Quotes from This Shattered World

Amie Kaufman ·  390 pages

Rating: (14.5K votes)


“Letting yourself get hurt isn’t brave, love. Brave is protecting others from hurt.”
― Amie Kaufman, quote from This Shattered World


“You don’t understand the unbearable beauty of being you.”
― Amie Kaufman, quote from This Shattered World


“We're inches apart yet worlds away.”
― Amie Kaufman, quote from This Shattered World


“You're the most important thing in this universe. You; this vessel; the people of this planet; lovers, warriors, artists, leaders, dreams more numerous than stars. Each mind unique, each thought created for an instant and then broken apart to form new ones. You don't understand the unbearable beauty of being you.”
― Amie Kaufman, quote from This Shattered World


“He can’t take his eyes off the stars, but I can’t take mine off his face.”
― Amie Kaufman, quote from This Shattered World



“It's not that he's choosing me, a girl he met less than a month ago--he's choosing a world in which no one has to die.”
― Amie Kaufman, quote from This Shattered World


“He can’t take his eyes off the stars, but I can’t take mine off his face. I can see the stars reflected in his eyes, can see the wonder of it in the way his mouth opens but no sound comes out. His eyes, his face—they’re beautiful.”
― Amie Kaufman, quote from This Shattered World


“There are no stars, because there are never any stars here, only a thick darkness that rushes down her throat and into her heart. She dreams of drowning.”
― Amie Kaufman, quote from This Shattered World


“Life is pain. We are all in pain, all the time."

"There are other things this universe has to offer," says the creature, "Light, live, touch, sensation. The way you are all made of the same pieces; the same fragments of stardust and yet you are all so different.”
― Amie Kaufman, quote from This Shattered World


“You’ve ruined me,” she repeats, her voice quieting a little as it catches. “You’ve ruined me—you made me wake up. And now I can’t get rid of you.” Her voice surges again as I reach out, curling my hand around her arm, her skin flushed hot under my fingers. “You won’t leave me alone.”
― Amie Kaufman, quote from This Shattered World



“What do you know of souls and hearts and how they break here? You don't know me at all.”
― Amie Kaufman, quote from This Shattered World


“My breath catches, responding to an unfamiliar pull in my chest, an ache in my soul. I shouldn’t miss him, but I do; this boy who had every right to pull that trigger, and instead threw himself between me and death. This boy, the only one who believes I’m not what they say I am what I believed I was; a soldier without a soul, a girl with no heart to break. He’s the only one who’s proved me wrong.”
― Amie Kaufman, quote from This Shattered World


“What does it mean?” Flynn turns to gaze at me, eyes finally meeting mine.

I find myself smiling because I know exactly what it means. “It means the clouds are clearing on Avon.”
― Amie Kaufman, quote from This Shattered World


“The girl looks out the window, watching the gentle, familiar blue sky fade into darkness. The stars come out, slowly at first and then all together, diamond-bright, each one a new world to discover.

But no matter how long the girl looks, she feels nothing. Puzzled, she looks for the girl who wanted to be an explorer, the girl who wanted to learn deep-sea diving and mountain-climbing, the girl who wanted to travel the stars. But she can't find her. That girl died when her parents did, in a little shop in the slums of November. And now she has no soul left to shatter.

She closes the shade over the window.”
― Amie Kaufman, quote from This Shattered World


“Maybe we wouldn’t even like each other if we weren’t fighting for our lives every second of every day.”
― Amie Kaufman, quote from This Shattered World



“His eyes move to my lips, and I know he’s thinking the same thing; I can feel it in the way the air charges between us. I can almost taste him half an inch away, can feel the way the tiny hairs on my skin lift and reach for him like plants seeking the sunlight.”
― Amie Kaufman, quote from This Shattered World


“I don't have the luxury of dealing with his hormones- or mine, for that matter. What, did he think I was just going to melt into his arms? Start a tragic and dramatic tale of star-crossed lovers on a war-torn planet?”
― Amie Kaufman, quote from This Shattered World


“What, did he think I was just going to melt into his arms? Start a tragic and dramatic tale of star-crossed lovers on a war-torn planet?”
― Amie Kaufman, quote from This Shattered World


“She may be trained, but I'm fighting for my family, my home, my freedom. She's fighting for a goddamn paycheck.”
― Amie Kaufman, quote from This Shattered World


“Guys like this make me want to believe in God.”
― Amie Kaufman, quote from This Shattered World



“You think I want to be here with you?" I reply, my voice hoarse. "You think if you walked out right now, I'd chase you?"

