Patrick Ness famous quotes

Choices may be unbelievably hard but they're never impossible. To say you have no choice is to release yourself from responsibility and that's not how a person with integrity acts.
-- Patrick Ness

#Integrity #Responsibility #Choices

Your mind will believe comforting lies while also knowing the painful truths that make those lies necessary. And your mind will punish you for believing both.
-- Patrick Ness

#Lying #Believe #Knowing

To say you have no choice is to relieve yourself of responsibility.
-- Patrick Ness

#Responsibility #Choices

We are the choices we make.
-- Patrick Ness

#Choices #Never Let Go

... a good idea always attracts other good ideas.
-- Patrick Ness

#Ideas

In this world of numbness and information overload, the ability to feel, my boy, is a rare gift indeed.
-- Patrick Ness

#Boys #Numbness #World

Stories are important...They can be more important than anything. If they carry the truth.
-- Patrick Ness

#Important #Stories #Storytelling

A book… it’s a world all on its own too. A world made of words, where you live for a while.
-- Patrick Ness

#Book #World #Where You Live

Without a filter, a man is just chaos walking.
-- Patrick Ness

#Life #Men #Filters

Stories don't always have happy endings." This stopped him. Because they didn't, did they? That's one thing the monster had definitely taught him. Stories were wild, wild animals and went off in directions you couldn't expect.
-- Patrick Ness

#Animal #Stories #Taught

Shout for libraries. Shout for the young readers who use them.
-- Patrick Ness

#Book #Reading #Thought Provoking

Librarians are tour-guides for all of knowledge.
-- Patrick Ness

#Book #Reading #Thought Provoking

Hope may be the thing that pulls you forward, may be the thing that keeps you going, but that it's dangerous, that it's painful and risky, that it's making a dare in the world and when has the world ever let us win a dare?
-- Patrick Ness

#Winning #World #May

I was a hugely unchaperoned reader, and I would wander into my local public library and there sat the world, waiting for me to look at it, to find out about it, to discover who I might be inside it.
-- Patrick Ness

#Waiting #Library #Looks

Everything that's happened has brought me here, to this place, with this knife in my hand, and something worth saving.
-- Patrick Ness

#Hands #Knives #Saving

That's the thing I'm learning about being thrown out on yer own. Nobody does nothing for you. If you don't change it, it don't get changed.
-- Patrick Ness

#Doe #Changed

We all fall but that's not what matters. What matters is picking yourself up again.
-- Patrick Ness

#Fall #What Matters #Matter

Viola?            Keep calling for me–                      And I’ll keep searching for you– And I’ll find you–             You bet yer life on it– I’ll find you– Keep calling for me, Viola– Cuz here I come.
-- Patrick Ness

#Calling #Cuz #Viola

Viola? Keep calling for me– And I’ll keep searching for you– And I’ll find you– You bet yer life on it– I’ll find you– Keep calling for me, Viola– Cuz here I come.
-- Patrick Ness

#Calling #Cuz #Viola

This is how we are protecting you, by getting you out.
-- Patrick Ness

I think maybe everyone falls... I think the asking is whether we get back up again.
-- Patrick Ness

#Fall #Thinking #Asking

The only crime, the only crime is to take a life. There is nothing else.' 'And that's why you don't fight,'I say. She turns to me sharply. 'To preserve life is to fight everything that man stands for.
-- Patrick Ness

#Fighting #Men #Life Is

...That it's making a dare to the world and when has the world ever let us win a dare?" ~pg 423
-- Patrick Ness

#Winning #World #Dare

When luck ain't with you it's against you." ~pg 92
-- Patrick Ness

#Luck

No,' Ben says, 'but I believe it. I believe it for you. And that's why it's hope.
-- Patrick Ness

#Believe #I Believe

Worst is the one who knows better and does nothing.
-- Patrick Ness

#Doe #Worst

I remember the ache I used to feel when she got too close, how it felt like grief, how it felt like a loss, like I was falling, falling into nothing, how it clenched me up and made me want to weep, made me actually weep.
-- Patrick Ness

