Quotes from Ashes

Ilsa J. Bick ·  465 pages

Rating: (22.8K votes)


“Why can't you like me?" he said, his voice breaking. His scent steamed then, hot and heady with a welter of contradictions: apples and fire and electric roil of those cold, black shadows. "Why can't you like me just a little?"

She would never know how she might have answered, because he never gave her the chance.

Instead, he kissed her.”
― Ilsa J. Bick, quote from Ashes


“It was that stages-of-anger thing. I was shocked and then I got pissed and then I fought like hell … and then I went numb. They called it acceptance, but it wasn’t. It’s what happens when you have only two choices: live with the monster, or kill yourself.”
― Ilsa J. Bick, quote from Ashes


“But sticking to rules just because they're there does not make them right. You need to learn when the rules should be broken.”
― Ilsa J. Bick, quote from Ashes


“Obeying orders just to obey is the mark of a person who has ceased to think. Remember, it is better to suffer for doing what is right rather than for doing what is wrong.”
― Ilsa J. Bick, quote from Ashes


“Sometimes you don't know what you need until it's gone”
― Ilsa J. Bick, quote from Ashes



Run, she told herself. Run, you idiot, run.

But she didn't. She couldn't. She just... couldn't.”
― Ilsa J. Bick, quote from Ashes


“Those brain-zapped kids weren’t the only - or maybe even the worst - enemy.”
― Ilsa J. Bick, quote from Ashes


“My English teacher said that a writer is the worst judge of his own work.”
― Ilsa J. Bick, quote from Ashes


“As the dog sprinted back, Jack said to the girl, "Sweetheart,honey, why do you have to be so hateful?"
"Why not?" Ellie said. "It's not like being good ever got me anywhere.”
― Ilsa J. Bick, quote from Ashes


“As a doc, though, I've seen what happens when people are under a lot of stress. Doesn't always bring out their best. When people are scared, they get angry. They'll do things they never thought they would. They'll bargain and compromise in order to survive; they'll chase after miracle cures and believe just about anything so long as it gives them hope. When hope fails, then watch out. Some people get brutal. They'll turn on each other; they'll become their own worst enemies.”
― Ilsa J. Bick, quote from Ashes



“Raccoon." She saw Ellie put a hand to her mouth to cover the giggles and then looked back at Tom. "Like, you caught it?"
"Well, it sure didn't get Fed-Exed [...]”
― Ilsa J. Bick, quote from Ashes


“Sometimes when you're sad, it's easier to be angry.”
― Ilsa J. Bick, quote from Ashes


“Obeying orders just to obey is the mark of a person who has ceased to think.”
― Ilsa J. Bick, quote from Ashes


“You want to brawl. You want to fight. Fighting tricks you into believing you can change the past, even when the past is dead and gone and all of it ashes.”
― Ilsa J. Bick, quote from Ashes


“A chronic headache muttered in her temples, but like Barrett said, no one ever died from pain. True, but some days you didn't much enjoy living either.”
― Ilsa J. Bick, quote from Ashes



“How come adults got away with saying things that would sound rude coming out of her mouth?”
― Ilsa J. Bick, quote from Ashes


“Fighting tricks you into believing you can change the past, even when the past is dead and gone and all of it ashes.”
― Ilsa J. Bick, quote from Ashes


“As long as you're alive, there is hope...Hope is saying that I will live one more day, and that is a blessing, too.”
― Ilsa J. Bick, quote from Ashes


About the author

Ilsa J. Bick
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“The pressure exerted by a gas on the walls of its container does not depend upon the individual histories of the molecules composing it,” says the French existentialist philosopher.”
― John Dos Passos, quote from The Big Money


“In 2007 one of its biggest clients, Goldman Sachs, demanded that AIG put up billions of dollars more in collateral as required under its swaps contracts. AIG disclosed the existence of the collateral dispute in November. At the December conference, Charles Gates, a longtime insurance analyst for Credit Suisse, asked pointedly what it meant that “your assessment of certain super-senior credit default swaps and the related collateral . . . differs significantly from your counterparties.”
― Andrew Ross Sorkin, quote from Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System from Crisis — and Themselves


“Can you stand a little closer?"
"Hmm?"
"You smell good. I like to smell you.”
― Nora Roberts, quote from The Return of Rafe MacKade


“watched as Harkness sat down and had a microphone clipped to his lapel. Hi Barker was flitting about, putting his guests at ease; Cary was given a folding chair just out of camera range. The whole group was no more than twelve feet from where Stone stood. “You’re sure they can’t see us?” he asked the director. “Not a chance,” Jimmy replied. “I checked it out earlier.” Two other people, a man and a young woman, came into the control room now and took seats on either side of Jimmy, paying no attention to Stone and Dino. “Ten minutes,” the woman said, looking up at a clock above the row of monitors. Stone watched the monitors as”
― Stuart Woods, quote from New York Dead


“JFK's great virtue, and the essential difference between him and George W. Bush, was that he had an instinctive appreciation for the chaotic forces of history.”
― Michael Dobbs, quote from One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War


Interesting books

The Winter Long
(8.8K)
The Winter Long
by Seanan McGuire
Resisting Temptation
(6.2K)
Resisting Temptation
by K.C. Lynn
The Last Witchfinder
(1.4K)
The Last Witchfinder
by James K. Morrow
The Hunting of the Snark
(4.5K)
The Hunting of the S...
by Lewis Carroll
The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future (Updated With a New Epilogue)
(2.6K)
The Chalice and the...
by Riane Eisler
Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections Between Sexuality and Spirituality
(9.9K)
Sex God: Exploring t...
by Rob Bell

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.