Scott Westerfeld Quotes & Sayings

It doesn't take much convincing to make someone believe they're better than everyone else. — Scott Westerfeld

But they're already singing our praises!"
"They are Americans. They toot their horns for anything. — Scott Westerfeld

Because that's what people need after traumas, apparently - lots of long conversations about the effects of trauma. — Scott Westerfeld

Sooner or later usually means too late — Scott Westerfeld

I make it a policy never to appear surprised - Dr Barlow — Scott Westerfeld

I sent Shay, Peris, and everyone else the same message ... — Scott Westerfeld

Fine. Seer knows best, even if he is nuts. Maybe I can stand to wait a few more ... whoa. What the hell happened to my car?
-Melissa — Scott Westerfeld

Barking hard work, being a boy. — Scott Westerfeld

The Germans were still hunting Alek, trying to finish the job they'd started on his parents. Someone had to be on his side.
And, as Deryn had gradually admitted to herself these last few days, she didn't mind if that someone wound up being her. — Scott Westerfeld

Sometimes the facts in my head get bored and decide to take a walk in my mouth. Frequently this is a bad thing. — Scott Westerfeld

He squeezed her hand. "Then I'll come get you, wherever you are when it happens. We'll be okay."
"But what about everybody else?"
He stared out across the river, nodding slowly. "My guess is, everybody else is in big trouble. — Scott Westerfeld

Which was worse: a friend with brain damage, or one who despised you? — Scott Westerfeld

As one does a bear riding a bicycle. One sees it so rarely.
(Spoken by Volger, on Deryn) — Scott Westerfeld

You don't think happy endings are stupid anymore?"
"Your question is irrelevant," Imogen said. "This isn't the end. — Scott Westerfeld

Didn't any of these brainless wonders ever notice that TV shows were called programs? the same word that meant a bunch of numbers stuck into a computer to make it dance for its masters? — Scott Westerfeld

In the blue time, math kicked ass.
-Dess — Scott Westerfeld

All that glitters is not hovery. — Scott Westerfeld

Hi guys the book Im reading right this moment is called Uglies — Scott Westerfeld

You can't blame a match for a house made of straw, Alek. — Scott Westerfeld

There was a beautiful princess with a prince kissing her lips only the prince was totally ugly — Scott Westerfeld

Typographical laziness was slowly destroying our culture, according to Lexa and her pals. Inexactitude was death. — Scott Westerfeld

You dont see me, now you do, but only if i want you to — Scott Westerfeld

She looked at David closely, and the feeling was still there. She could see that his forehead was too high, that a small scar cut a white stroke through his eyebrow. And his smile was pretty crooked, really. But it was as if something had changed inside Tally's head, something that had turned his face pretty to her. — Scott Westerfeld

Yeah, you should have seen your face. Actually, I should have seen your face. Stupid sneak suits. — Scott Westerfeld

I want those perfect eyes and lips, and for everyone to look at me and gasp. And for everyone who sees me to think Who's that? and want to get to know me, and listen to what I say."
"I'd rather have something to say. — Scott Westerfeld

The best way to know a city is to eat it. — Scott Westerfeld

I used to be a pre-industrial writer: thousands of words in a spurt and then a few days off. But as I get older, I've switched to a mode best described as 'slow and steady wins the race.' Basically, I write during the same four hours every day, after breakfast and the all-important coffee, generally in the same room and wearing the same pajamas. — Scott Westerfeld

Shay sometimes talked in a mysterious way, like she was quoting the lyrics of some band no one else listened to. — Scott Westerfeld

We don't always get to choose what we love. — Scott Westerfeld

Once you told yourself a story enough times, it was so easy to keep on believing it. — Scott Westerfeld

Junkies might be easy to knock down, but they're never fragile. They have souls like old leather shoes studded with steel, and they're about as much good as friends. — Scott Westerfeld

In a world of extreme beauty, anyone normal is ugly. — Scott Westerfeld

Making ourselves feel ugly is not fun."
"We are ugly. — Scott Westerfeld

Dare to ask, "Where is my novel too simple?" — Scott Westerfeld

Instead, she rose a little onto her toes and they kissed again. — Scott Westerfeld

As a bio major, I figured "free will" meant chemicals in your brain telling you what to do, the molecules bouncing around in a way that felt like choosing but was actually the dance of little gears
neurons and hormones bubbling up into decisions like clockwork. You don't use your body; it uses you. — Scott Westerfeld

It's just been a long week, that's all." "It's monday night, Jess." "My point exactly. — Scott Westerfeld

But it's always taking a risk, when you ... kiss someone new. — Scott Westerfeld

That Shay was in possesion of hand grenades was a comforting thought showed what kind of night this had become. — Scott Westerfeld