#Fall #Grief #Loss

We run down the right fork, Manchee at our heels, the night and a dusty road stretching out in front of us, an army and a disaster behind us, me and Viola, running side by side.
-- Patrick Ness

#Running #Army #Night

And I look at her sitting there and she looks across the river and we wait as the dawn fully arrives, each of us knowing. Each of us knowing the other.
-- Patrick Ness

#Rivers #Knowing #Waiting

Conor held tightly onto his mother. And by doing so, he could finally let her go.
-- Patrick Ness

#Mother #Let Her Go

If the world wants you, it's gonna keep on coming till it gets you. And who am I that can fix it? Who am I that can change this if the world wants it so badly? Who am I to stop the end of the world if it keeps on coming?
-- Patrick Ness

#Want #End Of The World #World

You love him," he says. Not an asking, just a fact. "I do," I say. Also a fact.
-- Patrick Ness

#Asking #Facts

Me and Todd? Together against the Mayor?" She smiles. "He doesn't stand a chance.
-- Patrick Ness

#Together #Chance #Mayors

We can save the world," I say, trying to smile. "You and me.
-- Patrick Ness

#Trying #World #Save The World

I do what I have to do," I say. I do what I have to do to save him. I do what I have to do to save Todd.
-- Patrick Ness

But, somehow, Wilf knows. Somehow, Wilf always knows.
-- Patrick Ness

I was just trying to stay alive, looking for ways to find you, hoping you hadn't left me behind." "Never," I say. "Not never." He looks back up at me. "I'd never leave you neither." "You promise?" "Cross my heart, hope to die," he says, grinning shyly. "I promise, too," I say and I smile at him. "I ain't never leaving you, Todd Hewitt, not never again.
-- Patrick Ness

#Heart #Leaving #Promise

You notice that he does not ask, Where am I?" says the Mayor's voice, moving out there, somewhere. "His first words are, Where is she? And his Noise says the same. Interesting.
-- Patrick Ness

#Moving #Voice #Interesting

I don't know how much time passes with us just lying there, just feeling that the other is really there, really true, really alive, feeling the safety of him, his weight against mine, the roughness of his fingers touching my face, his warmth and his smell and the dustiness of his clothes, and we barely speak...
-- Patrick Ness

#Lying #Smell #Clothes

TODD!" I yell again and I reach him and his Noise opens even farther and wraps around me like a blanket and I'm grabbing him to me, grabbing him to me like I'll never let him go and he calls out in pain but his other arm is grabbing me back - "I thought you were dead," he's saying, his breath on my neck. "I thought you were dead." "Todd," I say and I'm crying and the only thing I can say is his name. "Todd.
-- Patrick Ness

#Pain #Names #Arms

If you ever see a war," she says, not looking up from her clipboard, "you'll learn that war only destroys. No one escapes from a war. No one. Not even the survivors.
-- Patrick Ness

#War #Survivor #Clipboards

And I know it - I know it in my heart - Right now - Todd Hewitt - There's nothing we can't do together -
-- Patrick Ness

#Heart #Together #My Heart

Just cuz yer going there and I'm staying here," I say. "It don't mean we're parting." "No," she says and I know she understands. "No, it certainly doesn't." "I ain't parting from you again," I say, still looking at our fingers. "Not even in my head.
-- Patrick Ness

#Mean #Cuz #Fingers

Life equals running and when we stop running maybe that's how we'll know life is finally finished.
-- Patrick Ness

#Running #Life Is

A thing worth learning is worth learning well.
-- Patrick Ness

#Wells

And if one day,' she said, really crying now, 'you look back and you feel bad for being so angry, if you feel bad for being so angry at me that you couldn't even speak to me, then you have to know, Conor, you have to that is was okay. It was okay. That I knew. I know, okay? I know everything you need to tell me without you having to say it out loud.
-- Patrick Ness

