Lauren Oliver

“Of all the systems of the body - neurological, cognitive, special, sensory - the cardiological system is the most sensitive and easily disturbed. The role of society must be to shelter these systems from infection and decay, or else the future of the human race is at stake. Like a summer fruit that is protected from insect invasion, bruising, and rot by the whole mechanism of modern farming; so must we protect the heart.”

“Symptoms of Amor Deliria NervosaPHASE ONE:-preoccupation; difficulty focusing-dry mouth-perspiration, sweaty palms-fits of dizziness and disorientation-reduced mental awareness; racing thoughts; impaired reasoning skillsPHASE TWO:-periods of euphoria; hysterical laughter and heightened energy-periods of despair; lethargy-changes in appetite; rapid weight loss or weight gain-fixation; loss of other interests-compromised reasoning skills; distortion of reality-disruption of sleep patterns; insomnia or constant fatigue-obsessive thoughts and actions-paranoia; insecurityPHASE THREE (CRITICAL):-difficulty breathing-pain in the chest, throat or stomach-complete breakdown of rational faculties; erratic behavior; violent thoughts and fantasies; hallucinations and delusionsPHASE FOUR (FATAL):-emotional or physical paralysis (partial or total)-deathIf you fear that you or someone you know may have contracted deliria, please call the emergency line toll-free at 1-800-PREVENT to discuss immediate intake and treatment.”

“Unhappiness is bondage; therefore, happiness is freedom. The way to find happiness is through the cure. Therefore, it is only through the cure that one finds freedom.”

“That's when you really lose people, you know.When the pain passes.”

“Time jumps. It leaps. It pours away like water through fingers.”

“Rainstorms are incredible: falling shards of glass, the air full of diamonds.”

“No guy in his right mind would ever choose me when there are people like Hana in the world: It would be like settling for a stale cookie when what you really want is a big bowl of ice cream, whipped cream and cherries and chocolate sprinkles included.”

“The devil stole into the Garden of Eden. He carried with him the disease - amor deliria nervosa - in the form of a seed. It grew and flowered into a magnificent apple tree, which bore apples as bright as blood.-From Genesis: A Complete History of the World and the Known Universe, by Steven Horace, PhD, Harvard University”

“Once Mo had closed the gates, he returned to his little stone hut, and his half-eaten sandwich of butter and canned sardines, and his mug of thick hot chocolate, which every night he poured carefully into a thermos labeled COFFEE.”

“Poetry isn't like any writing I've ever heard before. I don't understand all of it, just bits of images, sentences that appear half-finished, all fluttering together like brightly colored ribbons in the wind.”

“Take it from me: If you hear the past speaking to you, feel it tugging up your back and runing its fingers up your spine, the best thing to do-the only thing-is run.”

“... he had never once been frightened of a living one before. They were too fragile, too easily broken and dismantled: They had bones that broke and skin that tore and hearts that gave up with a sigh and rolled over.”

“The guard's name was Mo, short for Molasses, as in slow as molasses or thick as molasses. The nickname had been his since he was so young he no longer remembered what his real name was. ANd it was true that from his earliest infancy, although his heart was as big and as warm and as generous as an open hand, his brain had seemed just a tiny bit small.”

“But that wasn't why the boy, whose name was Will but who also answered to "Useless" and "Hopeless" and "Snot-Face" and "Sniveler" (at least when the alchemist was the one calling to him), felt sorry for himself.”

“Are you a girl or a boy?' Liesl was wearing the same thin nightshirt she had been wearing since Tuesday, when her father died, and it occurred to her that if the ghost was a boy, she should cover up. 'Neither,' the ghost replied.Liesel was startled. 'You have to be one or the other.''I don't have to be anything,' the ghost replied, sounding irritated. 'I am what I am and that's all. Things are different on the Other Side, you know. Things are... blurrier.”

“DOES THIS STRAITJACKET MAKE MY BUTT LOOK BIG?”

“Sometimes I feel as though there are two me's, one coasting directly on top of the other: the superficial me, who nods when she's supposed to nod and says what she's supposed to say, and some other, deeper part, the part that worries and dreams... Most of the time they move along in sync and I hardly notice the split, but sometimes it feels as though I'm two whole different people and I could rip apart at any second.”

“Additionally, Liesl and Po is the embodiment of what writing has always been for me at its purest and most basic--not a paycheck, certainly; not an idea, even; and not an escape. Actually, it is the opposite of an escape; it is a way back in, a way to enter and make sense of a world that occasionally seems harsh and terrible and mystifying. (From the "Author's Note" at the end).”

“Raven has lost deeply, again and again, and she, too, has buried herself. There are pieces of her scattered all over. Her heart is nestled next to a small set of bones buried beside a frozen river, which will emerge with the spring thaw, a skeleton ship rising out of the water”.”

“Are you ever afraid to go to sleep? Afraid of what comes next?”He smiles a sad little smile and I swear it’s like he knows. “Sometimes I’m afraid of what I’m leaving behind,” he says.”

“And I love you too.” His fingers skate the edge of my jaw, dance brieflyover my lips. “You should know that. You have to know that.”

“Everything ends, people move on, they don't look back. It's how they should be.”

