Scott Westerfeld

“He chuckled, shaking his head. "Man, you hunters. I break a pencil and there's hell to pay.""I can see how that's deeply unfair, Chip. Especially if that pencil should try to kill you with it teeth and claws, or launch its brood of a thousand deadly paper clips against you.”

“Tally turned away. Five minutes was suddenly too long to stand here, eyes burning, unable to cry.”

“Let others wage war. You, lucky Austria, shall marry.”

“To everyone who loves a long-secret romance, revealed at last.”

“No matter how far from the war we run, it always catches up with us.”

“You can't blame a match for a house made of straw”

“He thinks Goliath can end the war," Alek managed at last. "The man wants peace!" "As do we all," Count Volger said. "But there are many ways to end a war. Some are more peaceful than others.”

“Typographical laziness was slowly destroying our culture, according to Lexa and her pals. Inexactitude was death.”

“Your public-spiritedness is appreciated, I assure you.”

“Alek was right behind her now, his body pressing close as he adjusted her sword arm. She hadn't realized this fencing business would be so touchy. He grasped her waist, sending a crackle across her skin.If Alek moved his hands any higher, he might notice what was hidden beneath her careful tailoring.“Always keep sideways to your opponent,” he said, gently turning her. “That way, your chest presents the smallest possible target.”“Aye, the smallest possible target,” Deryn sighed. Her secret was safe, it seemed.”

“We're not freaks, Tally. We're normal. We may not be gorgeous, but at least we're not hyped-up Barbie dolls.”

“I’m not against thinking; I’m only against thinking that thinking on its own will get you out of a hole. Shovel also needed.”

“They'll be fine," Wickersham said. "Practice makes perfect."I had to ask. "You practice running away?""We knew we'd make enemies. Other organizations have fire drills; we have oh-shit-someone-found-our-ass drills.”

“Nature can blow me.”

“So, there was this beautiful princess. She was locked in a high tower(...)She was stuck up there(...)So the only thing was to jump.”

“So what are those balloons for? In case you fall off your hoverboard?' -- Tally to Peris”

“Tally-When you looked around at everyone else how come you didn’t notice they were brain damaged?Az - We didn’t have much to compare our fellow citizens with. Only a few colleagues who seemed different from most people, more engaged, but that was hardly a surprise.History would indicate that the majority of people have always been sheep. Before the operation there were wars and mass hatred and clear cutting. Whatever these lesions make us, it isn’t a far cry from how humanity was in the rusty era. These days we’re just a bit easier to manage.”

“He turned to face her again, his late-pretty composure crumbling. "But you're...""Pretty? Think again." She smiled. "I'm Tally Youngbood. My mind is very ugly. And I'm taking your car.”

“Around the outskirts of the city, cut off from town by the black oval of the river, everything was in darkness. Everyone ugly was in bed by now.”

“Rex lost his specs.”

“Sometimes you can’t choose what you love.”

“It didn't matter what you looked like. It was how you carried yourself, how you saw yourself.”

“Left alone, human beings are a plague. They multiply relentlessly, consuming every resource, destroying everything they touch.”

“Tally wondered if you could talk somebody out of their brain damage.”

“All that glitters is not hovery.”

“Once we turn, it’s new pretty, middle pretty, late pretty.” Shay dropped her arms, and her board stopped drifting. “Then dead pretty.”

“humanity is a cancer on the body of the world”

“so pRetty i hAd to Eat hiM”

“And it was pretty clear that no prince was showing up, or at least that he was really late.”

“We needed to become world-famous soon, while there was still that kind of world to be famous in...”

“Even mocking people helped their face stats. In the reputation economy, the only real way to hurt anyone was to ignore them completely. And it was pretty hard to ignore someone who made your blood boil.”

“She smiled, turning toward Alek. "You don't know what a friend you have in Dylan.”

“Lilt pulled away. "I saw what he was doing, so I cleared a path for him. I helped him do it..." She shook her head, tears tracking the dust off her face, and turned to stare at the fallen tower. "Have we all gone mad to want this?”

“At least one thing was consistent about her life: It just kept on getting more complicated.”

“Sometimes it felt like her life was a series of falls from ever-greater heights.”

“Having a brain hurt so much sometimes.”

“Being pretty-minded is simply the natural state for most people. They want to be vapid and lazy and vain . . . and selfish. It only takes a twist to lock in that part of their personalities.”

“And the worst thing was, there were no mirrors out there in the wild, so the princess was left wondering whether she in fact was still beautiful... or if the fall had changed the story completely.”

“Even bloody and bruised, he had an odd sort of swagger, as if he crash-landed in giant air ships every day.”

“it's not called the Rusty Ruins because some guy called Rusty found them.”

“I can pick up the city feeds on my antenna. It said they were going to change you all. Turn you into something less dangerous. Are you still...?"She gazed at him. "What do you think, David?"He peered into her eyes for a long moment, then sighed and shook his head. "You just look like Tally to me."She looked down, her vision blurring.What's the matter?"Nothing, David." She shook her head. "You just took on five million years of evolution again."I what? Did I say something wrong?"No." She smiled. "You said something right.”

“Are you saying that your fat-ass cat has turned me into a vampire? Um, maybe?”

“your not alone, Tally. Don't pretend you are”

“you just took on five million years of evolution again”

“That Shay was in possesion of hand grenades was a comforting thought showed what kind of night this had become.”

“It's not the way Zane looks, David," she said, her voice trembling with anger. "It's because he makes me bubbly, and because we took a lot of risks together. It could just as easily be me lying there, and he would stay with me if it was.""It's just programming!" "No. It's because I love him.”

“And you've actually watched it yourself?' I asked. 'Willingly?'Sure. I had to see it, you know? Besides we should be safe. Only one in twenty viewers actually had a bad reaction. And it was mostly kids who were affected. I mean younger than you guys. I think the average age was about ten.'That made me feel somewhat better.But that was a kid's show,' said Jen. 'Maybe it affects everyone, but not that many adults were watching.'That made me feel less better. I wanted my protective bangs back.”

“Nature was tough, it could be dangerous, but unlike Dr. Cable or shay, or peris-unlike people in general-it made sense. The problems it threw at you could be solved rationally.”

“there was a beautiful princess with a prince kissing her lips only the prince was totally ugly”

“the parties are no fun until everyone gets drunk”