Quotes & Sayings About The Giver Lois Lowry

People are starting to refer to 'The Giver' as a classic, but I don't know how that is defined. But if it means that 10, 20, 50 years from now kids will still be reading it, that is kind of awe-inspiring. — Lois Lowry

Memories are forever~ The Giver — Lois Lowry

He might make wrong choices." "Oh." Jonas was silent for a minute. "Oh, I see what you mean. It wouldn't matter for a newchild's toy. But later it does matter, doesn't it? We don't dare to let people make choices of their own." "Not safe?" The Giver suggested. "Definitely not safe," Jonas said with certainty. "What if they were allowed to choose their own mate? And chose wrong? "Or what if," he went on, almost laughing at the absurdity, "they chose their own jobs?" "Frightening, isn't it?" The Giver said. Jonas chuckled. "Very frightening. I can't even imagine it. We really have to protect people from wrong choices." "It's safer." "Yes," Jonas agreed. "Much safer. — Lois Lowry

They both walked to the center of the room. Jonas put his tunic back on. 'Goodbye, sir,' he said. 'Thank you for my first day.'
The old man nodded to him. He looked drained, and a little sad.
'Sir?' Jonas said shyly.
'Yes? Do you have a question?'
'It's just that I don't know your name. I thought you were The Receiver, but you say that now I'm The Receiver. So I don't know what to call you.'
The man had sat back down in the comfortable upholstered chair. He moved his shoulders around as if to ease away an aching sensation. He seemed terribly weary.
'Call me The Giver,' he told Jonas. — Lois Lowry

The life where nothing was ever unexpected. Or inconvenient. Or unusual. The life without colour, pain or past. — Lois Lowry

You will be faced, now, with pain of a magnitude that none of us here can comprehend because it is beyond our experience. The Receiver himself was not able to describe it, only to remind us that you would be faced with it, that you would need immense courage. — Lois Lowry

The community of the Giver had achieved at such great price. A community without danger or pain. But also, a community without music, color or art. And books. — Lois Lowry

When I wrote 'The Giver,' it contained no so-called 'bad words.' It was set, after all, in a mythical, futuristic, and Utopian society. Not only was there no poverty, divorce, racism, sexism, pollution, or violence in the world of 'The Giver'; there was also careful attention paid to language: to its fluency, precision, and power. — Lois Lowry

The man that I named the Giver passed along to the boy knowledge, history, memories, color, pain, laughter, love, and truth. Every time you place a book in the hands of a child, you do the same thing. It is very risky. But each time a child opens a book, he pushes open the gate that separates him from Elsewhere. It gives him choices. It gives him freedom. Those are magnificent, wonderfully unsafe things.
[from her Newberry Award acceptance speech] — Lois Lowry

Why do you and I have to hold these memories?" "It gives us wisdom," The Giver replied. — Lois Lowry

'Gathering Blue' was a separate book. I wanted to explore what a society might become after a catastrophic world event. Only at the end did I realize I could make it connect to 'The Giver.' — Lois Lowry

He knew that he had the remaining hours of night before they would be aware of his escape. So he rode hard, steadily, willing himself not to tire as the minutes and miles passed. There had been no time to receive the memories he and The Giver had counted on, of strength and courage. So he relied on what he had, and hoped it would be enough. — Lois Lowry

Memories are forever. — Lois Lowry

Life here is so orderly, so predictable-so painless. It's what they've chosen. — Lois Lowry

Call me The Giver," he told Jonas. — Lois Lowry

Submitting to censorship is to enter the seductive world of 'The Giver': the world where there are no bad words and no bad deeds. But it is also the world where choice has been taken away and reality distorted. And that is the most dangerous world of all. — Lois Lowry

I didn't reply as he had hoped to a student who emailed me some years later, with the request "Please list all the similes and metaphors in The Giver," I'm sure it contained those as well.) — Lois Lowry

You have the colors," The Giver told him. "And you have the courage. I will help you to have the strength. — Lois Lowry

