Quotes from Afterworlds

Scott Westerfeld ·  599 pages

Rating: (16.7K votes)


“What did a happy ending even mean in real life, anyway? In stories you simply said, 'They lived happily ever after,' and that was it. But in real life people had to keep on living, day after day, year after year.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Afterworlds


“Being an author sucks, doesn't it? It's like telling a joke and nobody laughs for two years.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Afterworlds


“Real life doesn’t have many happy endings. Why shouldn’t books make up the difference?”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Afterworlds


“Hiding from the truth was worse than being lied to.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Afterworlds


“You don't know what it's like, when your best friend disappears.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Afterworlds



“You don't think happy endings are stupid anymore?"

"Your question is irrelevant," Imogen said. "This isn't the end.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Afterworlds


“The best way to know a city is to eat it.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Afterworlds


“Just remember, the things we write, they aren't always really us.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Afterworlds


“First love is amazing and wonderful, but a kind of panic underlies it, a sense of not knowing what you're doing.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Afterworlds


“Being fathomed was even better than being flattered, it turned out.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Afterworlds



“Sleep is a little slice of death.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Afterworlds


“In a novel you always knew the moment when something Happened, when someone Changed. But real life was full of gradual, piecemeal, continuous transformation. It was full of accidents and undefineables, and things that just happened on their own. The only certainty was 'It's complicated,' whether or not unicorns tolerated your touch.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Afterworlds


“...but loving had left her skinless.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Afterworlds


“The universe is math on fire.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Afterworlds


“Blurbs don’t work anymore!” was another. “You should make sure that the quotable lines of dialogue in your book never exceed a hundred and forty characters!” seemed at best debatable.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Afterworlds



“For me, writing's the only thing that's always real. I've never regretted a day I wrote a good scene, whatever else I screwed up that day. That's what's fucking real.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Afterworlds


“Adulation is like rain. You can only get so wet.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Afterworlds


“Nice concept. But is it a trilogy or a tweet?" "I can't tell any more.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Afterworlds


“The scent of a faraway place lay on my skin.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Afterworlds


“Looking for a thousand years is worth it, if in the end you find what you need.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Afterworlds



“Mindy had explained that a lot of things had ghosts, not just people. Animals, machines, even things as vast as a paved-over forest or as humble as the smell of good cooking could leave traces of themselves behind. The world was haunted by the past.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Afterworlds


“Maybe that was the point of truth-you could erase it all you wanted, and it was there was to be discovered again.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Afterworlds


“Maybe that was the point of truth--you could erase it all you wanted, and it was there to be discovered again”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Afterworlds


“More lies, but maybe lies were better than the truth.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Afterworlds


“It’s just . . . it feels like someone’s going to ask me for ID. Like, writer ID.” The”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Afterworlds



“Happy endings are popular. Do you not watch movies?"

"Yeah, but that's movies," Darcy groaned. "Books are above all that!”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Afterworlds


“the things we write, they aren’t always really us.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Afterworlds


“I'm here to learn. And what you have taught me is to avoid love as long as possible.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Afterworlds


“The opening chapter was the book's unique selling point, the singular idea that had carried Darcy through last November, and Coleman had just come up with it off the top of his head.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Afterworlds


“She would find her answers in the words she wrote, in the stories she told, not by asking for permission.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Afterworlds



Video

About the author

Scott Westerfeld
Born place: in Dallas, Texas, The United States
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“Most of us have little comprehension of the enormous amount of land devoted to growing grain to feed imprisoned pigs, cows, sheep, birds, and fish. Already, over 521,000 square miles of U.S. forest have been cleared to graze livestock and to grow grain to feed them. This amounts to more land than the states of Texas, California, and Oregon combined, yet it grows daily, with about 6,000 square miles cleared every year. This amounts to about 10,000 acres per day, seven acres every minute.5”
― Will Tuttle, quote from The World Peace Diet


“In truth, it is evil beauty that is most devastating. For beauty isn’t always good and ugliness isn’t always bad. It is how we perceive ourselves that matters. True courage isn’t about being brave. True beauty isn’t about being beautiful. True courage is about being real. True beauty is about being happy.”
― R.K. Ryals, quote from The Story of Awkward


“Is the prey complicit in its own demise? Are we not seduced in some small way by the beauty, the grace, even the dangerous soul of the predator?”
― Lisa Unger, quote from In The Blood


“As you enter this place of work please choose to make today a great day. Your colleagues, customers, team members, and you yourself will be thankful. Find ways to play. We can be serious about our work without being serious about ourselves. Stay focused in order to be there when your customers and team members most need you. And should you feel your energy lapsing, try this surefire remedy: Find someone who needs a helping hand, a word of support, or a good ear—and make their day.”
― quote from Fish!: A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results


“My idle curiosity might lead to something more official, if the lieutenant feels his work is being hindered by an officious, small-minded, self-important bureaucrat. Not you, of course. I speak in general terms only.”
― Douglas Preston, quote from Blue Labyrinth


Interesting books

The Retribution of Mara Dyer
(41.7K)
The Retribution of M...
by Michelle Hodkin
A Tale for the Time Being
(64.7K)
A Tale for the Time...
by Ruth Ozeki
Bloody Bones
(63.4K)
Bloody Bones
by Laurell K. Hamilton
Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia
(25.5K)
Princess: A True Sto...
by Jean Sasson
If You Could See Me Now
(34.2K)
If You Could See Me...
by Cecelia Ahern
The Chrysalids
(35.3K)
The Chrysalids
by John Wyndham

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.