Becoming pretty doesn't just change the way you look," she said. "No," David said. "It changes the way you think. — Scott Westerfeld

Dess shook her head. "Before he walked off, Rex said for you to wait. He said it's totally important you don't touch Angie until he comes back. and he said that if you were a pain about it, I get to hit you with that." She pointed to where the darkling had flung Flabbergasted Supernumerary Mathematician, its tip blackened by ichor and fire. "So, go ahead. — Scott Westerfeld

Tally, do you ever suffer from sudden flashes of anger or euphoria, countersocial impulses, or feelings of superiority? — Scott Westerfeld

If you see everything through hovercams and feed stories, you wind up blind to what's right in front of you. — Scott Westerfeld

Your book is smart and beautiful. I want to have its sequels. — Scott Westerfeld

There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. - Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and Moral, Of Beauty — Scott Westerfeld

I think any List of Best X creates arguments and people saying 'You listed that rubbish?' That's what lists like this are for. — Scott Westerfeld

And here in America rival newspapermen attack each other on sight? — Scott Westerfeld

Ninety percent of the research comes first. I mostly blunder around reading stuff and talking to smart people until an idea batters or oozes its way through to my narrative brain. — Scott Westerfeld

Lilt pulled away. "I saw what he was doing, so I cleared a path for him. I helped him do it ... " She shook her head, tears tracking the dust off her face, and turned to stare at the fallen tower. "Have we all gone mad to want this? — Scott Westerfeld

Your personality - the real you inside - was the price of beauty. — Scott Westerfeld

Sleep is a little slice of death. — Scott Westerfeld

You see, freedom has a way of destroying things. — Scott Westerfeld

Maybe the trick was not to panic. In life, as in the bewildering business of writing stories and flinging them out into the world, you had to focus on the page in front of you. — Scott Westerfeld

Never bored on a hoverboard. — Scott Westerfeld

Where did you get that idea for a nose?
- Frizz Mizuno — Scott Westerfeld

Make a list of all the varieties of aliens you can come up with. (And if it's less than 3,000, then THE PEARS ARE LAUGHING AT YOU, MY FRIEND.) -Scott Westerfeld from NaNoWriMo Pep Talk. — Scott Westerfeld

The man was allergic to sleep. — Scott Westerfeld

That letter was your whole future, you daft prince."
"It was my past. I lost that the night my parents died. But I found you, Deryn. Maybe I wasn't meant to end the war, but I was meant to find you. I know that. You've saved me from having any reason to keep going."
"We save each other. That's how it works. — Scott Westerfeld

Around the outskirts of the city, cut off from town by the black oval of the river, everything was in darkness. Everyone ugly was in bed by now. — Scott Westerfeld

Her parents didn't understand that braille meant big clunky books that marked you as different, while audiobooks live invisibly on your phone and text-to-speech gave you the whole damn internet. — Scott Westerfeld

It's not always about writing more words or drinking more coffee. Sometimes getting to the end of a novel simply takes remembering that the world is more complicated than we know, and then sticking some of those complications into the story. — Scott Westerfeld

I found a great book called 'Slang Through the Ages' by Jonathon Green. It's basically a thesaurus of historical slang, and had lots of great old uses. — Scott Westerfeld

But books don't happen by accident. — Scott Westerfeld

Listen, you bubblehead-up-until-five-minutes-ago ... — Scott Westerfeld

That's the worst thing they do to you, to any of you. Whatever those brain lesions are all about, the worst damage is done before they even pick up the knife: You're all brainwashed into believing you're ugly. — Scott Westerfeld

Money's the same, whoever gives it to you. That was the point of money, after all: crisp and clean or wrinkled or disintegrated into quarters - a dollar was always worth a hundred cents. — Scott Westerfeld

However stupid the choice seemed, Shay had made it with her eyes open, and had respected Tally's choice to stay. — Scott Westerfeld

Sprinkled across the black waters below were at least a hundred small boats set out to greet the Leviathan, their navigation lights like shifting stars. Among them loomed a glittering cruise liner, her fog horn bellowing in the night. The low groan grew into a chorus as the other great ships in the harbor joined in.
Perched on Volger's desk, Bovril attempted to imitate the horns, but wound up sounding like a badly blown tuba.
Alek smiled. "But they're already singing our praises!"
"They are Americans," Volger said. "They toot their horns for anything. — Scott Westerfeld

Is it not good to make society full of beautiful people? - Yang Yuan, quoted in the New York Times — Scott Westerfeld