But why can't everyone have the memories? I think it would seem a little easier if the memories were shared. You and I wouldn't have to bear so much by ourselves, if everybody took a part."
The Giver sighed. "You're right," he said. "But then everyone would be burdened and pained. They don't want that. And that's the real reason The Receiver is so vital to them, and so honored. They selected me - and you - to lift that burden from themselves. — Lois Lowry

What book(s) changed your life and why? I could probably list books for days, so I'll just list a few favorites: The Giver by Lois Lowry, Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle, the Animorphs series by K.A. Applegate, 1984 by George Orwell, the Bible, Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, and Juliet by Andras Visky (which is a play, but I think it still counts). — Veronica Roth

It's interesting that so many books now are published as the first in a series. It never occurred to me. Although 'The Giver' does have an ambiguous ending. I've heard about that from readers over the years. — Lois Lowry

If everyting's the same, then there aren't any choices! I want to wake up in the morning and decide things!" (Jonas)
"It's the choosing that's imortant, isn't it?" The Giver asked him. — Lois Lowry

The Giver laughed, then Jonah, too, chuckled reluctantly. — Lois Lowry

by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor and The Giver by Lois Lowry. And — Sharon M. Draper

I think 'The Giver' is such a moral book, so filled with important truths, that I couldn't believe anyone would want to suppress it, to keep it from kids. — Lois Lowry

People in the know say 'The Giver' was the first young adult dystopian novel. — Lois Lowry

I tend not to think about audience when I'm writing. Many people who read 'The Giver' now have their own kids who are reading it. Even from the beginning, the book attracted an audience beyond a child audience. — Lois Lowry

He hunched his shoulders and tried to make himself smaller in the seat. He wanted to disappear, to fade away, not to exist. — Lois Lowry

A stage adaptation of The Giver has been performed in cities and towns across the USA for years. More recently an opera has been composed and performed. And soon there will be a film. Does The Giver have the same effect when it is presented in a different way: It's hard to know. A book, to me is almost sacrosanct: such an individual and private thing. The reader brings his or her own history and beliefs and concerns, and reads in solitude, creating each scene from his own imagination as he does. There is no fellow ticket-holder in the next seat. The important thing is that another medium
stage, film, music
doesn't obliterate a book. The movie is here now, on a big screen, with stars and costumes and a score. But the book hasn't gone away. It has simply grown up, grown larger, and begun to glisten in a new way. — Lois Lowry

I write books because I have always been fascinated by stories and language, and because I love thinking about what makes people tick. Writing a story ... 'The Giver' or any other ... is simply an exploration of the nature of behavior: why people do what they do, how it affects others, how we change and grow, and what decisions we make along the way. — Lois Lowry

Selected for what?" Claire had never heard of such a thing before. Rolf raised an eyebrow and shrugged. "I don't know." "Didn't she say?" "Yes, but I didn't understand what she was talking about. Did any of you?" He looked around at his coworkers at the table. "Not really," Edith said. "It was important, though. It had to do with the Giver and the Receiver." "Whoever they are," someone murmured. "Yes, it sounded really important," Eric agreed. — Lois Lowry

I feel sorry for anyone who is in a place where he feels strange and stupid. — Lois Lowry

It was so - oh, I wish language were more precise! The red was so beautiful!"
The Giver nodded. "It is."
"Do you see it all the time?"
"I see all of them. All the colors."
"Will I? — Lois Lowry

Didn't life consist of the things you did each day? — Lois Lowry

He wept because he was afraid now that he could not save Gabriel. He no longer cared about himself — Lois Lowry

The mind can't explain it, and you can't make it go away. It's called love. — Lois Lowry

It's just that ... without the memories it's all meaningless. — Lois Lowry

Do you know that I no longer see colors?
Jonas's heart broke. — Lois Lowry

His thoughts seemed to be elsewhere, and his eyes were very troubled. — Lois Lowry

When you care about someone and give them something special. Something that they treasire. That's a gift. — Lois Lowry