Top 100 Shusterman Quotes
#2. #1) YOU ARRIVED HERE BY NECESSITY. YOU STAY HERE BY CHOICE.
Neal Shusterman
#3. The Salton Sea is a huge dead lake south of Palm Springs. There's a town there that's the asshole of the armpit of the world. You'd fit right in.
Neal Shusterman
#4. Happiness is a vector. It can only be defined by the speed at which you're moving away from pain.
Neal Shusterman
#5. Tools are neither demonic nor divine. It's all about who wields them.
Neal Shusterman
#6. (B)ut a second can split in a million different directions ...
Neal Shusterman
#7. It does, Tennyson, because there's a fine line between confidence and arrogance. There's a fine line between being assertive and being a bully. And you're on the wrong side of both lines.
Neal Shusterman
#8. It was at that moment he realized that his spirit was truly human once more. For he no longer remembered how to be alone without being lonely.
Neal Shusterman
#9. Words don't hurt you. Which is one of the hugest criminal lies perpetrated by adults against children in this world. Because words hurt more than any physical pain.
Neal Shusterman
#10. For standing between Cody and his pain is my obligation, and standing between my uncle and his pain is my rent, but the pain I coax from Bronte is my joy
Neal Shusterman
#11. (W)hen you cover up strange things, they never go away completely, do they?
Neal Shusterman
#12. We weren't going anywhere, Nick said with a smile. He was trying to sound charming, but instead wound up sounding heavily sedated.
Neal Shusterman
#14. And everyone was selecting their leaders not by their ability to lead, but by where they stood on this single issue. It was beyond madness.
Neal Shusterman
#15. He does not deserve this. He has done many things, not all good, but he does not deserve this. And he never did get his priest.
Neal Shusterman
#16. Live by your impulses, and you'll be just like them. You're better than that, aren't you, Red?
Neal Shusterman
#17. Shouldn't those who were born to expect death be the sole subjects of gleaning?" went the popular wisdom. But it was bigotry masquerading as wisdom. Selfishness posing as enlightenment.
Neal Shusterman
#18. Even the darkest moments of one's life can be turned around and shed light for others.
Neal Shusterman
#19. I came running down the stairs that morning, like it was Christmas. My parents were already up. In my family, presents never waited; they were there upon waking. Our family has a problem with what they called delayed gratification. We want what we want when we want it, and we always want it now.
Neal Shusterman
#20. I have a color-coded computer spreadsheet that divides things down to chapter fragments. Each character's point-of-view is a different color. The text of the manuscript is color-coded the same way. The last thing I do before submitting the manuscript is turn all those colors back to black.
Neal Shusterman
#22. Hope is a terrible thing to lose. Sometimes that wounded space gets filled with scar tissue, bitter, ugly, and angry.
Neal Shusterman
#23. Mom removed all games that remotely suggest violence and death-but Cody's doing a good job of making harmless cartoon characters suffer in fresh and inventive ways.
Neal Shusterman
#24. It was easier to deal with Tennyson when he was fighting me; but having him on my side was frightening, because now I didn't know who the enemy was.
Neal Shusterman
#25. It's amazing that something as simple as a kiss can overpower the worst of worries.
Neal Shusterman
#26. You look spectacluar, Cam.' She smoothes out his shirt and straightens his tie. 'You look like the shining star you are!'
'Let's hope I don't give birth to complex elements.'
She looks at him quizzically.
'Supernova,' he says. 'If I'm a shining star, let's hope I don't blow up.
Neal Shusterman
#27. The living would come up with endless theories to argue, because the living were exceptionally good at arguing, especially when no one knew the answer.
Neal Shusterman
#29. Everything has meaning, or nothing has meaning. Which world would you rather live in?
Neal Shusterman
#30. He's become like that briefcase in the ground-full of gems yet void of light, so nothing sparkles, nothing shines.
Neal Shusterman
#31. Lev had agreed to go with him because he knew the two tilled a need in each other. CyFi was like a preacher with no flock. He couldn't exist without an audience, and Lev needed someone who could fill his head with ideas, to replace the lifetime of ideas that had been taken from him.
Neal Shusterman
#32. One cannot let the events of one's past murder one's future.
Neal Shusterman
#33. Of course, if more people had been organ donors, unwinding never would have happened ... but people like to keep what's theirs, even after their dead. It didnt take long for ethics to be crushed by greed. Unwinding became big business, and people let it happen
Neal Shusterman
#34. while it's five in the morning here, it's also five in the evening somewhere in China - proving that incompatible truths make perfect sense when seen with global perspective.
