Quotes by Patrick Ness

We would do what we must. The world is big. Surely there is a space in it for one like you and one like me.

Everybody was hoping for something, talking about our new life to come and all that they hoped from it. Fresh air, whatever that’s supposed to mean. Real gravity, instead of the fake kind that broke every now and then (even though no one over fifteen would admit that it was actually really fun when it did). All the wide open spaces we’d have, all the new people we’d meet when we woke them up, ignoring completely what happened to the original settlers, super- confident that we were so much better equipped that nothing bad could possibly happen to us.All this hope, and here I was, right at the very edge of it, looking out into the darkness, the first to see it coming, the first to greet it when we found out what it really looked like.

THERE IT IS,’ my mother says, and what she means is that the dot we’ve been nearing for weeks, the one that’s been growing into a larger dot with two smaller dots circling it, has now become even larger than that, growing from a dot to a disc, shining back the light from its sun, until you can see the blue of its oceans, the green of its forests, the white of its polar caps, a circle of colour against the black beyond.

If you ever doubt anything here, if you ever not know what to think or who to trust, you trust Todd, okay? You remember that.

Ah, well, then youve never stood on a beach as the waves came crashing in, the water stretching out from you until its beyond sight, moving and blue and alive and so much bigger than even the black beyond seems because the ocean hides what it contains.

If you ever want to see how small you are in the plan of God, just stand at the edge of an ocean.

I love that youre worried, she says, but youre worried about all the wrong things.

As incredible as it seemed, time kept moving forward for the rest of the world.The rest of the world that wasnt waiting.

Were each others questions, arent we? The question that never gets an answer.

If youre too specific, people will purposely mishear you so they can be outraged about whatever thing that usually outrages them.

TODD! I shout again -And he looks at me -And I hear my name in his Noise -And I know it -I know it in my heart -Right now -Todd Hewitt -Theres nothing we cant do toge

Spackle!” Manchee barks, tho he’s too chicken to attack now that I’ve held back. “Spackle! Spackle! Spackle!”“Shut up, Manchee,” I say.“Spack

The indie kids, huh? Youve got them at your school, too. That group with the cool-geek haircuts and the charity shop clothes and names from the fifties. Nice enough, never mean, but always the ones who end up being the Chosen One when the vampires come calling or when the alien queen needs the Source of All Light or something. Theyre too cool to ever, ever do anything like go to prom or listen to music other than jazz while reading poetry. Theyve always got some story going on that theyre heroes of. The rest of us just have to live here, hovering around the edges, left out of it all, for the most part.

The future of fiction? he said. Maybe, she said. Will it have room for, you know, love & stuff? he said. Always, she said. OK then, he said.

Life equals running and when we stop running maybe thats how well know life is finally finished.

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

Libraries are not facing crisis, they are in crisis.

Theres so much proscription in the lives of young people, and its so vital to have a place that says, look, here are the doors onto the world and amazingly, youre free to choose any one you like. - Patrick Ness on Libraries

Blame is something that is shared and denied in equal measures.

“Many things that are true feel like a cheat. Kingdoms get the princes they deserve, farmers’ daughters die for no reason, and sometimes witches merit saving. Quite often, actually. You’d be surprised.”