#One Day #Needs #Looks

We are the choices we make. And have to make. We aren’t anything else.
-- Patrick Ness

#Choices #Chaos Walking

And the pain is too much it's too much it's too much and my hands are on my head and I'm rearing back and my mouth is open in a never-ending wordless wail of all the blackness that's inside me. And i fall back into it.
-- Patrick Ness

#Pain #Fall #Hands

Don't deceive me. Never leave me.
-- Patrick Ness

#Deceiving #Never Leave Me #Leaving Me

The sound when we crash is so loud it's almost impossible.
-- Patrick Ness

#Sound #Impossible #Crash

Things change, but they stay the same.
-- Patrick Ness

#Things Change

And then a low and powerful sound rumbles thru the sky, like some giant, deep horn. A sound God would make when he wanted yer attenshun.
-- Patrick Ness

#Powerful #Sky #Sound

Never trust a politician, Todd. They have no fixed center, so you can never believe them.
-- Patrick Ness

#Believe #Never Trust #Politician

Dogs don't got the problems of people. Dogs can be happy any old time.
-- Patrick Ness

#Dog #People #Problem

If a crowd can flinch, they flinch. More than a thousand men flinch under the fist of just one. I don't see what the women do.
-- Patrick Ness

#Men #Fists #Crowds

Real life is only ever just real life. Messy. What it means depends on how you look at it. The only thing you’ve got to do is find a way to live there.
-- Patrick Ness

#Real #Mean #Way

It's always nice when two people who don't got no one else find each other as friends.
-- Patrick Ness

#Nice #Two #People

Here is the boy, drowning.
-- Patrick Ness

#Boys #Drowning

Don't think you haven't lived long enough to have a story to tell.
-- Patrick Ness

#Life #Thinking #Long

People say they want freedom, but what they really want is freedom from worry. If I take care of their problems, they don't mind being told what to do.
-- Patrick Ness

#Worry #People #Mind

Ideals, my girl,” she says. “Always easier to believe in than live.” “But if you don't at least try to live them,” Bradley says, “then there's no point in living at all.
-- Patrick Ness

#Girl #Believe #Trying

It's always darkest before the dawn, Todd.” I look at him, baffled. “No, it ain't! What kinda stupid saying is that? It's always lightest before the dawn!
-- Patrick Ness

#Stupid #Baffled #Dawn

Superior numbers versus superior firepower. A recipe for unending slaughter.
-- Patrick Ness

#Numbers #Recipes #Slaughter

Know yourself and go in swinging.
-- Patrick Ness

#Know Yourself

You said we all want there to be more than this! Well, there's always more than this. There's always something you don't know.
-- Patrick Ness

#Want #Said #Wells

We have to lie to ourselves to live. Otherwise, we'd go crazy.
-- Patrick Ness

#Crazy #Lying

Guessing a thing ain't knowing a thing.
-- Patrick Ness

#Knowing #Guessing

It is a true story, the monster said. Many things that are true feel like a cheat.
-- Patrick Ness

#Stories #Monsters #Cheat

And otherwise normal men become monsters, too.
-- Patrick Ness

#Men #Normal #Monsters

There's always beauty, if you know where to look.
-- Patrick Ness

#Looks

You do not write your life with words...You write it with actions. What you think is not important. It is only important what you do.
-- Patrick Ness

#Writing #Thinking #Important

But,' he thinks, 'it's possible to die before you die.
-- Patrick Ness

#Thinking

I wanted so badly for there to be more. I ached for there to be more than my crappy little life.' He shakes his head. 'And there was more. I just couldn't see it.
-- Patrick Ness

#Littles #Wanted #Shakes

It was solitude, but it was solitude that wasn't lonely. Solitude that could sort things out. And he hadn't had that in ages.
-- Patrick Ness

