Ally Condie

“Two little dark figures, looking up. Are they looking at me? Is is him? This far away there's only one way to know. I point to the sky.”

“Was [Sisyphus] from your province?'I don't know. I don't know if he's real,' Ky says. 'If he ever existed.''Then why tell his story?' I don't understand, and for a second I feel betrayed. Why did Ky tell me about this person and make me feel empathy for him when there's no proof that he ever lived at all?Ky pauses for a moment before he answers, ...'Even if he didn't live his story, enough of us have lived lives just like it. So it's true anyway.”

“He's in pain. I am, too. It strikes me that perhaps this is part of what we are fighting to choose. Which pain we feel.”

“Ahora que he descubierto la forma de volar, ¿en qué dirección debería adentrarme en la noche? (...) La negrura que queda atrás no me preocupa, ni tampoco las estrellas que me aguardan.”

“This is a cruel thing to do because when someone knows your story they know you. And they can hurt you. It's why I give mine away in pieces, even to Cassia.”

“We can either try to change everything or just make the most of whatever time we have.”

“Everyday the sun rolls byAcross the sky and through night's doorEvery night the stars light highAbove the Earth and shine once moreAny day her boat might flyAcross the waves and to the shore”

“Can you climb high enough to get above the clouds, look down on the rain from a place in the sun?”

“It's so huge," I say to him, and he nods.”

“That's when I realize that the statistics the Officials give us do not matter to me. I know there are many people who are happy and I am glad for them. But this is Ky. If he is the one person who falls by the wayside while the other ninety-nine are happy and fulfilled, that is not right with me anymore. I realize that I don't care about the Officer pacing below or the other hikers among the trees, or really anything else at all, and that is when I realize how dangerous this truly is.”

“One night," Ky says, "doesn't seem like much to ask." I don't speak. He moves closer and I feel his cheek against mine and breathe in the scent of sage and pine, of old dust and fresh water and of him. "For one night, can we just think of each other? Not the Society or the Rising or even our families?" "No," I say. "No what?" He tangles one of his hands in my hair, the other draws me closer still. "No, I don't think we can," I say. "And no, it isn't too much to ask.”

“Porque al final no siempre puedes elegir que conservar. Solo puedes elegir como lo dejas ir.”

“Time, Vick said, "is what we don't have.”

“No.""Why?""No one needs to know," I say."To know what?How long you've lasted?" Vick asks."To know anything about me," I say.”

“And when I see Ky again, which I know will happen, I will whisper the words I have written in his ear, against his lips. And they will change from ash and nothing into flesh and blood.”

“She wraps her arms around me and speaks in my ear. Words just for me--the poetry of I love you--to keep me warm in the cold. With them she turns me back from ash and nothing into flesh and blood.”

“The two of us hold each other's gazes for a long, unembarrassed moment and I feel that Ky knows. I'm not sure what he knows - whether he knows me, or just something about me.”

“Neither of us moves for a moment, locked instead in each other's eyes and in the branches of this Hill we might never finish climbing.”

“Everyone has something of beauty about them.”

“Love changes what is probable and makes unlikely things possible.”

“... and of all the words I have hidden and saved and treasured, these are the ones I will never forget, the most important ones of all.”

“Dreams don't smell or sound as strong as this.”

“I didn't know all that was inside of him, either. I thought I did, but people run deep and complicated like rivers, hold their shape and are carved upon like stone.”

“Everyone has something of beauty about them. But loving lets you look, and look, and look again. You notice the back of a hand, the turn of a head, the way of a walk. When you first love, you look blind and you see it all as the glorious, beloved whole, or a beautiful sum of beautiful parts. But when you see the one you love as pieces, as why's, you can love those parts too, and it's a love at once more complicated and more complete.”

“Love has different shades. Like the way I loved Cassia when I thought she'd never love me. The way I loved her on the Hill. The way I love her now that she came into the canyon for me. It's different. Deeper. I thought I loved her and wanted her before, but as we walk through the canyon together I realize this could be more than a new shade. A whole new color.”

“I love.The most reckless thing of all.”

“Cassia and I sit as near to each other as we can. She leans into me and I keep my arms around her. I don't fool myself that I hold her together- she does that on her own- but holding her keeps me from flying apart.”

“In the end you can't always choose what to keep. You can only choose how you let it go.”

“close your eyes,"I say to Ky, and i bend down, his breathing above me while he waits. "There", I say and he looks at whatI've written. I LOVE YOU”

“It is one thing to make a choice and it is another thing to never have the chance.”

“Sometimes it's faster and more efficient to destroy.”

“Cada minuto que compartimos con alguien le da parte de nuestra vida y nos da parte de la suya”

“Some things are created to be together.”

“I keep my eyes down, looking now at my fingers as they twist the fabric into a knot."I'm sorry. About the way I acted yesterday." When I straighten up, Ky has already moved on."Don't be," Ky says, pulling a tangle of climbing green vines away from a shrub so that we can pass through. He throws the vines at me and I catch them in surprise. "It's good to see you jealous once in a while." He smiles,”

“Lightning. Once it has forked, hot-white, from sky to earth, there is no going back”

“Being with Ky, being with Xander -both things feel like standing in the light. Different types of light, but neither feels dark.”

“Now that I've found the way to fly, which direction should I go into the night?”

“I couldn’t sleep all night,worrying that I’d gotten you in trouble. I care about you.”

“Let me believe in this, all of this, and you believe it too. (Ky Markham)”

“My words never last long. I have to destroy them before anyone sees them. But. I remember them all. For some reason, the act of writing them down makes me remember. Each word I write brings me closer to finding the right ones. And when I see Ky again, which I know will happen, I will whisper the words I have written in his ear, against his lips. and they will change from ash and nothing into flesh and blood.”

“it's Ky's move. In the quiet before the Ky takes his turn, Xander watches him carefully. Ky's hand hovers over the board. For a moment, as he holds the piece in the air, I see where he could put it to win and I know he sees it, too, that he planned the whole game for that last move. He looks at Xander and Xander looks back, both of them locked in some kind of challenge that seems to run deeper and older than what's happening here on this board.Then Ky moves his hand and puts his piece down in a spot where Xander can eventually overtake him for the win. Ky doesn't hessitate once he places the piece; he sets it down with a solid sound and leans back in his chair, looking up at the ceiling. I think I see the slightest hint of a smile on his lips but I can't be sure.”

“at first when the rain fell from the sky so wide and deepit smelled like sage, my favorite smellI went up on the plateau to watch it cometo see the gifts it always broughtbut this rain changed from blue to black and leftnothing.”

“Ky's story, bit by bit, is turning to ash and nothing. Except. He remembers it, and now I do, too.”

“I wouldn't take that tablet Cassia. Not for a report. And perhaps not ever. You are strong enough to go without it.”

“None of that is supposed to matter. But somehow, it does.”

“Ky always acts as though someone watches him. And, apparently, he watches back.”

“There's a reason they didn't keep this poem. This poem tells you to fight.”

“And I think, If i dared to ever open that paper, this would be the place.”

“If I can't pull myself together soon he'll know somethings wrong. We know each other too well.”

“What do you think she would say about my Match?" I ask him. "About what happened today?" He's quiet, and I wait. "I think she would ask you if you wondered.”