She gazes back at me, her eyes a challenge. "Wouldn't you?"

"You know I would," I snap, surrendering. "And I have no idea why that's such a problem."

She jerks her arm free and backs up a step until she hits the door. "It's a problem because I'd let you!" she blurts. Then, after a harsh breath, she murmurs, "It's a problem because I'd want you to.”
― Amie Kaufman, quote from This Shattered World


“In the bar, the jukebox comes on. Molley must be trying to drown out the sounds of raised voices. I move toward her, unable to resist; her eyes are wet, her face flushed, and I can finally look at her, want her, let myself touch her without grief turning everything to ashes in my mouth.”
― Amie Kaufman, quote from This Shattered World


“But I'm struggling to convince myself that logic had anything to do with it.”
― Amie Kaufman, quote from This Shattered World


“His face is close to mine, his hand warm against my back through my shirt. Despite the smile on his lips, his gaze is so sad it feels like my heart is ripping in two, turning to ash as I look at him. He knows as well as I do that neither of us is leaving Avon alive if we touch down again. He’ll never see snow, and I’ll never teach him what skis are.”
― Amie Kaufman, quote from This Shattered World


“Flynn -I'm glad you ruined me."
Her voice stabs my heart, because I recognize that tone. I've heard it before. "Don't start with the good-byes”
― Amie Kaufman, quote from This Shattered World



“Flynn’s reaction is electric, for all he only moves an inch, straightening, gazed fixed on the sky overhead. Though his eyes are on the clouds, I can’t help but watch his silhouette in the darkness. The way his mouth is set, the hope and determination there—the strength of his shoulders, the energy in the way he gazes skyward. The breeze stirs his hair, and I find myself transfixed.”
― Amie Kaufman, quote from This Shattered World


“But this guy…this guy makes me pause. Makes me forget all of that. Dark, tumbly hair, thick brows, dangerously sweet eyes. Sensuous mouth, tiny smirk barely hidden at its corner. He’s got a poets mouth. Artistic, expressive.”
― Amie Kaufman, quote from This Shattered World


“It all threatens to well back up, the tangle of things I’m too exhausted to face. There’s only one thing I know with absolute certainty, and as I whisper her name and lean into her again, she lets me. Her hand leaves my chest and invites me in—she cups my cheeks as our lips meet, drawing me away from the frantic heat and toward something slower, something quiet. Something real.”
― Amie Kaufman, quote from This Shattered World


“this tug-of-war between wanting her, and just wanting her gone.”
― Amie Kaufman, quote from This Shattered World


About the author

Amie Kaufman
Born place: in Melbourne, Australia
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Popular quotes

“She drew herself up and took in a breath, concentrating on her inflection so that she could indulge him in his game. Then she leaned forward and, in her best, most sincerely love-struck voice, breathed, "I love thee."

Sonny's face was just inches from hers. His storm-gray eyes flashed, and the dark silk of his hair drifted across his cheek as he leaned in his head. "Perfect."

So was the kiss.

Perfect.

"I love thee," Sonny murmured, all pretense gone.”
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“You'll be a rumor. A whisper. The thought that wakes the bastards of this world sweating in the nevernight. The last thing you will ever be, girl, is someone's hero.”
― Jay Kristoff, quote from Nevernight


“What did I think? Right then I was thinking about my father, specifically his habit of treating everyone with courtesy and consideration, of how he used to stop on lower Division Street and converse genially with old black men from the Hill whom he knew from his early days as a route man. His kindness and interest weren't feigned, nor did they derive, I'm convinced, from any perceived send of duty. His behavior was merely an extension of who he was. But here's the thing about my father that I've come to understand only reluctantly and very recently. If he wasn't the cause of what ailed his fellow man, neither was he the solution. He believed in "Do unto Others." It was a good, indeed golden, rule to by and it never occurred to him that perhaps it wasn't enough. "You ain't gotta love people," I remember him proclaiming to the Elite Coffee Club guys at Ikey's back in the early days. Confused by mean-spirited behavior, he was forever explaining how little it cost to be polite, to be nice to people. Make them feel good then they're down because maybe tomorrow you'll be down. Such a small thing. Love, he seemed to understand, was a very big thing indeed, its cost enormous and maybe more than you could afford if you were spendthrift. Nobody expects that of you, asny more than they expected you to hand out hundred-dollar bills on the street corner.
And I remember my mother's response when he repeated over dinner what he'd told the men at the store. "Really, Lou? Isn't that exactly what we're supposed to do? Love people? Isn't that what the Bible says?”
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“I never say the things I really want to. If I did, I'd have no friends.”
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