Poets never die, I thought. They just fail in the end.

With an enemy like that, who needs friends?

Life is full of little ironies, but it’s also pockmarked with some the size of that big rock in Australia.

I really kill myself on titles, although ‘The 5th Wave’ seems like an obvious title, doesn’t it? You don’t know how long that took me.

For true beauty—beauty, as it were, with a capital B—is terrifying; it puts us in our place; it reflects back to us our own ugliness. It is the prize beyond price.

I confessed I did not have an opinion; I was only thirteen, and this was my very first dismemberment.

That’s it,” he said bitterly. “Cry, Cassie. Cry for her. Cry for all the children. They can’t hear you and they can’t see you and can’t feel how really bad you feel, but cry for...

Madness is a wholly human malady borne in a brain too evolved—or not quite evolved enough—to bear the awful burden of its own existence.

I am a shark. A shark who dreamed he was a man.

I’m a little panicky when I realize he’s not here. It’s a lot easier to push down my doubt when he’s with me. When I can see those eyes the color of melted chocolate and...

When civilizations collide, it usually isn’t the more primitive one that prevails.

Understand their hatred is beyond human comprehension. They abhor the Creator and so also the creation. Whatever brings joy, whatever brings peace, whatever redeems the dark deed or relieves the terrors of the night and...

So cold your tears freeze against your cheeks.’It’s not my fault,’ I told Bear. ‘I don’t make the weather. You got a beef, take it up with God.’ That’s what I’ve been doing a lot...

The shadow raised its arm high in the air and I knew – I knew before I heard my name – that he’d found me again, keeper of the promise he couldn’t make, the one...

We’d stared into Death’s eyes and Death blinked first.

I’ve loved sci-fi and speculative fiction since I was a kid. It was inevitable I’d try my hand at it at some point.

There is beauty that soothes like the warm kiss of the spring sun upon the cheek, and then there is beauty that terrifies, like the cry of Ozymandias, inviting despair.

As long as you draw breath anywhere -here or ten thousands miles from here- I will love you. I can’t help loving you, so I choose to hate you…to make my love bearable.

It’s an alien apocalypse! Quick, grab the beer!

If the enemy looks just like you, how do you fight him?

We’d stared into the face of Death, and Death blinked first. You’d think that would make us feel brave and invincible. It didn’t.

Promises are priceless, and a kiss is a kind of promise, too.

I got a very late start at fatherhood. I’m a late bloomer in general. It took me seven years to get through four years of college. I was five years away from 40 before I...

I walked until the water lapped against my chest, and then I kept walking until it kissed the underside of my jaw. I was surprised how cold it was. I closed my eyes and ducked...