Scott Westerfeld
You fiddle lucker!' she cried.Collection: Fiddle
Tally sighed, tipping her feet again to follow. "Maybe that's because they have better stuff to do than kid tricks. Maybe partying in town is better than hanging out in a bunch of old ruins." Shay's eyes flashed. "Or maybe when they do the operation-when they grind and stretch your bones to the right shape, peel off your face and rub all your skin away, and stick in plastic cheekbones so you look like everyone else-maybe after going through all that you just aren't very interesting anymore.Collection: Party
It's not the traveling that takes courage Tally. I've done much longer trips on my own. It's leaving home.Collection: Home
She thought of the orchids spreading across the plains below, choking the life out of other plants, out of the soil itself, selfish and unstoppable. Tally Youngblood was a weed. And, unlike the orchids, she wasn't even a pretty one.Collection: Weed
It's not the way Zane looks, David," she said, her voice trembling with anger. "It's because he makes me bubbly, and because we took a lot of risks together. It could just as easily be me lying there, and he would stay with me if it was." "It's just programming!" "No. It's because I love him.Collection: Lying
He turned to face her again, his late-pretty composure crumbling. "But you're..." "Pretty? Think again." She smiled. "I'm Tally Youngbood. My mind is very ugly. And I'm taking your car.Collection: Thinking
I’m not against thinking; I’m only against thinking that thinking on its own will get you out of a hole. Shovel also needed.Collection: Thinking
We're not freaks, Tally. We're normal. We may not be gorgeous, but at least we're not hyped-up Barbie dolls.Collection: Barbie Dolls
Didn't this beat everything? A pretty and an ugly taking a stroll together. The warden came closer, confusion all over his middle-pretty face. Tally smiled. At least she was causing trouble to the end. "I'm Tally Youngblood," she said. "Make me pretty.Collection: Confusion
At least one thing was consistent about her life: It just kept on getting more complicated.Collection: Complicated
Let me get this stright, Aya-Chan. You want me, a person who can't lie, to lie about the fact that I can't lie?" -Frizz mizunoCollection: Lying
But they're already singing our praises!" "They are Americans. They toot their horns for anything.Collection: Singing
Oh, this beast? It's...perspicacious loris. 'Perspicacious' meaning 'wise or canny'." "Get stuffed," Bovril said, then giggled. "And it insults people," Telsa said. "How peculiar.Collection: Wise
Surely no one would ever use such a weapon against a city." "There are no limits in war," Volger said, still staring out the window.Collection: War
If you see everything through hovercams and feed stories, you wind up blind to what's right in front of you.Collection: Wind
You'd think that in a fight, NOT MOVING would be a bad habit!Collection: Moving
She couldn't disappoint the whole village. There were no wallscreens here, no newsfeeds or satellites bands, and touring soccer teams were no doubt few and far between. (...), that made stories a valuable commodity, and it probably wasn't very often that a stranger dropped in from the sky.Collection: Soccer
Let others wage war. You, lucky Austria, shall marry.Collection: War
Do you love him?" Deryn swallowed, then pointed at the screen. "He makes me feel like that. Like flying.Collection: Flying
Emperors are vain and useless things.Collection: Useless Things
Suddenly a pair of searchlights lanced out from the frigate. They swept across the dark expanse - bright knives slicing the night into pieces.Collection: Dark
That letter was your whole future, you daft prince." "It was my past. I lost that the night my parents died. But I found you, Deryn. Maybe I wasn't meant to end the war, but I was meant to find you. I know that. You've saved me from having any reason to keep going." "We save each other. That's how it works.Collection: War
Nature was tough, it could be dangerous, but unlike Dr. Cable or shay, or peris-unlike people in general-it made sense. The problems it threw at you could be solved rationally.Collection: People
I know what it’s like to be manipulated, Aya-la. And I know what it’s like to be in danger. While your city was building you mansions to live in, my friends and I have been protecting this planet. We’ve spilled more blood than you have flowing in your veins. So don’t try to make me feel guilty! -Tally Youngblood, ExtrasCollection: Blood
What about a hoverboard?" "It's waiting on the roof, of course." Dr. Cable snorted. "What is it about you miscreants and those things?Collection: Waiting
Her only way home was to betray her friend.Collection: Home
Junkies might be easy to knock down, but they're never fragile. They have souls like old leather shoes studded with steel, and they're about as much good as friends.Collection: Shoes
Turns out if you never lie, there's always someone mad at you.Collection: Lying
Tally, do you ever suffer from sudden flashes of anger or euphoria, countersocial impulses, or feelings of superiority?Collection: Feelings
Hard work's a good distraction.Collection: Hard Work
I like my first lines short and declarative. No complicated sentences. Of course, that's not really a Scott thing. It's pretty classic grab-the-reader technique.Collection: Technique
Come on, it's almost midnight. Let's go watch them cut the cake.Collection: Cutting
Lilt pulled away. "I saw what he was doing, so I cleared a path for him. I helped him do it..." She shook her head, tears tracking the dust off her face, and turned to stare at the fallen tower. "Have we all gone mad to want this?Collection: Dust
it's not called the Rusty Ruins because some guy called Rusty found them.Collection: Guy
You all say you need us. Well, maybe you do, but not to help, with the millions of bubbly new minds about to be unleashed, with all the cities coming awake at last. Together, you're more than enough to change the world without us. So from now on, David and I are here to stand in your way. You see, freedom has a way of destroying things.Collection: Cities
Tally wondered if you could talk somebody out of their brain damage.Collection: Brain
I feel like sometimes my best friend is not my best friend but my mortal enemyCollection: Enemy
Alek was right behind her now, his body pressing close as he adjusted her sword arm. She hadn't realized this fencing business would be so touchy. He grasped her waist, sending a crackle across her skin. If Alek moved his hands any higher, he might notice what was hidden beneath her careful tailoring. “Always keep sideways to your opponent,” he said, gently turning her. “That way, your chest presents the smallest possible target.” “Aye, the smallest possible target,” Deryn sighed. Her secret was safe, it seemed.Collection: Hands
Haven't you ever known someone rejected by a lover, who, consumed by rage and jealousy, never lets go? They look on from a distance, unseen but boiling inside. The emotion never seems to tire, this hatred mixed with intense obsession, even with a kind of twisted love.Collection: Love
Typographical laziness was slowly destroying our culture, according to Lexa and her pals. Inexactitude was death.Collection: Culture
You look beautiful - DavidCollection: Beautiful
I make it a policy never to appear surprised" - Dr BarlowCollection: Drs
The man was allergic to sleep.Collection: Sleep
Barking hard work, being a boy.Collection: Hard Work
And here in America rival newspapermen attack each other on sight?Collection: Sight
But you know what? It's not my behavior I'm worried about anymore. It's yours.Collection: Worried
But it's always taking a risk, when you ... kiss someone new.Collection: Kissing
Maybe kissing is sort of like nature's coffee. -JonathanCollection: Coffee
But you weren't born expecting that kind of beauty in everyone, all the time. You just got programmed into thinking anything else is ugly.Collection: Thinking