#Lonely #Solitude #Age

The only place you belong is the place you can never go back. And so yer always alone, forever and always.
-- Patrick Ness

#Forever

Life ain't fair. It ain't. Not never. It's pointless and stupid and there's only suffering and pain and people who want to hurt you. You can't love nothing or no one cuz it'll all be taken away or ruined and you'll be left alone and constantly having to fight, constantly having to run just to stay alive.
-- Patrick Ness

#Running #Hurt #Pain

If you ever want to see how small you are in the plan of God, just stand at the edge of an ocean
-- Patrick Ness

#Ocean #Want #Plans

What a sad thing men are. Can’t do nothing good without being so weak we have to mess it up. Can’t build something up without tearing it down.
-- Patrick Ness

#Men #Weak #Mess

Here I am. Here we are. Here we go. Here is all that matters.
-- Patrick Ness

#Matter

So the good prince was a murderer and the evil queen wasn't a witch after all.
-- Patrick Ness

#Queens #Evil #Witch

Nobody has to tell nobody nothing,” I say, taking another step forward. “You never were a poet, were you, Todd?” he says.
-- Patrick Ness

#Steps #Poet #Steps Forward

There's so much wonder in the world. Don't let no one tell you otherwise.
-- Patrick Ness

#World #Wonder

And it’s a sad song, Todd, but it’s also a promise. I’ll never deceive you and I’ll never leave you and I promise you this so you can one day promise it to others and know that it’s true.
-- Patrick Ness

#Song #Promise #One Day

I don’t know what’s ahead,” I say. “I don’t know nothing about nothing but whatever it is, it’s gotta be better than what’s behind. It’s gotta be.
-- Patrick Ness

#Behinds

Why can't we learn to live with how we are? And whatever anybody chooses is okay by the rest of us?
-- Patrick Ness

#Okay

Time goes on, even when yer not looking.
-- Patrick Ness

#Goes On #Time Goes On

And too much informayshun can drive a man mad. Too much informayshun becomes just Noise. And it never, never stops.
-- Patrick Ness

#Men #Mad #Too Much

Now that I've seen her, I can't stop seeing her.
-- Patrick Ness

You tell a man the truth about himself and, well, they find they have trouble accepting it.
-- Patrick Ness

#Men #Trouble #Accepting

A man is capable of thought. A crowd is not.
-- Patrick Ness

#Men #Crowds #Capable

He was still alive. Which was the worst thing that could have happened.
-- Patrick Ness

#Alive #Worst #Stills

You be as angry as you need to be,” she said. “Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Not your grandma, not your dad, no one. And if you need to break things, then by God, you break them good and hard.
-- Patrick Ness

#Dad #Grandma #Needs

The green things of this world are just wondrous, aren’t they?” his mother went on. “We work so hard to get rid of them when sometimes they’re the very thing that saves us.
-- Patrick Ness

#Mother #World #Green

Sometimes people need to lie to themselves most of all.
-- Patrick Ness

#Lying #People #Needs

Stories don’t end with the writers, however many started the race.
-- Patrick Ness

#Race #Stories #Ends

It’s a trick Ben taught me to help settle my Noise. You close yer eyes and as clearly and calmly as you can you tell yerself who you are, cuz that’s what gets lost in all that Noise.
-- Patrick Ness

#Eye #Cuz #Noise

No," I say firmly. "If you ever doubt anything here, if you ever not know what to think or who to trust, you trust Todd, okay? You remember that.
-- Patrick Ness

#Thinking #Doubt #Remember

Being a leader is making the people you love hate you a little more each day.
-- Patrick Ness

#Leadership #Hate #People

I'll find you- Keep calling for me, Viola- Cuz here I come.
-- Patrick Ness

#Calling #Cuz #Viola

Girls are small and polite and smiley. They wear dresses and their hair is long and it’s pulled into shapes behind their heads or on either side.
-- Patrick Ness

#Girl #Hair #Long