Beth Revis Quotes & Sayings

I lean closer to him, so close I can smell his skin, and when I speak, I can see how the little hairs near his ear move with my breath. I also want you to know that I won't kill you right away. But that you'll wish I had. — Beth Revis

And there is nothing between us but rain.
Then there is nothing between us at all. — Beth Revis

It's always in the rain... — Beth Revis

We're the ones who arent normal. People are supposed to be like that: obedient, calm, working together. It's us-who can't focus, who can't work together, who can't do the Feeder or Shipper jobs-we're the ones who aren't normal. We're the ones who have to take the mental meds just so we don't go loons. — Beth Revis

They'll never truly be able to comprehend how much was lost for their limitless sky. — Beth Revis

It's hard to think about all the bad when she reminds me of all that's good. — Beth Revis

Who are the real monsters? — Beth Revis

You never know all of a person; you only know them in a specific moment of time. — Beth Revis

I have no idea why she needs them. I just know that I'd face another plague to get them for her if I had to. Fortunately, it's a lot easier than that. - Elder — Beth Revis

I cannot imagine a more perfect hell than being trapped inside my own mind. — Beth Revis

I can get closer. — Beth Revis

If someone loves you, he'll wait for you to love him back — Beth Revis

Don't you see? Those monsters you've been so worried about. Not aliens. People. The monsters have always been people. — Beth Revis

I told Victria that love is a choice, and I told myself that I didn't have to choose Elder, but I can't forget the way my heart stopped when his did. — Beth Revis

It is like a piece of my soul had been lost, empty, and it is now filled with the light of a million stars. — Beth Revis

Memories always kill nightmares. — Beth Revis

Sorry? Sorry? Sorry isn't enough. Every. Single. Thing. I ever loved is beyond my reach now. Everything I ever wanted. Everything I ever was. — Beth Revis

This is... mating, it's not love. — Beth Revis

How ironic it would be, to die at his hands while trying to save him, when he first came to me because he was trying to save me. — Beth Revis

It wasn't that he called me a freak. It was the way he said it. Like he really meant it. Like he believed it. — Beth Revis

It's not knowing that's killing me. Not knowing if there's a chance that something can change, not knowing if there's hope at all. — Beth Revis

Even when you are silent, even when you block out all noise, your body is still a cacophony of life. Mine is not. It is the silence that drives me mad. The silence that drives the nightmares to me. Because — Beth Revis

And I look at Harley, and the billions of stars are in his eyes, and he's drinking them up, pouring them into his soul. — Beth Revis

It sparkles in the dim light of the room, and when he shakes it out, dust mingles with glitter. — Beth Revis

But ... If my life on Earth must end, let it end with a promise.
Let it end with hope. — Beth Revis

But how can I be disappointed in space? — Beth Revis

I half believe him, but I can't risk being wrong based on a gut feeling. [ ... ]
"What do you want me to do?" Jack throws up his hands. "If I could crack open my skull and let you read my brain like a book, I would!"
My breath catches in my throat. Because I ... I could read his brain like a book. — Beth Revis

Kayleigh was right. Without the pills, you really do feel nothing.
And nothing can be nice. — Beth Revis

People will survive anything for their children. — Beth Revis

Old people die. It's what they do. ~ Amy — Beth Revis

As soon as I say the words, I know they were the right ones. My eyes dip down to Dad's memorial plaque. Truth doesn't lie in the heart of fortune ... it's under Triumph Towers, where the labs are. — Beth Revis

I learned long ago that home is a word that applies to people, not places ... Didn't matter to me where I was - it mattered who I was with. — Beth Revis

What else can you tell me?" Dad stares at me. "What have you learned while you were awake?"
I learned that life is so, so fragile. I learned that you can know someone for just days and never forget the impression he left on you. I learned that art can be beautiful and sad at the same time. I learned that if someone loves you, he'll wait for you to love him back. I learned that how much you want something doesn't determine whether you get it or not, that "no" might not be enough, that life isn't fair, that my parents can't save me, that maybe no one can. "Nothing much," I mutter. — Beth Revis

