Quotes from The People of Sparks

“When someone has been mean to you, why would you want to be good to them?' 'You wouldn't want to. That's what makes it hard. You do it anyway. Being good is hard. Much harder than being bad.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The People of Sparks

“People didn't make life, so they can't destroy it. Even if we were to wipe out every bit of life in the world, we can't touch the place life comes from. Whatever made the plants and animals and people spring up in the first place will always be there, and life will spring up again.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The People of Sparks

“Remember the city, the city remember
Where treasure is hidden under the ground
The city, the city, always remember
That's where the treasure will be found.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The People of Sparks

“Now Doon seemed to care for his new friends more than he did for her. Every time she thought about him she felt a thud of pain, like a bruised place inside her.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The People of Sparks

“Can't it be stopped?" said Lina. She shifted around under her blanket, trying to find a place to sit where rocks weren't digging into her.
Maybe it can be stopped at the beginning," Maddy said. "If someone sees what's happening and is brave enough to reverse the direction."
Reverse the direction?"
Yes, turn it around."
How would you do that?"
You'd do something good," said Maddy. "Or at least you'd keep yourself from doing something bad."
But how could you?" said Lina. "When people have been mean to you, why would you want to be good to them?"
You wouldn't want to," said Maddy. "That's what makes it hard. you do it anyway. Being good is hard. Much harder than being bad.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The People of Sparks

“Think about what it would mean to fight," he said. "Say we barricade ourselves here in the hotel and refuse to leave. They come at us with their Weapon, whatever it is. Some of us are hurt, some die. We go out to meet them with whatever weapons we can find - sticks, maybe, or pieces of broken glass. We battle each other. Maybe they set fire to the hotel. Maybe we march into the village and steal food from them nad they come after us and beat us. We beat them back. In the end, maybe we damage them so badly that they're too weak to make us leave. What do we have? Friends and neighbors and families dead. A place half destroyed, and those left in it full of hatred for us. And we ourselves will have to live with the memory of the terrible things we have done.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The People of Sparks

“Lina couldn't sleep at first, thinking of the old songs and what they meant. Someone, long ago, had hoped that at least a few people would survive and had wanted them to remember her city and the treasure it held, the treasure that was most valuable of all - herself, her family, and all of the generations of people who had lived in that secret place, their purpose, though they didn't know it, to make sure that human beings did not vanish from the world, no matter what happened above.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The People of Sparks

“Poppy was now almost well. She still slept more than usual, but when she wasn't sleeping she tromped around the doctor's house pulling spoons off the table and spilling cups of water and crumpling pages of books. That is, she was almost her old self.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The People of Sparks

“Lina liked going to the market plaza. It was always alive with people and animals, and the market had things she'd never seen before-sandals made of old truck tires, hats and baskets woven of straw.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The People of Sparks

“Full to the brim with hope and love and joy, she watched the little light bulb shining like a promise in the night.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The People of Sparks

“Lina had never seen anyone so disorganized as the doctor. She peeked into the medicine room once when the doctor was out and was amazed at the clutter in there-shelves and cupboards and tables piled with stuff in bottles and stuff in boxes and stuff in jars, all higgledy-piggledy. How Dr. Hester found anything she couldn't imagine.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The People of Sparks

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.” —Martin Luther King, Jr., “Strength to Love,” 1963”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The People of Sparks

“People didn't make life, so they can't destroy it. Even if we were to wipe out every bit of life in the world, we can't touch the place life comes from. Whatever made plants and animals and people spring up in the first place will always be there, and life will spring up again.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The People of Sparks

“But how could you?" said Lina. "When people have been mean to you, why would you want to be good to them?"
"You wouldn't want to," Maddy said. "That's what makes it hard. You do it anyway. Being good is hard. Much harder than being bad.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The People of Sparks

“Goats and oxen, pulling carts in from the field, left their big, smelly plops all over. these got cleaned up eventually-someone came and scraped them into buckets and took them away-but often this didn't happen until halfway through the morning, and people had to step carefully until then and breathe in that powerful smell.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The People of Sparks

“The people of Ember were just as grubby as the people of Sparks; everyone looked more or less the same.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The People of Sparks

“Tick wanted power. He wanted glory. He wanted war, with himself in command. He had raised his army”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The People of Sparks

“Doon went up close to the wall of the hotel and examined the words scratched there. He pictured the people who had done it, clutching their burnt chunks of wood, writing with big, angry strokes in the dark of the night. Yes, Tick was right. Hatred seethed in those jagged letters. He felt almost as if their strokes had scraped open his skin.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The People of Sparks

“When anger is in control, you get unintended consequences.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The People of Sparks

“Goats and oxen, pulling carts in from the fields, left their big, smelly plops all over.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The People of Sparks

“This world was huge. There must be another place in it for the people of Ember.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The People of Sparks

“And you, Mackie,” said the doctor. “It’s been a long time.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The People of Sparks

“He found his aunt in the kitchen, and he grabbed her by the waist of her pants”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The People of Sparks

“Resentment increased on both sides, until any little accident could flare up into a fight.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The People of Sparks

“Every time she thought about him, she felt a thud of pain, like a bruised place inside her.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The People of Sparks

“His vision of the future, already shadowed by anxiety, had just grown several shades darker.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The People of Sparks

“Tick wanted power. He wanted glory. He wanted war, with himself in command. He had raised his army by attacking his own people.”
― Jeanne DuPrau, quote from The People of Sparks

About the author

Popular quotes

“The Playwright was excited in the way a child is excited on Christmas morning. I liked this. Most people didn't get excited about anything other than their own discontent.”
― Maria Dahvana Headley, quote from The Year of Yes

“She endured a contentious and passionate relationship with this library. The huge number of books confirmed how much magic she’d been denied for most of her life, and now she hungrily wanted to read every book on every shelf. An impossible task, to be sure, Herculean in its exaggeration, but Corliss wanted to read herself to death. She wanted to be buried in a coffin filled with used paperbacks. She”
― Sherman Alexie, quote from Ten Little Indians

“Oh, come along, Jinx,” said Mrs. Wiggins. “Let’s get him out. You’ve had your fun.”
― quote from Freddy and the Ignormus

“You know, it's just politics, it's a game grown-ups like to play, like we lil' children play with toys.”
― Sharon Maas, quote from Of Marriageable Age

“He will give you a friendly greeting in return and ask if you are a northerner. You reply that you are from Eyjafjord. He will then ask you whether there are a lot of good men up there, to which you reply, "a lot of perverts, that's about all”
― quote from Njal's Saga

Interesting books

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.