“Maybe you were cut out for Candor, Four, because you're a terrible liar.”
― Veronica Roth, quote from The Traitor
“Panic and terror aren't the only kinds of fear. There are deeper kinds, more terrible kinds. Apprehension and heavy, heavy dread.”
― Veronica Roth, quote from The Traitor
“When she’s close enough, she extends her hand. “Hello, my name is Natalie. I’m Beatrice’s mother.” Beatrice. That name is so wrong for her.”
― Veronica Roth, quote from The Traitor
“She's right, she hardly knows me. But still: Her heart is racing.”
― Veronica Roth, quote from The Traitor
“It's over," I say, wincing- she punches harder than she realizes. I ignore the pain and run a hand over her hair, because I'm stupid, and inappropriate, and stupid...”
― Veronica Roth, quote from The Traitor
“I am not a perfect Dauntless member; I am someone who believes that more than one virtue should be prized; I am Divergent.”
― Veronica Roth, quote from The Traitor
“Fear doesn't shut you down, (...) it wakes you up. I've seen it. It's fascinating.”
― Veronica Roth, quote from The Traitor
“I thought that when I spilled one secret, the rest would come tumbling after, but openness is a habit you form over time, and not a switch you flip whenever you want to, I'm finding,”
― Veronica Roth, quote from The Traitor
“I thought that when I spilled one secret, the rest would come tumbling after, but opened is a habit you form over time, and not a switch you flip whenever you want to, I'm finding.”
― Veronica Roth, quote from The Traitor
“(Kiara sees Carlos' bleeding face)"Carlos! Oh my God, what happened?"
"You still recognize me with a busted-up face. That's a good sign, right?”
― Simone Elkeles, quote from Rules of Attraction
“I had spared the stag's life. The power of that life belonged to me as surely as it belonged to the man who had taken it.”
― Leigh Bardugo, quote from Shadow and Bone
“Gordon Way's astonishment at being suddenly shot dead was nothing compared to his astonishment at what happened next.”
― Douglas Adams, quote from Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
“She fought him by reminding herself what her father had said to Emil Hesping—that they lived in a country where believing had taken the place of knowing.”
― Ursula Hegi, quote from Stones from the River
“While I pressed the tissue to my face, Beck said, “Can I tell you something? There are a lot of empty boxes in your head, Sam.”
I looked at him, quizzical. Again, it was a strange enough concept to hold my attention.
“There are a lot of empty boxes in there, and you can put things in them.” Beck handed me another tissue for the other side of my face.
My trust of Beck at that point was not yet complete; I remember thinking that he was making a very bad joke that I wasn’t getting. My voice sounded wary, even to me. “What kinds of things?”
“Sad things,” Beck said. “Do you have a lot of sad things in your head?”
“No,” I said.
Beck sucked in his lower lip and released it slowly. “Well, I do.”
This was shocking. I didn’t ask a question, but I tilted toward him.
“And these things would make me cry,” Beck continued. “They used to make me cry all day long.”
I remembered thinking this was probably a lie. I could not imagine Beck crying. He was a rock. Even then, his fingers braced against the floor, he looked poised, sure, immutable.
“You don’t believe me? Ask Ulrik. He had to deal with it,” Beck said. “And so you know what I did with those sad things? I put them in boxes. I put the sad things in the boxes in my head, and I closed them up and I put tape on them and I stacked them up in the corner and threw a blanket over them.”
“Brain tape?” I suggested, with a little smirk. I was eight, after all.
Beck smiled, a weird private smile that, at the time, I didn’t understand. Now I knew it was relief at eliciting a joke from me, no matter how pitiful the joke was. “Yes, brain tape. And a brain blanket over the top. Now I don’t have to look at those sad things anymore. I could open those boxes sometime, I guess, if I wanted to, but mostly I just leave them sealed up.”
“How did you use the brain tape?”
“You have to imagine it. Imagine putting those sad things in the boxes and imagine taping it up with the brain tape. And imagine pushing them into the side of your brain, where you won’t trip over them when you’re thinking normally, and then toss a blanket over the top. Do you have sad things, Sam?”
I could see the dusty corner of my brain where the boxes sat. They were all wardrobe boxes, because those were the most interesting sort of boxes — tall enough to make houses with — and there were rolls and rolls of brain tape stacked on top. There were razors lying beside them, waiting to cut the boxes and me back open.
“Mom,” I whispered.
I wasn’t looking at Beck, but out of the corner of my eye, I saw him swallow.
“What else?” he asked, barely loud enough for me to hear. “The water,” I said. I closed my eyes. I could see it, right there, and I had to force out the next word. “My …” My fingers were on my scars.
Beck reached out a hand toward my shoulder, hesitant. When I didn’t move away, he put an arm around my back and I leaned against his chest, feeling small and eight and broken.
“Me,” I said.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, quote from Forever
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