Then they pull onto Route 66, heading east into a world that’s ripe for saving

The thing was, if I had found a way to escape- even for just a little while- I knew the pain would be there waiting for me when I got back.

I’d rather be partly great than entirely useless.

His life did not so much flash before his eyes, as slap him in the face

Their fate rested entirely on me. I could save them by telling the truth. I could destroy them by lying. No one should have that much power.

…You know something, don’t you?””I know lots of things–your inquiry needs to be more specific.””Just answer the question.””True/false or multiple choice?

First rule of motherhood, dearie: men are screw-ups. Learn it now and you’ll be a whole lot happier.

He’s chocolate,” Mikey said.

I almost told her everything right then. I wanted to tell her about the Wolves, and how I was supposed to hate them, but when you spend your days with evil, some of it is...

Man, Grandma, what big hair you have.””The better to style with, my dear.

No true hero ever believes that they are one.

In the end, blame didn’t shine on an individual. It was a floodlight cast on all of us. And all because we longed for healing and happiness- as if happiness is a state of being....

There are worse things than being robbed…” I could smell the sick old-meat stench on his breath, like he really had eaten my grandmother. “…worse things than dyin’ even. You be a good boy, Little...

Did you ever get the feeling that everything was too perfect? Like the moment was so good that something had to be wrong? Kind of like the way a fish sees that bright, shiny lure...

I was asking if unwinding kills you, or if it leaves you alive somehow. C’mon—it’s not like we haven’t thought about it.” (…)What do you think, Connor?” asks Hayden. “What hap­pens to your soul when...

Heaven might shine bright, but so do flames.

When you truly start to care about someone you become vulnerable to all sorts of things.

Cities are never random. No matter how chaotic they might seem, everything about them grows out of a need to solve a problem. In fact, a city is nothing more than a solution to a...

We move in and out of darkness and light all our lives. Right now I’m pleased to be in the light.

We’ll never be ready. So I guess that means we’re as ready as we’ll ever be.

He’s a conundrum- and there’s still a piece missing from the puzzle.” Whatever that piece was, there was a part of me telling me not to get involved- that it was too much to handle....

but laugh, laugh, laugh, because if you ever stop laughing, it might just tear you apart

Don’t you recognize me, Mary? It’s your good friend Allie the Outcast – although it looks like you’re the one who’s the out-cast now.” Then Allie realized something with far too much glee. “Now that...

This is how he always imagined- a dangerous place full of mystery and violent kids.

Whether consciousness is implanted in us by something divine, or whether it is created by the efforts of our brains, the end result is the same. We are.

This is not going to be easy. I’m good at being bad, but I’m bad at being good. I don’t know the first thing about good deeds.

Great tragedies have great consequences. They ripple through the fabric of this world and the next. When the loss is too great for either world to bear, Everlost absorbs the shock, like a cushion between...

…the Statue of Liberty’s got this invitation: ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your reeking homeless–”Huddled masses,’ said Ira. ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.’…Okay, fine. So like...

You can’t imagine what it’s like to be torn between darkness and light- to be a traitor no matter what move you make. If my grandmother and Marissa died tonight, it would be because I...

I think all mothers are alike, regardless of cultural background, when it comes to illogical cleaning.

On a hairpin turn, above the dead forest, on no day in particular, a white Toyota crashed into a black Mercedes, for a moment blending into a blur of gray.

Happiness is a vector. It can only be defined by the speed at which you’re moving away from pain.

It does, Tennyson, because there’s a fine line between confidence and arrogance. There’s a fine line between being assertive and being a bully. And you’re on the wrong side of both lines.

End means end. Complete and total destruction. She wants to kill everyone and everything. She wants to bring down every building, burn every forest, empty every ocean of life. She wants to turn the earth...

Death doesn’t just make all the world kin, it makes all religions one

They meet in the girls’ bathroom. The last time they were forced to meet in a place like this, they took separate, isolated stalls. Now they share one. They hold each other in the tight...

On a sunny Tuesday – for it seems so many awful things happen on a Tuesday – six astronauts and one schoolteacher attempted to pierce the sky. Instead they touched the stars.

This book is so interesting. I always wonder what’s going to happen next.

Hole…” He grips Risa’s hand tighter. “Hole, Risa, hole…” And she smiles “Yes, Connor,” she says. “You’re whole. You’re finally whole.

He will only do the wrong thing when it’s the right thing to do..

Roland glares at Connor and Connor glares back. Then he says what he always says at moments like this.”Nice socks.”Although Roland doesn’t look down right away, it derails him just enough for him to back...

does a sick society get so used to its illness that it can’t remember being well? what if the memory is too dangerous for the people who like things the way they are?

I’m going out to find her, to make things right, or atleast properly wrong.

One thing yo learn when you’ve lived as long as I have-people aren’t all good, and people aren’t all bad. We move in and out of darkness and light all of our lives. Right now,...

We’re this big melting pot, but someone turned up the heat too high, and the stew started to burn. Gangs, crime, fights, and fear are now a regular part of our local stew.

Those eyes of his just look up at me, pupils dilated in the diffused lights of the room. Wide, black pools, seeking out galaxies.

The accountant lingers at his children’s doorway a moment more, listening to the easy rhythm of their breathing, and something cold moves through him, like the passage of a ghost – but he know that’s...

Sometimes, though, you make a pact with yourself. I’ll pretend there’s nothing wrong if you pretend there’s nothing wrong. It’s called denial, and it’s one of the strongest pacts in the world. Just ask all...

It was easier to deal with Tennyson when he was fighting me; but having him on my side was frightening, because now I didn’t know who the enemy was.

The question wasn’t whether or not I cared about him; the question was, how much? I’m glad Tennyson didn’t ask that, because then I’d have to ask myself; and I already knew the answer. I...