hill.”

“In a story, you can turn to the front and begin again and everyone lives once more. That doesn't work in real life. And I love my real people the most.”

“And it is strange that absence can feel like presence.”

“So many times in my life I’ve felt as though looking at Em is like seeing another variation of myself, but I don’t feel that way now. Too much has changed recently. Still, Em is my best girl friend. Growing apart doesn’t change the fact that for a long time we grew side by side; our roots will always be tangled. I’m glad for that.-Cassia, from the novel Matched.”

“I put my hands flat on the papers, breathing in, holding on. He touched these too.I turned through the papers, looking at each page. And in that cold metal aisle, alone, I wanted him. I wanted his hands at my back and his lips speaking poems on mine and our journey to each other to be completed, the miles between us consumed and all distance closed.”

“Right then I knew we were feeling the same thing. I knew we loved Cassia, if not exactly the same way, then the same amount. And the amount was: completely.”

“I know the Otherlands are to her what Ky is to me, the best, most beautiful place, not fully realized, but full of promise.”

“He says my name, over and over as we move together, until I'm caught in a strange place between weak and strong, between dizziness and clarity and need and satiety and give and take and... "Ky," I say back.”

“You can't kill anything that's always moving and changing”

“The pain wants to eat me away. I wish I could have one without the other, but that's the problem with being alive. You don't usually get to choose the measure of suffering or the degree of joy you have.”

“But my father goes on."And I've noticed other things,too.I think you're in love with Ky Markham.I think you want to find him,wherever he's gone.”

“Newrose, oldrose, Queen Anne’s lace.Water, river, stone, and sun.  Wind over hill, under tree.Past the border none can see.  Climbing into dark for youWill you wait in stars for me?”

“It's not all gone. She loved someone before and so did I. The Society and the Rising and the world are all still out there, pressing against us. But Lei holds them away. She's made enough space for two people to stand up together, whether or not any Society or Rising says that they can. She's done it before. The amazing thing is that she's not afraid to do it again. When we fall in love the first time, we don't know anything. We risk a lot less than we do if we choose to love again.There is something extraordinary about the first time falling.But if feels even better to find myself standing on solid ground, with someone holding on to me, pulling me back, and know that I'm doing the same for her.”

“I'm drawn to him and tied to him with the cords of a thousand different memories.”

“Trots att han ler oftare numera är jag fortfarande girig efter det. Ibland sträcker jag fram handen och rör vid hands läppar när han ler.”

“I know how it feels when people look right through you, or worse, see you as something or someone other than what you are.”

“Until now, I've never been able to see while I fly, and I feel a dizzying lightness as I look out at the land below us.Is this what I've missed?The stars have come to the earth, and the ocean has turned over the ground; dark waves meet the sky. They are unmoving, barely visible but for the light of the sun rising behind them.Mountains, I realize. That's what the ocean is. Those waves are peaks. The stars are lights in houses and on streets. The earth reflects the sky and the sky meets the earth and, every now and then, if we're lucky, we have a moment to see how small we are.”

“I'm so tired.Once, I wanted to watch the floods coming into a canyon, to stand on the edge and see it happen, on ground that was safe but shaking. I'd like to hear the trees snapy away and see the water come higher, I thought, but only from a place where it couldn't reach me.Now I think it might be a terrifying, bright relief to stand on the canyon floor and see the wall of water coming down, and to know this is it, I am finished, and before you could even complete the thought, you would be swallowed, and whole.”

“Sometimes paper is only paper," my mothers says. "Words are just words. Ways to capture the real thing. Don't be afraid to remember that."I know what she means. Writing, painting, singing--it cannot stop everything. Cannot halt death in its tracks. But perhaps it can make the pause between death's footsteps sound and look and feel beautiful, can make the space of waiting a place where you can linger without as much fear. For we are all walking each other to our deaths, and the journey there between footsteps makes up our lives.”

“What is the point of having something lovely if you never share it?”

“Denn mit jeder Minute, die man mit jemand anderem verbringt, schenkt man ihm einen Teil des eigenen Lebens und nimmt dafür einen Teil von seinem.”

“The darkness behind doesn't worry me; neither do the stars ahead. I think of how perhaps the best way to fly would be with hands full of earth so you always remember where you came from, how hard walking could be.”

“Ni ger oss skärvor av liv istället för livet. Jag vill inte bara smaka på allt utan att någonsin få njuta av en hel måltid.”