Patrick Ness

“A good idea always attracts other good ideas.”

“The monster showed up just after midnight. As they do.”

“Viola? Keep calling for me–And I’ll keep searching for you–And I’ll find you–You bet yer life on it–I’ll find you–Keep calling for me, Viola–Cuz here I come.”

“As long as I hold it as long as I use it, the knife lives, lives in order to take life, but it has to be commanded, it has to have me to tell it to kill, and it wants to, it wants to plunge and thrust and cut and stab and gouge, but I have to want it to as well, my will has to join with its will. I'm the one who allows it and I'm the one responsible.”

“We all fall but that's not what matters. What matters is picking yourself up again.”

“Francia don’t look too convinced. I never seen arms so crossed.”

“Poo Todd!”

“That's the thing I'm learning about being thrown out on yer own. Nobody does nothing for you. If you don't change it, it don't get changed.”

“Maybe probably ain’t all that comforting a word when it’s maybe yer not dying.”

“I want a campfire box.”

“And then I hear the terrible, terrible scream that of course is the girl getting caught and that’s the choice made, ain’t it?”

“She looks at me. She does. She.”

“Cept for Ben, who I can’t describe much further without seeming soft and stupid and like a boy, so I won’t, just to say that I never knew my pa, but if you woke up one day and had a choice of picking one from a selecshun, if someone said, here, then, boy, pick who you want, then Ben wouldn’t be the worst choice you could make that morning.”

“I am Todd Hewitt, I think to myself with my eyes closed. I am twelve years and twelve months old. I live in Prentisstown on New World. I will be a man in one month’s time exactly.”

“Better the devil you know. I wonder why the only choice is twixt two devils, tho.”

“Conor shook his head. "That's a terrible story. And a cheat." "It is a true story," the monster said. "Many things that are true feel like a cheat.”

“HEREIt’s-Can I say?It’s like the song of a family where everything’s always all right, it’s a song of belonging that makes you belong just by hearing it, it’s a song that’ll always take care of you and never leave you. If you have a heart, it breaks, if you have a heart that’s broken, it fixes.”

“Conor held tightly onto his mother.And by doing so, he could finally let her go.”

“And then his noise falls completely silent-And he stops struggling-And looking right into my eyes-He dies.My Todd dies.”

“Simone! Are you all right? Simone!"And a voice, grunting with pain, says, "Todd?"And-And it ain't Simone's voice.The smoke starts to clear.And it ain't Simone."You saved me, Todd," says the Mayor, lying there, bad burns all over his face and hands, his clothes smoking like a brush fire. "You saved my life."And his eyes are full of wonder of it-That in the rush of the explozhun the person I chose to save-The one I chose without even thinking-(without there even being time for him to control me-)(no time for him to make me do it-)Was the Mayor.”

“This is what war does. Right here, in my hands. This is war.”

“Shout for libraries. Shout for the young readers who use them.”

“They open up the world. Because knowledge is useless if you don’t know how to find it, if you don’t even know where to begin to look. - on librarians”

“Librarians are tour-guides for all of knowledge.”

“There's so much proscription in the lives of young people, and it's so vital to have a place that says, look, here are the doors onto the world and amazingly, you're free to choose any one you like. - Patrick Ness on Libraries”

“I was a hugely unchaperoned reader, and I would wander into my local public library and there sat the world, waiting for me to look at it, to find out about it, to discover who I might be inside it."[Patrick Ness slams library cuts (The Guardian, 23 June 2011)]”

“Libraries are not facing crisis, they are in crisis.”

“A sematary," I say. "A what?" Viola says, looking round at all the square stones marking out their graves. Must be a hundred, maybe two, in orderly rows and well-kept grass. Settler life is hard and it's short and lotsa New World people have lost the battle."It's a place for burying dead folk," I say.Her eyes widen. "A place for doing what?""Don't people die in space?" I ask."Yeah," she says. "But we burn them. We don't put them in holes." She crosses her arms around herself, mouth and forehead frowning, peering around at the graves. "How can this be sanitary?”

“Her accent's funny, different from mine, different from anyone in Prentisstown's. Her lips make different kinds of outlines for the letters, like they're swooping down on them from above, pushing them into shape, telling them what to say. In Prentisstown, everyone talks like they're sneaking up on their words, ready to club them from behind.”

“Men lie, and they lie to theirselves worst of all.”

“As destruction goes, the monster said behind him, this is all remarkably pitiful.”

“Your mind will believe comforting lies while also knowing the painful truths that make those lies necessary. And your mind will punish you for believing both.”