But there's a difference, isn't there? Between saying goodbye and death. — Beth Revis

I never knew how easy it is to escape if you don't mind leaving nearly everything behind. — Beth Revis

I'm going to find a way to fix you"
"I'm not broken", Amy says in a voice as empty as her eyes.
I lead her down the hall, deposit her in her chamber, and tell her not lo leave. I have no doubt she will follow my order. — Beth Revis

I shut my eyes, and I force myself to feel myself. You never really think of what it's like to be in your body, but even with my eyes shut, I can feel the boundaries of my skin, real or not. Everything that's me is contained inside this body, and I feel it all. The heartbeat I cannot control. The mind that may not be mine. I am here, in this moment, in this body. All that I am - maybe not all that I ever was, but all that I currently am - is right here. — Beth Revis

FAILURE IS INEVITABLE. I will fail. We all will. And having failed, and gotten back up, and failed again, taught me that I can survive failure. This is a downfall in most modern stories: the hero always wins. Because while this story is inspiring, it's also false. In reality, not everyone wins. It's 100% true that no one wills all the time, and we expect that - every hero must fall at least once. But it's also 100% true that some people never win at all, and that's the thing we try so hard to ignore behind the pretty stories. I could spend the rest of my life trying to be a prima ballerina, and it would not happen. I would fail at that for the rest of my life. FAILURE TEACHES US WHO WE ARE. Because even though I know I would fail forever at being a prima ballerina, I also know that I am not someone who should be a prima ballerina. It's not who I am, it's not what I want. Of course I would fail at it. — Beth Revis

I have no emotions. I just stand there, in the rubble of my life.
This ... this was my home. If it were a person, this would be a gaping chest wound, the kind no one can recover from. — Beth Revis

Other species have interstellar travel," Jyn protested. "That didn't just come from humans. The humans never would have figured it out if not for - " Burta — Beth Revis

I would use the same word to describe both my joy and the rain: torrential. This - this - this is all I ever wanted from the world: wide-open spaces and cooling rain and the chance to run. — Beth Revis

The sea is a dangerous place because it makes you believe in forever. — Beth Revis

More than the sound of my own beating heart, I miss the sound of a ticking clock. Time passes. It must pass ... — Beth Revis

Everyone has wounds; everyone pretends they don't. — Beth Revis

I want to take her into my arms and hold her tight. But at the same time, I know that is the exact opposite of what she wants. She wants to be free, and all I want is to hold her tight against me. ~ Elder — Beth Revis

I stare at the stars... And even though there are so many and they look so close together, I know they are light years apart. The glitter in the sky looks as if I could scoop it all up in my hands and let the stars swirl and touch one another, but they are so distant, so very far apart, that they cannot feel the warmth of each other, even though they are made of burning.
This is the secret of the stars, I tell myself. In the end, we are alone. No matter how close you seem, no one else can touch you. — Beth Revis

We're not ignoring the problem, not really. We're all aware it's there, even Bo. We see the edges of this new Bo, this Bo who's special, different. We're not ignoring it. We're just carefully, carefully avoiding it. — Beth Revis

I might have the whole world now, but it's not enough if I don't get to share it with her. — Beth Revis

I wrote a book. It sucked. I wrote nine more books. They sucked, too. Meanwhile, I read every single thing I could find on publishing and writing, went to conferences, joined professional organizations, hooked up with fellow writers in critique groups, and didn't give up. Then I wrote one more book. — Beth Revis

We are, at least in part, who we remember ourselves to be. Take away our memories, and you take away our selves. — Beth Revis

And I know what I told my father was true: let us taste the world, and we'll do whatever it takes to shape it into our home. — Beth Revis

Elder mocked me for praying once, and i spent an hour berating him for that. He ended up throwing up his hands, laughing, and telling me i could believe whatever i wanted if i was going to hold onto my beliefs so hard. — Beth Revis

What matters right now is this: we're each of us standing here, together, alive, together. — Beth Revis

It Will be better to die quickly with only the taste of freedom on our lips than to live long lives pretending not to see the walls that imprison us. — Beth Revis

