“What happens when perfection isn't good enough?”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Pretties
“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.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Pretties
“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.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Pretties
“Their reasons don't mean anything unless I have a choice.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Pretties
“With everything so perfect, reality seemed somehow fragile, as if the slightest interruption could imperil her pretty future... all of it felt as tenuous as a soap bubble, shivering and empty.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Pretties
“Left alone, human beings are a plague. They multiply relentlessly, consuming every resource, destroying everything they touch.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Pretties
“At least one thing was consistent about her life: It just kept on getting more complicated.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Pretties
“Sometimes it felt like her life was a series of falls from ever-greater heights.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Pretties
“Being pretty-minded is simply the natural state for most people. They want to be vapid and lazy and vain . . . and selfish. It only takes a twist to lock in that part of their personalities.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Pretties
“And the worst thing was, there were no mirrors out there in the wild, so the princess was left wondering whether she in fact was still beautiful... or if the fall had changed the story completely.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Pretties
“It's not the way Zane looks, David," she said, her voice trembling with anger. "It's because he makes me bubbly, and because we took a lot of risks together. It could just as easily be me lying there, and he would stay with me if it was."
"It's just programming!"
"No. It's because I love him.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Pretties
“...humanity is a disease, a cancer on the body of the world.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Pretties
“My name is tally youngblood and my mind is very ugly”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Pretties
“It's just programming"
"No. It's because I love him”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Pretties
“So, there was this beautiful princess.
She was locked in a high tower(...)She was stuck up there(...)So the only thing was to jump.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Pretties
“Nature was tough, it could be dangerous, but unlike Dr. Cable or shay, or peris-unlike people in general-it made sense. The problems it threw at you could be solved rationally.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Pretties
“But it's always taking a risk, when you ... kiss someone new.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Pretties
“You and David could both be right. Maybe human beings are programmed … to help one another, even to fall in love. But just because it's human nature doesn't make it bad, Tally. Besides, we had a whole city of pretties to choose from, and we chose each other."-Zane”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Pretties
“So, there was this beautiful princess.
She was locked in a high tower, one whose smart walls had cleaver holes in them that could give her anything: food, a clique of fantastic friends, wonderful clothes. And, best of all, there was this mirror on the wall, so that the princess could look at her beautiful self all day long.
The only problem with the tower was that there way no way out. The builders had forgotten to put in an elevator, or even a set of stairs. She was stuck up there.
One day, the princess realized that she was bored. The view from the tower--gentle hills, fields of white flowers, and a deep, dark forest--fascinated her. She started spending more time looking out the window than at her own reflection, as is often the case with troublesome girls.
And it was pretty clear that no prince was showing up, or at least that he was really late.
So the only thing was to jump.
The hole in the wall gave her a lovely parasol to catch her when she fell, and a wonderful new dress to wear in the fields and forest, and a brass key to make sure she could get back into the tower if she needed to. But the princess, laughing pridefully, tossed the key into the fireplace, convinced she would never need to return to the tower. Without another glance in the mirror, she strolled out onto the balcony and stepped off into midair.
The thing was, it was a long way down, a lot farther than the princess had expected, and the parasol turned out to be total crap. As she fell, the princess realized she should have asked for a bungee jacket or a parachute or something better than a parasol, you know?
She struck the ground hard, and lay there in a crumpled heap, smarting and confused, wondering how things had worked out this way. There was no prince around to pick her up, her new dress was ruined, and thanks to her pride, she had no way back into the tower.
And the worst thing was, there were no mirrors out there in the wild, so the princess was left wondering whether she in fact was still beautiful . . . or if the fall had changed the story completely.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Pretties
“The beauty of the world…has two edges, one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder.
—Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own (part 3, Pretties)”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Pretties
“She couldn't disappoint the whole village. There were no wallscreens here, no newsfeeds or satellites bands, and touring soccer teams were no doubt few and far between. (...), that made stories a valuable commodity, and it probably wasn't very often that a stranger dropped in from the sky.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Pretties
“She needed Andrew Simpson Smith, it was that simple. And he had spent his life training to help people like her. Gods.
"Okay, Andrew. But let's leave today. I'm in a hurry."
"Of course. Today." He stroked the place where his slight beard was beginning to grow. "These ruins where your friends are waiting? Where are they?"
Tally glances up at the sun, still low enough to indicate the eastern horizon. After a moment's calculation, she pointed off to the northwest, back toward the city and beyond that, the Rusty Ruins. "About a week's walk that way."
"A week?"
"That means seven days."
"Yes, I know the gods' calendar," he said huffily. "But a whole week?"
"Yeah. That's not so far, is it?" The hunters had been tireless on their march the night before.
He shook his head, an awed expression on his face. "But that is beyond the edge of the world.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Pretties
“Maybe human beings are programmed...to help one another, even to fall in love. But just because it's human nature doesn't make it bad...”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Pretties
“It's exciting. But you can't keep fighting the way things are forever.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Pretties
“A milli-Helen is enough beauty to launch exactly one ship”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Pretties
“-Pero siempre se corre un riesgo cuando uno... besa a alguien nuevo”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Pretties
“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.”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Pretties
Scott Westerfeld
Born place: in Dallas, Texas, The United States
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“Pray for your enemies, and bless those who mistreat you” (see Matt. 5:44).”
― Joyce Meyer, quote from Battlefield of the Mind: Winning the Battle in Your Mind
“I am running after you, and life, in desperate pursuit. My dream is that someday you will both turn and let me catch you. That dream carries me through every night... I have enclosed a hundred kisses in this letter. You must count them out carefully and not lose any.”
― Lisa Kleypas, quote from Seduce Me at Sunrise
“I've given up reading the papers. Since the world's so obviously bent on killing itself, I decided months ago to sit back and let it.”
― Sarah Waters, quote from The Night Watch
“But when he’s cut, I bleed.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, quote from Shards of Honour
“But it wasn’t any of those reasons that had set her on this course, Deryn knew. Alek was here in the city and needed help. Perhaps it was daft to risk everything for some barking prince, a boy who didn't even know she was a girl. But it was no more daft than Alek walking across a glacier to assist a wounded enemy airship, was it?”
― Scott Westerfeld, quote from Behemoth
Marrow
Homegoing
The White Darkness
Systematic Theology:...
Shift
Archangel's StormBookQuoters 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.
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