Neal Shusterman
#35. As your older brother, it's my sacred duty to save you from yourself."
She brings her fists down on the table, making all the dinner plates jump. "The ONLY reason you're fifteen minutes older than me is because you cut in front of the line, as usual!
Neal Shusterman
#36. All I'm saying is that, unless you're immortal, nothing can really belong to you. The best you can hope for is to hold something for a while, but in the end you've got to give it back.
Neal Shusterman
#37. You know," he said, his voice making me feel cold in spite of the heat, "this city can get ahold of you and pull you back no matter how hard you try to climb out. Like a grave.
Neal Shusterman
#38. Nelson tries not to react, but he knows that by not saying anything, his greed has expressed itself.
Neal Shusterman
#39. Like everything else in his life, he crashed forward, caution the first casualty.
Neal Shusterman
#40. This game's stupid," said Lief. "Who the heck is Zelda, anyway?
Neal Shusterman
#42. You don't undo thirteen years of brainwashing in two days.
Neal Shusterman
#44. You Unwinds are all the same. You think that because no one loves you, then you can't love anyone. All right, then, if there's no one you love, then pick someone who needs to hear what you have to say.
Neal Shusterman
#46. Perhaps, thought Talon, there was a path in between. A way to shed their ignorance without losing their souls.
Neal Shusterman
#47. I've got a secret for you," she whispered with n unpleasant grin on her face, "Something terrible is going to happen. Something terrible ... and something wonderful.
Neal Shusterman
#48. She sighed, knowing she couldn't push it any further. "Thank you for being so ... merciful," Allie said. "But I would appreciate it if Pea-brain here would keep his hands off me."
"That's Pinhead," corrected the boy. "Pea-brain works in the engine room.
Neal Shusterman
#49. When you live a life without questions, you're unprepared for the questions when they come.
Neal Shusterman
#51. Have you ever considered how lonely it is to be the girl on a pedestal?
Neal Shusterman
#52. But we People of Chance do believe in people of second chance.
Neal Shusterman
#53. I shouldn't be here," I appeal to the captain, wondering if I've told him this before. "I have midterms and papers due and dirty clothes I never picked up from my bedroom floor, and I have friends, lots of friends.
Neal Shusterman
#54. You should never apologize for existing, Lev. Not even to all those people out there who wish you didn't.
Neal Shusterman
#55. Facts never prevent the ignorant from jerking their knees into the groin of science.
Neal Shusterman
#56. I gotta go to the bathroom," Emby mumbles. "You should have thought of that before you left," says Hayden, putting on his best mother voice. "How many times do we have to tell you? Always use the potty before climbing into a shipping crate.
Neal Shusterman
#57. In this world, there is a fine line between enlightenment and brain damage.
Neal Shusterman
#58. (T)his could be the big inning of a wonderful friendship.
Neal Shusterman
#59. Does a sick society get so used to its illness that it can't remember being well? what if the memory is too dangerous for the people who like things the way they are?
Neal Shusterman
#60. Each day the sea is exactly the same. We seem no closer, and no farther from anything.
Neal Shusterman
#61. Credit is where credit is due and to honner the trixture whose illusions finally become true
Neal Shusterman
#62. I must be doing something right if the crazies think I'm as powerful as the Antichrist.
Neal Shusterman
#63. From the end of the bar, the bartender threw a sidelong look at him, so Clarence pulled out a broken Bluetooth headset and fixed it to his ear.
"I learned this trick while traveling with Mikey," Clarence told Nick. "Makes my brand of crazy the same as everyone else's.
Neal Shusterman
#64. No one knows wether you're a monster or a hero."
"Is there a third choice?
Neal Shusterman
#65. Maybe we're standing like coins on the edge?"
Allie considered this. "Meaning?"
"Meaning, we might be able to shake things up a little, and find a way to come up heads."
"Or tails," suggested Allie.
"What are you talking about?" said Lief.
"Life and death.
Neal Shusterman
#66. I guess once you start parting with all the things you think hold your life together, it's hard to stop - and then you find out your life holds together all by itself.
Neal Shusterman
#67. Most people have two emergency modes. Fight and Flight. But Conner always knew he had three. Fight, Flight, and Screw Up Royally.