She is trying to control me with fear, because she cannot control me any other way.
My eyes open wide. They burn as if they are on fire - no, as if they are made of fire. Eyes are the window to the soul. — Beth Revis

Family is never really gone. — Beth Revis

There is only him and me and this thing between us that I cannot name, not out loud, but that my heart knows is love. — Beth Revis

Of everyone on this ship, even the frozen bodies of my parents, Elder's the only one who handed me truth and waited for me to accept it. — Beth Revis

Love without choice isn't love at all. — Beth Revis

She was a good person. She didn't deserve to die."
"I don't think it works that way. — Beth Revis

God, did they know? A year made the world of difference! This was one more year I could be with Jason, one more year I could live! I signed up for three hundred years ... not three hundred and one! — Beth Revis

All I had to do was die a little, and you get a new planet!"
I expected her to laugh, or at least smile. I did not expect her to slap my arm. "You stupid idiot!" she says, smacking me again. "I don't want the new planet without you!"
Her eyes round as she realizes what she just said. Anytime we'd gotten this close to talking about us before, Amy has shied away from the topic. But now, instead of drawing away from me, she leans closer. Her hair spills over her shoulders, brushing my chest as she leans down. Her fiery joy at learning about the planet is replaced with something else, something warmer like a slow-burning but steady flame.
"It wouldn't be worth it without you," she says, her voice low. — Beth Revis

He's the only stable thing in the swirling chaos. — Beth Revis

It was to apologize, and apologizing means he remembers what happened, and that means being trapped in a nightmare that's already come true. — Beth Revis

I can see, for just a moment, his beating heart in his ribcage, and then that, too, withers and dies, the useless, blackened lump tapping against his ribs before plopping out of his body. — Beth Revis

Science can make a heart beat," Jack says softly, each word falling on me like a caress. "But it can't make it race. — Beth Revis

I try not to look obvious as I wait for Mom's answer. I feel as if I am on the edge of a knife, my feet being sliced by the blade, teetering toward one side or the other.
"Oh, of course!" Mom exclaims, her voice trilling with laughter. "How could I have forgotten?"
And now I know. Really know. This woman is not my mother. I don't know who she is, but I know absolutely who she is not. — Beth Revis

All the computers in the world are on a network. They're linked by our cuffs. But I'm a computer. Jack's a computer - Akilah - PA Young - all the cy-clones. We're all computers.
You know the great thing about computers?
They can be hacked. — Beth Revis

You must dedicate your whole life to this idea: you are the caretaker of every single person on this ship. They are your responsibility.
You can never show weakness in front of them: you are their strength.
You can never let them see you in despair: you are their hope.
You must always be everything to everyone on board. — Beth Revis

Even when you're silent, even when you block out all noise, you body is still a cacophony of life. — Beth Revis

Amy looks up at me, her eyes melting jade. — Beth Revis

What you really want to know," I say, "is how to make sure we all don't just rip each other apart, right?" The fight earlier is way too fresh in our minds. We are a powder keg; just a spark will blow us apart. — Beth Revis

Even though I know the rain is fake, it feels the same as real rain, and I desperately need that. — Beth Revis

But Harley has always been this way, for as long as I've known him: he thinks ignorance is the best way to protect someone, and he doesn't understand that what we imagine is often worse than the truth. — Beth Revis

That is what a book is: a million little things, a thousand feelings, hundreds of experiences, all melted together and sculpted into a book-shaped vessel. — Beth Revis

Amy pulls away and looks into my face. Her pale skin is blotchy red, her eyes are veined and shadowed, and a shiny line of snot trickles from her nose to the top of her lip.
She wipes her face and with her arm, smearing tears and mucus. She never looked more BEAUTIFUL to me. — Beth Revis

(D)reams are like that: they go in and out of memories and scenes, but they're never real. They're never real, and I hate them because they aren't. — Beth Revis

I'm running as if the force of the wind whipping around my body will be enough to keep all the pieces of me from crumbling. — Beth Revis