Even mocking people helped their face stats. In the reputation economy, the only real way to hurt anyone was to ignore them completely. And it was pretty hard to ignore someone who made your blood boil. — Scott Westerfeld

Hard work's a good distraction. — Scott Westerfeld

Peeps cant turn into anything smaller than what they are. where would the extra mass go — Scott Westerfeld

You know,' I called, 'you're the one that's going to have to explain to Max how you got your blender back.'
I'll tell him I astral-projected. Butt-head. — Scott Westerfeld

Assisted him? Dylan made the repairs. I only fell and hit my head, from what I can recall. Yes, I make excellent deadweight. — Scott Westerfeld

And hidden within the agony the strange clarity came again, as if the world had ordered itself into something that made perfect sense. — Scott Westerfeld

Weird, even for one of us. Or maybe she's worse."
"Worse how?"
"Normal. — Scott Westerfeld

You just took on five million years of evolution again — Scott Westerfeld

Perhaps the logical conclusion of everyone looking the same is everyone thinking the same. — Scott Westerfeld

Happy endings are popular. Do you not watch movies?"
"Yeah, but that's movies," Darcy groaned. "Books are above all that! — Scott Westerfeld

It's exciting. But you can't keep fighting the way things are forever. — Scott Westerfeld

In a novel you always knew the moment when something Happened, when someone Changed. But real life was full of gradual, piecemeal, continuous transformation. It was full of accidents and undefineables, and things that just happened on their own. The only certainty was 'It's complicated,' whether or not unicorns tolerated your touch. — Scott Westerfeld

I'm not the one going for a biology degree. I'm just a philosophy major who eats people. — Scott Westerfeld

We needed to become world-famous soon, while there was still that kind of world to be famous in ... — Scott Westerfeld

Maybe they didn't want you to realize that every civilization has its weakness. There's always one thing we depend on. And if someone takes it away all that's left is some story in a history class. — Scott Westerfeld

You look beautiful - David — Scott Westerfeld

The world rests upon a turtle, which itself stands on the back of an elephant!"
Alek tried not to laugh. "Then what does the elephant stand on, madam?"
"Don't try to be clever, young man." She narrowed her eyes. "It's elephants all the way down! — Scott Westerfeld

What happens when perfection isn't good enough? — Scott Westerfeld

Bubbly is bogus. — Scott Westerfeld

First love is amazing and wonderful, but a kind of panic underlies it, a sense of not knowing what you're doing. — Scott Westerfeld

To everyone who loves a long-secret romance, revealed at last. — Scott Westerfeld

You'd best ask the lady boffin, sir," Newkirk said. "Midshipmen aren't allowed to have opinions. — Scott Westerfeld

The sky was the color of cat vomit. — Scott Westerfeld

But it wasn't any of those reasons that had set her on this course, Deryn knew. Alek was here in the city and needed help. Perhaps it was daft to risk everything for some barking prince, a boy who didn't even know she was a girl. But it was no more daft than Alek walking across a glacier to assist a wounded enemy airship, was it? — Scott Westerfeld

A rat called Possible New Strain was sitting under a spaghetti strainer held down with a pile of journalism textbooks, saying rude things in rat-speak. — Scott Westerfeld

Deryn had been there every step of the way.
"We are connected, aren't we?"
"Aye," she said, still chewing. "And for us to meet at all, I had to pretend to be a boy. Fancy that."
"Barking destiny," Bovril said, then burped.
Alek put his hands up in surrender. There were worse things than being connected to Deryn Sharp. In fact, the simple fact that she was smiling sent a wave of relief through him - she was his ally again, his friend. Providence seemed to be saying that she always would be.
All at once a fist around his heart loosened its grip.
"It was awful, being at war with you."
Deryn laughed. "I missed you, too, daft prince. — Scott Westerfeld

Everyone in the world was programmed by the place they were born, hemmed in by their beliefs, but you had to at least try to grow your own brain. — Scott Westerfeld

I wouldn't say design has become strictly functional. A lot of cars these days look downright comic book to me, and the info-gadgets with which late industrial people spend the most time - phones, music players, etc. - are blobjects. — Scott Westerfeld

Being pretty-minded is simply the natural state for most people. They want to be vapid and lazy and vain ... and selfish. It only takes a twist to lock in that part of their personalities. — Scott Westerfeld

I love you all. But it's time to say good-bye, for now.
be careful with the world, or the next time we meet, it might get ugly.
-Tally Youngblood — Scott Westerfeld

Mindy had explained that a lot of things had ghosts, not just people. Animals, machines, even things as vast as a paved-over forest or as humble as the smell of good cooking could leave traces of themselves behind. The world was haunted by the past. — Scott Westerfeld