Scott Westerfeld

“It's not the traveling that takes courage Tally. I've done much longer trips on my own. It's leaving home.”

“She thought of the orchids spreading across the plains below, choking the life out of other plants, out of the soil itself, selfish and unstoppable. Tally Youngblood was a weed. And, unlike the orchids, she wasn't even a pretty one.”

“The flowers were so beautiful, so delicate and unthreatening, but they choked everything around them.”

“That's how things were out here in the wild, she was learning. Dangerous or beautiful. Or both.”

“However stupid the choice seemed, Shay had made it with her eyes open, and had respected Tally's choice to stay.”

“She wasn't here to gawk. She was an infiltrator, a sneak, an ugly. And she had a mission.”

“One of the most common questions writers are asked is "Where do you get your ideas?" But the sad truth is, we don't know. Ideas can come at any time and from any direction: in the shower, waiting for an elevator, or while bouncing across Wikipedia pages.”

“Listen, you bubblehead-up-until-five-minutes-ago...”

“Suddenly a pair of searchlights lanced out from the frigate. They swept across the dark expanse - bright knives slicing the night into pieces.”

“Haven't you ever known someone rejected by a lover, who, consumed by rage and jealousy, never lets go? They look on from a distance, unseen but boiling inside. The emotion never seems to tire, this hatred mixed with intense obsession, even with a kind of twisted love.”

“Let me get this stright, Aya-Chan. You want me, a person who can't lie, to lie about the fact that I can't lie?" -Frizz mizuno”

“Where did you get that idea for a nose? - Frizz Mizuno”

“Sometimes, the hardest thing was doingnothing.”

“Why are you still wearing...?" Aya began. "Oh, that's not smart plastic? You're really an ugly?"David rolled his eyes and Shay said quietly, "David's never had any surge at all. But I wouldn't use the word ugly...Tally might eat you.”

“Dude, I just watched you climb up a f*cking building!-Lace”

“Their reasons don't mean anything unless I have a choice.”

“I spilled more times than a glass of milk on a roller coaster.”

“I'm Tally Youngblood. Make me pretty." -Tally Youngblood”

“I know what it’s like to be manipulated, Aya-la. And I know what it’s like to be in danger. While your city was building you mansions to live in, my friends and I have been protecting this planet. We’ve spilled more blood than you have flowing in your veins. So don’t try to make me feel guilty! -Tally Youngblood, Extras ”

“The world needed more fireworks- especially now that there was going to be a shortage of beautiful, useless things.”

“It doesn't take much convincing to make someone believe they're better than everyone else.”

“they walked with a pedatory grace.... one of them ripped off their hood and said, "my name is Tally Youngblood and is a special circumstance"....”

“Everyone in the world was programmed by the place they were born, hemmed in by their beliefs, but you had to at least try to grow your own brain.”

“Didn't this beat everything? A pretty and an ugly taking a stroll together. The warden came closer, confusion all over his middle-pretty face. Tally smiled. At least she was causing trouble to the end. "I'm Tally Youngblood," she said. "Make me pretty.”

“Tally sighed, tipping her feet again to follow. "Maybe that's because they have better stuff to do than kid tricks. Maybe partying in town is better than hanging out in a bunch of old ruins." Shay's eyes flashed. "Or maybe when they do the operation-when they grind and stretch your bones to the right shape, peel off your face and rub all your skin away, and stick in plastic cheekbones so you look like everyone else-maybe after going through all that you just aren't very interesting anymore.”

“And you know, these things don't last forever.'I know, Mandy. Nothing does.'That's the spirit.”

“You all say you need us. Well, maybe you do, but not to help, with the millions of bubbly new minds about to be unleashed, with all the cities coming awake at last. Together, you're more than enough to change the world without us. So from now on, David and I are here to stand in your way. You see, freedom has a way of destroying things.”

“Your father always suspected that being pretty-minded is simply the natural state for most people. They want to be vapid and lazy and vain—Maddy glanced at Tally—and selfish. It only takes a twist to lock in that part of their personalities. He always thought that some people could think their way out of it.”

“Come on, it's almost midnight. Let's go watch them cut the cake.”

“ I love you all. But it's time to say good-bye, for now. be careful with the world, or the next time we meet, it might get ugly. -Tally Youngblood”

“And over all those sleepy weeks, the dream always ended the same way, with the dragon coming for the princess saying the same words every time.... "Face it, Tally-wa, you're Special.”

“Tally smiled. At least she was causing trouble to the end. "I'm Tally Youngblood," she said. "make me pretty.”

“I can’t imagine anything worse than being required to have fun. ”

“Ring around the rosie.A pocket full of posie.Ashes ashes, we all fall down.Some people say that this poem is about the Black Death, the fourteenth-century plague that killed 100-million people...Sadly, though, most experts think this is nonsense...How can I be so sure about this rhyme when all the experts disagree?Because I ate the kid who made it up.”

“What you do, the way you think, makes you beautiful.”

“I like my first lines short and declarative. No complicated sentences. Of course, that's not really a Scott thing. It's pretty classic grab-the-reader technique.”

“Which was worse: a friend with brain damage, or one who despised you?”

“You see, freedom has a way of destroying things.”

“As a bio major, I figured "free will" meant chemicals in your brain telling you what to do, the molecules bouncing around in a way that felt like choosing but was actually the dance of little gears--neurons and hormones bubbling up into decisions like clockwork. You don't use your body; it uses you.”

“I don't want to hurt you but I will if I have too - Tally Youngblood”

“Never give us what we really want. Cut the dream into pieces and scatter them like ashes. Dole out the empty promises. Package our aspirations and sell them to us, cheaply made enough to fall apart.”

“you dont see me, now you do, but only if i want you to”