Quotes from The Knife of Never Letting Go

Patrick Ness ·  479 pages

Rating: (121.7K votes)


“We are the choices we make.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Knife of Never Letting Go


“Without a filter, a man is just chaos walking.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Knife of Never Letting Go


“Here's what I think," I say and my voice is stronger and thoughts are coming, thoughts that trickle into my noise like whispers of truth. "I think maybe everybody falls," I say. "I think maybe we all do. And I don't think that's the asking."
I pull on her arms gently to make sure she's listening.
"I think the asking is whether we get back up again.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Knife of Never Letting Go


“But a knife ain't just a thing, is it? It's a choice, it's something you do. A knife says yes or no, cut or not, die or don't. A knife takes a decision out of your hand and puts it in the world and it never goes back again. ”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Knife of Never Letting Go


“The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don't got nothing much to say.
About anything.
"Need a poo, Todd."
"Shutup, Manchee."
"Poo. Poo, Todd."
"I said shut it.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Knife of Never Letting Go



“Hope may be the thing that pulls you forward, may be the thing that keeps you going, but that it's dangerous, that it's painful and risky, that it's making a dare in the world and when has the world ever let us win a dare?”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Knife of Never Letting Go


“War is like a monster," he says, almost to himself. "War is the devil. It starts and it consumes and it grows and grows and grows." He's looking at me now. "And otherwise normal men become monsters, too.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Knife of Never Letting Go


“You can't say everything, so you don't say nothing.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Knife of Never Letting Go


“The Noise is a man unfiltered, and without a filter, a man is just chaos walking.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Knife of Never Letting Go


“Men lie, and they lie to theirselves worst of all.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Knife of Never Letting Go



“I promised to keep on going but maybe keep on going means coming back first.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Knife of Never Letting Go


“Knowledge is dangerous and men lie and the world changes, whether I want it to or not.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Knife of Never Letting Go


“When luck ain't with you, it's against you.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Knife of Never Letting Go


“You starting to feel hope yet?" Viola asks, her voice curious.
"No," I say, fuddling my noise. "You?"
Her eyebrows are up but she shakes her head. "No, No."
"But we're going anyway."
"Oh, yeah," Viola says. "Hell or high water."
"It'll probably be both," I say.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Knife of Never Letting Go


“Life equals running and when we stop running maybe that's how we'll know life is finally finished.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Knife of Never Letting Go



“And she says, “Then let’s just take the effing road and get ourselves to Haven.”
I smile, a little. “You said effing,” I say. “You actually said the word effing.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Knife of Never Letting Go


“Don't deceive me. Never leave me.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Knife of Never Letting Go


“I rub the ears of my dog, my stupid goddam ruddy great dog that I never wanted but who hung around anyway and who followed me thru the swamp and who bit Aaron when he was trying to choke me and who found Viola when she was lost and who's licking my hand with his little pink tongue and whose eye is still mostly squinted shut from where Mr. Prentiss Jr. kicked him and whose tail is way way shorter from where Matthew Lyle cut it off when my dog - my dog - went after a man with a machete to save me and who's right there when I need pulling back from the darkness I fall into and who tells me who I am whenever I forget.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Knife of Never Letting Go


“And I know I’ve lost.
Everything is lost.
Everything is over.
“As the newly appointed President of this fair planet of ours,” the Mayor says, holding out his hands as if to show me the world for the first time,” let me be the very first to welcome you to its new capital city.”
“Todd?” Viola whispers, her eyes closed.
I hold her tightly to me.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper to her. “I’m so sorry.”
We’ve run right into a trap.
We’ve run right off the end of the world.
“Welcome,” says the Mayor,” to the New Prentisstown.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Knife of Never Letting Go


“A knife is only as good as the one who wields it.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Knife of Never Letting Go



“There's so much wonder in the world. Don't let no one tell you otherwise.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Knife of Never Letting Go


“He's a woman.
He's a grown woman
He's a old woman.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Knife of Never Letting Go


“Too much talking," I say. "Not enough running.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Knife of Never Letting Go


“Manchee comes outta the bushes and sits down next to me cuz I’ve stopped right there in the middle of a trail. He looks around to see what I might be seeing and then he says, ”Good poo, Todd.”
”I’m sure it was, Manchee.”
I’d better not get another ruddy dog when my birthday comes. What I want this year is a hunting knife like the one Ben carries on the back of his belt. Now that’s a present for a man.
“Poo,” Manchee’s says quietly.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Knife of Never Letting Go


“The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don't got nothing much to say.
About anything.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Knife of Never Letting Go



About the author

Patrick Ness
Born place: in Fort Belvoir, Virginia, The United States
Born date January 1, 1971
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“This is about me. And how I will never get to be one of those girls, no matter how much I hope and pray and want it.”
― Abby McDonald, quote from Getting Over Garrett Delaney


“If to raise malicious smiles at the infirmities or misfortunes of those who have never injured us be the province of wit or humour, Heaven grant me a double portion of dullness.”
― Richard Brinsley Sheridan, quote from The School for Scandal


“Interestingly enough, every time I corner a fanatic with scientific facts which they cannot argue or disprove, they either dismiss me as 'anti-God' and a 'secular humanist' or they start spouting reams of misapplied and irrelevant 'scripture' at me, like good little sheeple and like that will in any way, shape or form prove anything... Which just proves to me that common sense and actual reason doesn't come into it. Only hatred.”
― Christina Engela, quote from Demonspawn


“The gospel invitation is wide-open to all: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13). “Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take of the free gift of the water of life” (Revelation 22:17). And yet when we come, we discover that we were chosen in Christ before the creation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). That is grace.”
― Jerry Bridges, quote from The Joy of Fearing God


“You have more issues than Reader's Digest.”
― Rebecca McNutt, quote from Mandy and Alecto: The Collected Smog City Book Series


Interesting books

Cage of Stars
(5K)
Cage of Stars
by Jacquelyn Mitchard
To Beguile a Beast
(10.7K)
To Beguile a Beast
by Elizabeth Hoyt
The Death of Artemio Cruz
(7.4K)
The Death of Artemio...
by Carlos Fuentes
Stranger than Fiction
(20.6K)
Stranger than Fictio...
by Chuck Palahniuk
True
(9.8K)
True
by Laurann Dohner
Chimes at Midnight
(10.3K)
Chimes at Midnight
by Seanan McGuire

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.