Four grabs a bar with each hand and pulls himself up, easy, like he's sitting up in bed. But he is not comfortable or natural here--- every muscle in his arm stands out. it is a stupid thing for me to think when I am one hundred feet off the ground.
Veronica RothI love Tris the Divergent, who makes decisions apart from faction loyalty, who isnโt some faction archetype. But the Tris whoโs trying as hard as she can to destroy herself โฆ I canโt love her.
Veronica RothI feel myself acting like a lunatic, but I can't stop. It would be like refusing to breathe.
Veronica RothI laugh shakily. โYouโre a little scary, Four.โ โDo me a favor,โ he says, โand donโt call me that.โ โWhat should I call you, then?โ โNothing.โ He takes his hand from my face. โYet.
Veronica RothThat our world is so massive that it is completely out of our control, that we cannot possibly be as large as we feel.
Veronica RothWhat's this about flashing underwear?" says Uriah, sidestepping a bunk. "Whatever it is, I'm in.
Veronica RothYou are far less likely to soil your pants and cry for your mother if youโre prepared to defend yourself.
Veronica RothThis concept could easily have gone awry. Stories about love tend to go that way sometimes. They wander into the realm of cheese and never return, which I think is a shame, because there is a way to write about romantic love without breaking out the Velveeta.
Veronica RothNot writing is as important as writing - go out into the world and remember how interesting it, and the people in it, are.
Veronica RothShe walks away, and I am too stunned to follow her. At the end of the hallways she turns and says, "Have a piece of cake for me, all right? The chocolate. It's delicious." She smiles a strange, twisted smile, and adds," I love you, you know." And then she's gone. I stand alone in the blue light coming from the lamp above me, and I understand: She has been to the compound before. She remembered this hallways. She knows about the initiation process. My mother was a dauntless.
Veronica RothI hold the gun out from my body, my arms straight, just as Four taught me, when that was his only name. I used a gun like this to defend my father and brother from simulation-bound Dauntless. I used it to stop Eric from shooting Tobias in the head. It is not inherently evil. It is just a tool.
Veronica RothPeter leans forward and looks into my eyes. "The serum will go into effect in one minute," he says. "Be brave, Tris." My heart begins to race. Why would Peter tell me to be brave? Why would he offer any kind words at all?
Veronica RothMaybe time would not feel as heavy if I didn't have this guilt -- the guilt of knowing the truth and stuffing it down where no one can see it, not even Tobias. Maybe I should not be so afraid of saying anything, because honesty will make me feel lighter.
Veronica RothIn my own relationships, I know that I should break up with someone who doesn't encourage me to be strong and make my own choices and do what's best in my life, so if you're dating someone who doesn't want you to be the best person you can be, you shouldn't be dating them.
Veronica RothIf we stay together, I'll have to forgive you over and over again, and if you're still in this, you'll have to forgive me over and over again too. So forgiveness isn't the point. What I really should have been trying to figure out is whether we were still good for each other or not
Veronica RothEverything - our houses, our clothes, our hairstyles - is meant to help us forget ourselves and to protect us from vanity, greed and envy, which are just forms of selfishness. If we have little, and want for little, and we are all equal, we envy no one.
Veronica RothYeah, sometimes life really sucks. But you know what I'm holding on for? The moments that don't suck. The trick is to notice them when they come around.
Veronica RothIt would be stupid to confide your entire plan to one person. Itโs infinitely smarter to give little pieces of it to each person working with you. That way, if someone betrays you, the loss isnโt too great.
Veronica RothYes," I say. "Three of these flying birds." I touch my collarbone, marking the path of their flight - toward my heart. One for each member of the family I left behind.
Veronica RothWhy are you constantly escorting me places?โ I say. โIsnโt there a depraved activity youโre supposed to be taking part in? Kicking puppies or spying on girls while they change, or something?
Veronica RothI kiss him as the train slides into unlit, uncertain land. I kiss him for as long as I want, for longer than I should, given that my brother sits three feet away from me.
Veronica RothSo how can I hold Tobiasโs desperation against him, like Iโm better than him, like Iโve never let my own brokenness blind me?
Veronica RothI pause a second. He doesn't look at me the way Will, Christina, and Al sometimes do - like I am too small and too weak to be of any use, and they pity me for it.
Veronica RothBeatrice," she says. "Beatrice, we have to run." She pulls my arm across her shoulders and hauls me to my feet. She is dressed like my mother and she looks like my mother, but she is holding a gun, and the determined look in her eyes is unfamiliar to me.
Veronica RothI see a kind of thirst in her expression, the same one I saw when she told me about her brother in the back room of the tattoo parlor. Before the attack simulation I might have called it a thirst for justice, or even revenge, but now I am able to identify it as a thirst for blood. And even as it frightens me, I understand it. Which should probably frighten me even more.
Veronica RothThat said, in the two weeks before I leave for the Dark Days tour, I am going radio silent, which means I will be avoiding the Internet at all costs in order to revise, revise, revise. I will miss you. Tris says hi, though.
Veronica RothWhat do you think they're going to do to us when they find us guilty?" she says after a few minutes of silence have passed. "Honestly?" "Does now seem like the time for honesty?" I look at her from the corner of my eye. "I think they're going to force us to eat lots of cake and then take an unreasonably long nap.
Veronica RothI take a deep breath. I'm not sure where that swell of desperation came from, but know that I've acknowledge it, it's impossible to ignore, like a living thing has awakened from a long sleep inside me. It writhes in my stomach and throat. I need to leave. I need the truth.
Veronica RothBut Christina and I are not people who cry together; we're people who fight together. SO I hold my tears in.
Veronica RothPeople, I have discovered, are layers and layers of secrets. You believe you know them, that you understand them, but their motives are always hidden from you, buried in their own hearts. You will never know them, but sometimes you decide to trust them.
Veronica RothBy the time we leave, I have red lips and curled eyelashes, and Iโm wearing a bright red dress. And thereโs a knife strapped to the inside of my knee. This all makes perfect sense.
Veronica Roth