Neal Shusterman

Author

1962-11-12

Quotes by Neal Shusterman

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?
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The accountant lingers at his children's doorway a moment more, listening to the easy rhythm of their breathing, and something cold moves through him, like the passage of a ghost - but he know that's not it. It's more like the portent of a future. A future that must never come to pass......and for the first time, he gives rise to a thought that is silently echoed in millions of homes that night. My God... what have we done?
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This book is so interesting. I always wonder what's going to happen next.
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And so, as the mob backs away to give them space... as the riot police holster their weapons, standing down, and as Risa takes the podium, calming the crowd with a voice as soothing as a sonata, Connor Lassiter holds his family like he'll never let them go.
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...Our conversation with the supermarket manager had been about as helpful as a New Jersey road sign, and if you've ever been there, you know the signs don't tell you the exit you're coming up to, they only point out the exits you've just missed. It puts parents in very foul moods--and since you're probably there to visit relatives, their mood was pretty touch and go to begin with.
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I always hear people talk about 'dysfunctional families.' It annoys me, because it makes you think that somewhere there's this magical family where everyone gets along, and no one ever screams things they don't mean, and there's never a time when sharp objects should be hidden. Well, I'm sorry, but that family doesn't exist. And if you find some neighbors that seem to be the grinning model of 'function,' trust me - that's the family that will get arrested for smuggling arms in their SUV between soccer games.The best you can really hope for is a family where everyone's problems, big and small, work together. Kind of like an orchestra where every instrument is out of tune, in exactly the same way, so you don't really notice.
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Your friend Mikey knew what my touch could do, but he didn't tell me. He turned me into a murderer. Worse than a murderer.—"I think," said Nick, —they call that manslaughter or wrongful death, don't they? I mean, when it's an accident or out of ignorance, or something."Clarence turned to Nick, studying him with his Everlost eye. "You're a lot smarter than you were back in the cage,— Clarence said. "You look better too. Back then you were a thing, now you're almost a person.""Thanks . . . but "almost' is still —almost.'——Yeah, well, we're all almost something.
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Perhaps that is the greatest crime of conquest--that a civilization is denied the right to evolve beyond its own embarrassment.
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My artwork isn't evolving, it's deconstructing, and I don't know why.
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I was asking if unwinding kills you, or if it leaves you alive somehow. C'mon— it's not like we haven't thought about it. (...)What do you think, Connor? asks Hayden. What happens to your soul when you get unwound?Who says I even got one?For the sake of argument, let's say you do.Who says I want an argument?
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We're roughage, Tyger said. If we don't cause a little intestinal distress, no one knows we're there.
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There is nothing to fear but fear itself, the captain announces from the helm, and the occasional man-eating monster.
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If someone had told Allie that she would commit a premeditated act of murder, she would not have believed it. She would have spouted off all the reasons how she could never be capable of such a thing— that no matter how dire the circumstances, she would find a better way. She was so naive, so arrogant to think that the laws of necessity and unthinkable circumstance could not apply to her. She could tell herself that this was an act of mercy, but that would be a lie. This was an act of war. An act of terrorism. It was nothing less than an assassination.If I do this, Allie told herself, I am no better than Mary. I will have sunk to the worst possible place a person can go. After this moment, I will be a cold-blooded killer and it can never be taken back.So the question was, did Allie Johnson have the strength to sacrifice all that was left of her innocence if it meant she might save the world?
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The fear of not living is a deep, abiding dread of watching your own potential decompose into irredeemable disappointment when 'should be' gets crushed by what is.
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And, added Mikey. she's my sister.The others looked at him for a moment, and broke out laughing.Yeah, yeah, Squirrel scoffed, and the McGill is my cousin.Now Allie burst out laughing, which made Mikey more annoyed.If the McGill was your cousin, Mikey said, I can guarantee he'd disown you.
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Cities are never random. No matter how chaotic they might seem, everything about them grows out of a need to solve a problem. In fact, a city is nothing more than a solution to a problem, that in turn creates more problems that need more solutions, until towers rise, roads widen, bridges are built, and millions of people are caught up in a mad race to feed the problem-solving, problem-creating frenzy.
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...the Statue of Liberty's got this invitation: 'Give me your tired, your poor, your reeking homeless--''Huddled masses,' said Ira. 'Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.'...Okay, fine. So like everybody in the old countries says, 'Hey, I'm a huddled mass,' and they all wanna come over.
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How easy is murder when one calls it by a different name? How much easier is it for the conscience to condone —reaping— than —killing—— and when one knows that death isn't the end, does it stop the killing hand for fear of retribution, or does it simply make it easier to kill, because, if life continues, how can murder be murder at all?
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Hope in the shadow of fear is the world's most powerful motivator.
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When I touched that boy, I felt something. Something awful. Something I can't describe.—"We all felt it," Nick said."You may have felt it, but I caused it." Then both his eyes seemed to go far away. "Something changed out there. I don't know what it was, but something in the world changed because that kid didn't deserve what I did to him" and the powers that be know that I did it.— Nick watched as a tear fell from his Everlost eye and disappeared through the living world table."What if," said Nick, not even sure what he was going to say yet, —what if you were that kid and you were told you could change the world, but you would have to sacrifice yourself to do it?"Clarence chuckled at the thought. "I believe that question was already asked a long time ago, and that creepy kid did not look anything like Jesus to me.—"But you do think that something changed. . . .""I don't know whether it's good or bad.""What if it's neither?" suggested Nick. —What if we get to make it one or the other?
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