“If the world wants you, it's gonna keep on coming till it gets you. And who am I that can fix it? Who am I that can change this if the world wants it so badly? Who am I to stop the end of the world if it keeps on coming?”

“Life equals running and when we stop running maybe that's how we'll know life is finally finished.”

“His grandma burst into his mum's hospital room ahead of him with a terrible question on her face. But there was a nurse inside who answered immediately. "It's okay," she said. "You're in time.”

“Because humans are complicated beasts, the monster said. How can a queen be both a good witch and a bad witch? How can a prince be a murderer and a saviour? How can an apothecary be evil-tempered but right-thinking? How can a parson be wrong-thinking but good-hearted? How can invisible men make themselves more lonely by being seen?"I don't know," Connor shrugged, exhausted. "Your stories never made any sense to me."The answer is that it does not matter what you think, the monster said, because your mind will contradict itself a hundred times each day. You wanted her to go at the same time you were desperate for me to save her. Your mind will believe comforting lies while also knowing the painful truths that make those lies necessary. And your mind will punish you for believing both.”

“You were merely wishing for the end of pain, the monster said. Your own pain. An end to how it isolated you. It is the most human wish of all.”

“Four lines, and the world went quiet.I'm sorry for telling everyone about your mum, read the first line.I miss being your friend, read the second.Are you okay? read the third.I see you, read the fourth, with the I underlined about a hundred times.”

“Conor was no longer invisible. They all saw him now.But he was further away than ever.”

“There was once an invisible man who had grown tired of being unseen. It was not that he was actually invisible. It was that people had become used to not seeing him. And if no one sees you, are you really there at all?"”

“Here is the hardest hit of all, O'Malley," Harry said. "Here is the very worst thing I can do to you."He held out his hand, as if asking for a handshake. He was asking for a handshake.Conor responded almost automatically, putting out his own hand and shaking Harry's before he even thought about what he was doing. They shook hands like two businessmen at the end of a meeting."Goodbye, O'Malley," Harry said, looking into Conor's eyes. "I no longer see you.”

“The parson refused to believe the Apothecary could help, said the monster. When times were easy, the parson nearly destroyed the Apothecary, but when the going grew tough, he was willing to throw aside every belief if it would save his daughters."So?" Conor said. "So would anyone! So would everyone! What did you expect him to do?”

“He was greedy and rude and bitter, but he was still a healer. The parson, though, what was he? He was nothing. Belief is half of all healing. Belief in the cure, belief in the future that awaits. And here was a man who lived on belief, but who sacrificed it at the first challenge, right when he needed it most. He believed selfishly and fearfully. And it took the lives of his daughters.”

“Because I'm not blind to how Harry works, you know," she said. "A bully with charisma and top marks is still a bully." She sighed, annoyed. "He'll probably end up Prime Minister one day. God help us all.”

“Many things that are true feel like a cheat. Kingdoms get the princes they deserve, farmers’ daughters die for no reason, and sometimes witches merit saving. Quite often, actually. You’d be surprised.”

“You think I tell you stories to teach you lessons? the monster said. You think I have coming walking out of time and earth itself to teach you a lesson in niceness?”

“After he killed the farmer's daughter, said the monster, the prince lay down next to her and returned to sleep. When he awoke, he acted out a pantomime should anyone be watching. But also, it may surprise you to learn, for himself. The monster's branches creaked. Sometimes people need to lie to themselves most of all.”

“Conor's grandma wasn't like other grandmas. He'd met Lily's grandma loads of times, and she was how grandmas were supposed to be: crinkly and smiley, with white hair and the whole lot. She cooked meals where she made three separate eternally boiled vegetable portions for everybody and would giggle in the corner at Christmas with a small glass of sherry and a paper crown on her head.Conor's grandma wore tailored trouser suits, dyed her hair to keep out the grey, and said things that made no sense at all, like "Sixty is the new fifty" or "Classic cars need the most expensive polish." What did that even mean? She emailed birthday cards, would argue with waiters over wine, and still had a job. Her house was even worse, filled with expensive old things you could never touch, like a clock she wouldn't even let the cleaning lady dust. Which was another thing. What kind of grandma had a cleaning lady?”

“Who am I? the monster repeated, still roaring. I am the spine that the mountains hang upon! I am the tears that the rivers cry! I am the lungs that breathe the wind! I am the wolf that kills the stag, the hawk that kills the mouse, the spider that kills the fly! I am the stag, the mouse and the fly that are eaten! I am the snake of the world devouring its tail! I am everything untamed and untameable! It brought Conor up close to its eye. I am thils wild earth, come for you, Conor O'Malley."You look like a tree," Conor said.”

“A thing worth learning is worth learning well.”