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

…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...

Please give me a single reason why I shouldn’t hurl myself beneath the wheels of that bus.

I came running down the stairs that morning, like it was Christmas. My parents were already up. In my family, presents never waited; they were there upon waking. Our family has a problem with what...

Griping is for those without a plan of action…

Happiness is not a state of being. Happiness is a vector, it is movement.

How many kids are in the Graveyard?””A bunch.””Who sends your supplies?””George Washington. Or is it Abraham Lincoln? I forget.””How often do you receive new arrivals?””About as often as you beat your wife.

Live by your impulses, and you’ll be just like them. You’re better than that, aren’t you, Red?

I’m against solutions that are worse than the problem. Like old women who want their hair dyed the color of shoe polish to hide the gray.

Cowards hide […] but warriors lie and wait […] the only difference is whether you’re motivated by fear or purpose.

On my fifteenth birthday, I came to realize that the expression spoiled rotten meant exactly that. We kids were the apples of our parents’ eyes, and I, for one, was rotting from inside out.

Lethargy. It’s a word I know, because it’s in one of my father’s favorite expressions. Lethargy breeds lethargy. It means the more you lie around doing nothing, the more you want to lie around doing...

I always hear people talk about ‘dysfunctional families.’ It annoys me, because it makes you think that somewhere there’s this magical family where everyone gets along, and no one ever screams things they don’t mean,...

…One thing you 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,...

Respect doesn’t come without a little resentment.

killing”—and when one knows that death isn’t the end, does it stop the killing hand for fear of retribution, or does it simply make it easier to kill, because, if life continues, how can murder...

You should never apologize for existing, Lev. Not even to all those people out there who wish you didn’t.

How can you pass laws about things that nobody knows?””They do it all the time,” says Hayden. “That’s what law is: educated guesses at right and wrong.

The scariest thing of all is never knowing what you’re suddenly going to believe.

If someone had told Allie that she would commit a premeditated act of murder, she would not have believed it. She would have spouted off all the reasons how she could never be capable of...

I wrote Unwind for lots of reasons, and it poses questions about alot of subjects. To state it briefly, I wanted to point out how when peopletake intractable positions on an issue, and stick to...

Walls don’t fall without effort.

…Our conversation with the supermarket manager had been about as helpful as a New Jersey road sign, and if you’ve ever been there, you know the signs don’t tell you the exit you’re coming up...

You can’t change laws without first changing human nature… You can’t change human nature without first changing the law.

Once in a while our school has half days, and the teachers spend the afternoon ‘in service,’ which I think must be a group therapy for having to deal with us.

the Dancing Bear wants us to suffer.

Which side was I on? There was no time to search for answers. All I could do now was ride on a werewolf’s back, toward a destiny as hidden as the dark side of the...

Suddenly, Tara’s accomplishment was clear. She had lined up allies among the school’s various groups and got them all to work together for probably the first time in the school’s history. She was like a...