Quotes from The City of Ember

Jeanne DuPrau ·  270 pages

Rating: (214.5K votes)


“The trouble with anger is, it gets hold of you. And then you aren't the master of yourself anymore. Anger is. And when anger is the boss, you get unintended consequences.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The City of Ember


“There is so much darkness in Ember, Lina. It's not just outside, it's inside us, too. Everyone has some darkness inside. It's like a hungry creature. It wants and wants and wants with a terrible power. And the more you give it, the bigger and hungrier it gets.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The City of Ember


“The main thing to do is pay attention. Pay close attention to everything, notice what no one else notices. Then you'll know what no one else knows, and that's always useful.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The City of Ember


“What you need to learn, children, is the difference between right and wrong in every area of life. And once you learn the difference, you must always choose the right.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The City of Ember


“The trouble with anger is, it gets hold of you. And then you aren't the master of yourself anymore. Anger is.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The City of Ember



“People find a way through just about anything.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The City of Ember


“His sympathy made tears spring to Lina's eyes. Doon looked startled for a moment, and then he took a step toward her and wrapped his arms around her. He gave her a squeeze so quick and tight that it made her cough, and then it made her laugh. She realized all at once that Doon--thin, dark-eyed Doon with his troublesome temper and his terrible brown jacket and his good heart--was the person that she knew better than anyone now. He was her best friend.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The City of Ember


“Wouldn't it be strange, she thought, to have a blue sky? But she liked the way it looked. It would be beautiful - a blue sky.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The City of Ember


“Why, if its going to be allright, do we see it getting worse every day?”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The City of Ember


“The main thing is to pay attention. Pay close attention to everything, notice what no one else notices. Then you’ll know what no one else knows, and that’s always useful.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The City of Ember



“It would be something that another person had written down without understanding its significance; just a sentence or two that would be like a flash of light.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The City of Ember


“Lina loved her little sister so much that it was like an ache under her ribs.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The City of Ember


“They lifted their faces to the astonishing warmth. The sky arched over them, a pale, clear blue. Lina felt as though a lid that had been on her all her life had been lifted off. Light and air rushed though her, making a song, like the songs of Ember, only it was a song of joy. She looked at Doon and saw that he was smiling and crying at the same time, and she realized that she was, too.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The City of Ember


“Unintended consequences, he thought miserably.
He was angry at his anger, the way it surged up
and took over.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The City of Ember


“He says I'm beautiful as a red tomato”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The City of Ember



“Lina looked out at the lighted streets spreading away in every direction, the streets she knew so well. She loved her city, worn out and crumbling though it was.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The City of Ember


“The main thing is to pay attention. Pay close attention to everything, notice
what no one else notices. Then you'll know what no one else knows, and
that's always useful.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The City of Ember


“The trouble with anger is, it gets hold of you. And then you aren't the master of yourself anymore. Anger is.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The City of Ember


“The day had a strange but comforting feel to it, like a rest between the end of one time and the beginning of another.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The City of Ember


“Everyone has some darkness inside. It’s like a hungry creature. It wants and wants and wants with a terrible power. And the more you give it, the bigger and hungrier it gets.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The City of Ember



“People in Ember rarely threw anything away. They made the best possible use of what they had.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The City of Ember


“There is so much darkness in Ember, Lina. It’s not just outside, it’s inside us, too. Everyone has some darkness inside. It’s like a hungry creature. It wants and wants and wants with a terrible power. And the more you give it, the bigger and hungrier it gets.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The City of Ember


“she loved exploring every nook and cranny”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The City of Ember


“In the second row was a boy named Doon Harrow. He sat with his shoulders hunched, his eyes squeezed shut in concentration, and his hands clasped tightly together. His hair looked rumpled, as if he hadn’t combed it for a while. He had dark, thick eyebrows, which made him look serious at the best of times and, when he was anxious or angry, came together to form a straight line across his forehead. His brown corduroy jacket was so old that its ridges had flattened out.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The City of Ember


“The trouble with anger is, it gets hold of you. And then you aren't the master of yourself. Anger is.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The City of Ember



“Maybe. The trouble with anger is, it gets hold of you. And then you aren’t the master of yourself any-more. Anger is.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The City of Ember


“The trouble with anger is, it gets hold of you. And then you aren’t the master of yourself any-more.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The City of Ember


“Maybe. The trouble with anger is, it gets hold of you. And then you aren’t the master of yourself anymore. Anger is.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The City of Ember


“What was the power that turned the worm into a moth? It was greater than any power the Builders had had, he was sure of that. The power that ran the city of Ember was feeble by comparison...”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The City of Ember


About the author

Jeanne DuPrau
Born place: in San Francisco, California, The United States
Born date June 9, 1944
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