Neal Shusterman
#69. First rule of motherhood, dearie: men are screw-ups. Learn it now and you'll be a whole lot happier.
Neal Shusterman
#70. Once in a while our school has half days, and the teachers spend the afternoon 'in service,' which I think must be a group therapy for having to deal with us.
Neal Shusterman
#71. I think it's outrageously cruel to keep a puzzle that they know is missing a single piece.
Neal Shusterman
#72. But honey, there are some things that must never be said out loud.
Neal Shusterman
#73. Now he's far away, floating in the clouds, playing Scrabble with the Dalai Lama, but wouldn't you know it, all the tiles are in Tibetan.
Neal Shusterman
#74. Would you rather die, or be unwound? Now he finally knows the answer. Maybe this is what he wanted. Maybe it's why he stood there and taunted Roland. Because he'd rather be killed with a furious hand than dismembered with cool indifference.
Neal Shusterman
#75. This is how he always imagined- a dangerous place full of mystery and violent kids.
Neal Shusterman
#76. The measure of a man is not how much he suffers in the test, but how he comes out at the end.
Neal Shusterman
#77. There was a time, before I wound up here, when I would have thought all this was funny. When I was a member of the world, and not a member of "the club." The world just loves to laugh at the absurdity of insanity. I
Neal Shusterman
#78. We are not the enemy," he says. "That's what the enemy always says.
Neal Shusterman
#79. I could take you out in a second," she threatens.
If he's concerned, he doesn't show it. "I know."
Somehow he also knows that she won't do it - that the first time was just a reflex. If she were to hurt him a second time, though, it would be a conscious act. It would be by choice.
Neal Shusterman
#81. In a population of hundreds of millions, such a small number of people is a mere drop in the bucket ... but enough drops can make any bucket overflow
Neal Shusterman
#83. Was I to blame for bringing Brew out of his shell and exposing him to all the toxic things the rest of us carry in our souls?
Neal Shusterman
#84. History is written by the victors
and when there is no victors, it all winds up in the corporate shredders.
Neal Shusterman
#85. The pain of knowing is killing me more than killing me would kill me, so I jump just to end it.
Neal Shusterman
#87. Cowards hide [ ... ] but warriors lie and wait [ ... ] the only difference is whether you're motivated by fear or purpose.
Neal Shusterman
#88. They all think medicine should be magic, and they become mad at me when it's not.
Neal Shusterman
#89. The headmaster's tie turns into a noose again, preventing blood from getting to his face
Neal Shusterman
#90. Already Roland feels his limbs starting to go numb. He swallows hard.
"I hate this. I hate you. I hate all of you."
"I understand.
Neal Shusterman
#91. We tried to be good parents ... but there's a point at which you give up trying."
"No, there's not," Connor tells her. Then he turns to go, leaving them with the worst punishment of all: having to live with themselves.
Neal Shusterman
#92. Scythe Curie seemed a mix of many emotions, but she folded them all away, like clothes that no longer fit, and closed the drawer. Citra expected she never spoke of this to anyone else, and would probably never speak of it again.
Neal Shusterman
#93. (I)n this world of change and lost memories, time brings all things full circle. That which was discarded becomes priceless.Those who were abandoned will someday be loved - if you can hold on till that day.
Neal Shusterman
#94. I wanted to take everything I was feeling, put it in a cannon and aim it at him.
Neal Shusterman
#95. AWOL's most valuable commodity: hope. It's something in short supply for those who have been deemed not worth the sum of their parts.
Neal Shusterman
#96. His life has been like a ballpark, hasn't it? All lines, structure, and rules, never changing. But now he's been hit over the wall into unknown territory.
Neal Shusterman
#97. His life was a festival of excess that could not be contained. Deafening music, eye-popping bright colors, sugar added to almost everything he ate. Quinn's life was a bullet in a barrel ready to explode.
Neal Shusterman
#98. Our bodies form a symbol, I think, as powerful as one of Hal's - and it occurs to me that the most meaningful symbols of all must be based on all the different ways two people can embrace.
Neal Shusterman
#99. Normally Connor would walk away from a conversation like this. His life is about tangibles: things you can see, hear and touch. God, souls, and all that has always been like a secret in a black box he couldn't see into, so it was easier just to leave it alone. Only now, he's inside the black box.
Neal Shusterman
#100. Carl was just saying good-bye," Mom said.
"Really," I said. "He must speak in tongues.
Neal Shusterman
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