Patrick Ness Quotes

I do what I have to do," I say. I do what I have to do to save him. I do what I have to do to save Todd.

And then his noise falls completely silent- And he stops struggling- And looking right into my eyes- He dies. My Todd dies.

"No," he says, taking us both in. "No, no, no. You've come farther than most people on this planet will in their lifetimes. You've overcome obstacles and dangers and things that should've killed you. You've outrun an army and a madman and deadly illness and seen things most people will never see. How do you think you could have possibly come this far if you didn't have hope?"

Viola? Keep calling for me– And I’ll keep searching for you– And I’ll find you– You bet yer life on it– I’ll find you– Keep calling for me, Viola– Cuz here I come.

Ideals, my girl,” she says. “Always easier to believe in than live.” “But if you don't at least try to live them,” Bradley says, “then there's no point in living at all.

Her accent's funny, different from mine, different from anyone in Prentisstown's. Her lips make different kinds of outlines for the letters, like they're swooping down on them from above, pushing them into shape, telling them what to say. In Prentisstown, everyone talks like they're sneaking up on their words, ready to club them from behind.

I wanted so badly for there to be more. I ached for there to be more than my crappy little life.' He shakes his head. 'And there was more. I just couldn't see it.

Belief is half of all healing. Belief in the cure, belief in the future that awaits.

Know yourself and go in swinging, if it hurts when you hit, it might be real, too.

You can't say everything, so you don't say nothing.

A thing worth learning is worth learning well.

In this world of numbness and information overload, the ability to feel, my boy, is a rare gift indeed.

And it feels like, finally.

TODD!" I yell again and I reach him and his Noise opens even farther and wraps around me like a blanket and I'm grabbing him to me, grabbing him to me like I'll never let him go and he calls out in pain but his other arm is grabbing me back - "I thought you were dead," he's saying, his breath on my neck. "I thought you were dead." "Todd," I say and I'm crying and the only thing I can say is his name. "Todd.

Here I am. Here we are. Here we go. Here is all that matters.

For me it is really important to have a story with blood in the veins, there are bad tempers and good tempers.

Everything that's happened has brought me here, to this place, with this knife in my hand, and something worth saving.

Do we hate paradise so much we need to make sure it becomes a trash heap?

Stories don’t always have happy endings.

No,' Ben says, 'but I believe it. I believe it for you. And that's why it's hope.

I was born into all that, all that mess, the over-crowded swamp and the over-crowded sematary and the not-crowded-enough town, so I don’t remember nothing, don’t remember a world without Noise. My pa died of sickness before I was born and then my ma died, of course, no surprises there. Ben and Cillian took me in, raised me. Ben says my ma was the last of the women but everyone says that about everyone’s ma. Ben may not be lying, he believes it’s true, but who knows?

To see the ocean once is to learn how to miss it. ~Mistress Coyle

I think maybe everyone falls... I think the asking is whether we get back up again.

The sound when we crash is so loud it's almost impossible.

It’s a trick Ben taught me to help settle my Noise. You close yer eyes and as clearly and calmly as you can you tell yerself who you are, cuz that’s what gets lost in all that Noise.

I am Todd Hewitt, I think to myself with my eyes closed. I am twelve years and twelve months old. I live in Prentisstown on New World. I will be a man in one month’s time exactly.

I just stand there like a doofus wondering just what in the effing blazes is going on.

Sometimes people need to lie to themselves most of all.

I will not allow anyone to take anything off my palette but if I do then within that, I can be creative.

People say they want freedom, but what they really want is freedom from worry. If I take care of their problems, they don't mind being told what to do.

We just keep on having to save each other", he says. "We ever gonna be even?" "I hope not," I say

You went up a girl and came down a woman.

Teenagers are the greatest readers in the world - honest, unsnobby and loyal

It's not the mistakes I made but how I responded to them

Worst is the one who knows better and does nothing.

And otherwise normal men become monsters, too.

Stories don’t end with the writers, however many started the race.

Real life is only ever just real life. Messy. What it means depends on how you look at it. The only thing you’ve got to do is find a way to live there.

Schooling ain't life." "Ain't it?" she says, her eyebrows raising in mock surprise.

We don't say nothing more. What else is there to say? Everything and nothing. You can't say everything, so you don't say nothing.

How do you know yer alive if you don't hurt?

People see stories everywhere...We take random events and we put them together in a pattern so we can comfort ourselves with a story, no matter how much it obviously isn't true...We have to lie to ourselves to live. Otherwise, we'd go crazy.

Shout for libraries. Shout for the young readers who use them.

You're never more alive than in battle." "Never more dead after," I say.

This is what war does. Right here, in my hands. This is war.

It's not that you should never love something so much that it can control you. It's that you need to love something that much so you can never be controlled. It's not a weakness. It's your best strength.

Life ain't fair. It ain't. Not never.

But, somehow, Wilf knows. Somehow, Wilf always knows.