Maybe the secret of the stars has nothing to do with being alone. — Beth Revis

Wannagogardenwime?" I ask all in one breath. My eyes grow wide. What came over me? Why would I blurt that out like that? ~Elder — Beth Revis

This is the secret of the stars, I tell myself. In the end, we are alone. No matter how close you seem, no one else can touch you. ~ Amy — Beth Revis

If we're not there to protect them
that's why people being murdered! Because we aren't protecting them!'
'No.' My voice is calm and sure. 'People are getting murdered because there's a murderer. — Beth Revis

But of course these are scientists. Tell them to leave something alone, and all they want to do is poke it with a stick. — Beth Revis

It's bad, being frozen, but it's better than waking up alone. — Beth Revis

This ship is built on secrets; it runs on secrets", he says, tiny droplets of spittle flying from his mouth to my face. "And if you keep asking about them, you'll see how far I'm willing to go to keep mine." ~ Eldest — Beth Revis

I have the whole world now, but I don't have him. — Beth Revis

Mom used to say that the thoughts in our heads were nothing more than electrical impulses. I remember Dad and her talking about this over dinner. It frustrated Dad that the human brain can fire electrical sparks and think, but that the electricity he'd pump into an android brain would never give it independent thought. The body isn't that different from a machine. Humans and androids both run on electricity.
That lightning spark of energy I saw in the reverie.
That was my mother's last thought, an echo of electricity, something that sparked when I entered her dreamscape.
That spark is gone now. Her life is gone now. Everything that made her, her, is gone now. Faded into nothing. — Beth Revis

I feel hollow inside, as if there's a black hole where my heart was, as if I am caving in around myself. — Beth Revis

Eldest taught me about ancient religions that worshiped the sun. I never understood why- it's just a ball of light and heat. But if the sun of Sol-Earth swirls in colors and lights like that girl's hair, well, I can see why the ancients would worship that. — Beth Revis

The freedom of our people is more important!" Julie says fiercely. "We will never stop fighting, never stop working for what is right!"
Jack just smiles at her. "That's a nice lie to believe," he says. — Beth Revis

I can think of no better way to meet a girl than to see her through the eyes of the story she loves best. — Beth Revis

Emotion courses through my veins, choking me. I feel so insignificant, a tiny speck surrounded by a million stars.
A million suns. — Beth Revis

I run and run and run. Past the hospital, through the garden, past a pond. And to the cold metal wall. I stop, gulping at the air, my heart racing in my ears. I reach up with one hand and touch the wall. My fingers curl into a fist, but it falls weakly to my side. And that's when I realize there is no where to run. 'But', my heart whispers, 'there is Elder. — Beth Revis

I guess when someone's gone from your life for a while, all you think about are the big things. The big regrets, the could-have, should-haves. Or the big moments, the memories that are going to be with you forever, those life-changing moments, like first kisses and first confessions and first trusts. And you think about the lasts too: the last kiss, the last words, the last moments. — Beth Revis

We all die someday. Maybe the only thing that makes that fact bearable is the idea that death is the only way we can return to the stars. — Beth Revis

When I get to my room, the first thing I do is punch the button that operates the blind over the window. The room dims. Good. I want darkness. ~Amy — Beth Revis

I look up. And I am surrounded by the universe.
silence
and stars
A million suns stretch out beyond me, their light piercing the darkness. — Beth Revis

Maybe I'm reading too much into this. It's probably nothing. But I've had "nothing" for too long, and I'm ready for something. Anything. — Beth Revis

I've never seen the stars before.
And I never knew they were so beautiful. — Beth Revis

As the dreamscape around me grows clearer, I slip further away from it. The mind is a magical thing, I'm discovering. A dreamscape is made of thought and is wider than the sky, able to grow large enough to fit not just our own world, but every possibility and impossibility beyond it. Once I quit thinking of it as being forced into the laws of physics, it's easy to manipulate the dreamscape into anything I want. I don't know how I know all this, no more than I understand how I know things when I dream. I just do.
I throw up my hand, and a wall rises between the orange grove and me. Behind the wall, I start creating the world I need in Representative Belles's mind. — Beth Revis