“What I meant was, you looked happier in the pictures.”

“We should be protected from the people who will leave us in the end, from all the people who will disappear or forget us.”

“Maybe this is the secret to talking to boys--maybe you just have to be angry all the time.”

“You have to learn that people are always listening.”

“You have to understand. I am no one special. I am just a single girl. I am five feet two inches tall and I am in-between in every way. But I have a secret. You can build walls all the way to the sky and I will find a way to fly above them. You can try to pin me down with a hundred thousand arms, but I will find a way to resist.”

“At a certain point your brain stops to rationalize things. At a certain point it gives up, shuts off, shuts down.”

“An itchy feeling began to work its way through my body, as though a thousand mosquitoes were circulating through my blood, biting me from the inside, making me want to scream, jump, squirm. I ran.”

“It's the time of the night I like best, when most people are asleep and it feels like the world belongs completely to my friends and me, as though nothing exists apart from out little circle: everywhere else is darkness and quiet.”

“Lena: I just want to be happy. I just want to be normal, like everybody else.Alex: Are you sure that being like everybody else will make you happy?”

“Everything I see and touch reminds me of him, and so everything I see and touch is perfect.”

“Tienes que comprenderlo: Yo no soy nadie especial. Soy solo una chica normal. Mido uno sesenta y soy del montón en muchas cosas.Pero tengo un secreto. Aunque construyan murallas que lleguen hasta el cielo, yo encontraré la forma de volar sobre ellas. Aunque intenten atraparme con cientos de armas, yo encontraré un modo de resistir. Y hay muchos como yo ahí fuera, más de los que crees. Gente que se niega a dejar de creer. Gente que se niega a volver a tierra. Gente que ama en un mundo sin murallas, gente que ama frente al odio, frente al rechazo, sin miedo y contra toda esperanza.Te amo. Recuerda. Eso no pueden quitártelo.”

“Most of the time one night blends into the next and weeks blend into weeks and months into other months. And sooner or later we all die. But at the beginning of the night anything’s possible.”

“Black is too morbid; red will set them on edge; pink is too juvenile; orange is freakish”

“As soon as I look up, his eyes click onto my face. The breath whooshes out of my body and everything freezes for a second, as though I’m looking at him through my camera lens, zoomed in all the way, the world pausing for that tiny span of time between the opening and closing of the shutter.”

“That was the kind of world they live in: When people were afraid, they did not always do what they knew to be right. They turned away. They closed their eyes. They said, Tomorrow. Tomorrow perhaps I'll do something about it. And they said that until they died.”

“Two weeks until your cure" she says finally. "Sixteen days" I say, but in my head I'm counting: Seven days. Seven days until I'm free and away from all these people and their sliding superficial lives brushing past one another gliding, gliding, gliding from life to death. For them there's hardly a change between the two.”

“It's a miracle I was able to get out of the house today. It's a miracle I'm even wearing pants, a double miracle I remembered to wear shoes.”

“Funny how certain things stay with you.”

“I guess there are some things you never get used to.”

“The only thing worse than having no friends is being pitied for having no friends.”

“But I have a secret. You can build walls all the way to the sky and I will find a way to fly above them. You can try to pin me down with a hundred thousand arms, but I wil find a way to resist. I love you. Remember. They cannot take it.”

“I don't know where to go. I don't know what comes now." "Don't worry," Will said. "We'll figure something out." Liesl managed to smile at him. She liked that word: *we*. It sounded warm and open, like a hug.”

“The alchemist was dazed and dumbfounded, as the true meaning of the magic was revealed: *The dead will rise from glade to glen and ancient will be young again*. The dead had, after all, risen. From dead and dry things there was growth, and new life everywhere. And the endlessly long winter had at last turned to spring. From life to death and back again to life. It was indeed the greatest magic in the world.”

“Po swirled upward from where it had been sitting, and floated over to the window. "When you go swimming and you put your head under the water," Po said, "and everything is strange and underwater-sounding, and strange and underwater-looking, you don't miss the air do you? You don't miss the above-water sounds and the above-water look. It's just different." "True." Liesl was quiet for a moment. Then she added, "But I bet you'd miss it if you were drowning. I bet you'd really miss the air then.”

“Most people don't want to be saved. Besides, if you keep bailing everybody out, they'll never learn to paddle on their own.”

“When people were afraid, they did not always do what they knew to be right. They turned away. They closed their eyes. They said, Tomorrow. Tomorrow, perhaps, I'll do something about it. And they said that until they died.”

“He was an orphan, taken on by the alchemist to be little better than a slave. Will had never, not once, had anywhere to go--not really. He realized this for the first time as he was crouching in the alleyway, but the realization, instead of making him feel unhappy, made him feel strangely free. It was like walking into a room and hearing everyone go silent and knowing yes, it was true, they *were* all talking about you; and they had been saying that your feet smelled like rotten fish; but also that you didn't care.”

“It was all very strange, Mr. Gray thought, as he wiped the coffee canister clean with a sponge. Very, very mysterious. You were born; you lived a whole life; and at the end, you wound up in a coffee canister."Ah, well," he said out loud quietly. "That's just the way things are. Life's a funny business." Death, he supposed, was the punch line.”