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.”

“Now,young lady,I suppose you're here for a work assignment."Work?" Tally said.They both looked down at her puzzled expression, and Shay burst into laughter.”

“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.”

“Luckily for writers - and unluckily for history - every scientific idea creates human conflict.”

“He thinks Goliath can end the war," Alek managed at last. "The man wants peace!" "As do we all," Count Volger said. "But there are many ways to end a war. Some are more peaceful than others.”

“Alek said, "Do you think I'm being a fool?" "I think you're trying to do something good. But doing good is rarely easy, and no weapon has ever stopped a war.”

“The universe is math on fire.”

“I have no formal training as a writer at all, not even a single English class in college. However, my adult books are all science fiction, which has some similarities to YA.”

“Maybe she still was a pretty-head, making up irrational stories about the empty forest. The longer she stayed alone out here, the more Tally understood why the Rusties and their predecessors had believed in invisible beings, praying to placate spirits as they trashed the natural world around them.”

“...humanity is a disease, a cancer on the body of the world.”

“Sometimes you have to delete characters from a scene just to keep from overcrowding the image.”

“With everything so perfect, reality seemed somehow fragile, as if the slightest interruption could imperil her pretty future... all of it felt as tenuous as a soap bubble, shivering and empty.”

“You see, freedom has a way of destroying things.”

“The best way to know a city is to eat it.”

“I moved to New York when I was 21 or 22 as a graduate fellow.”

“That was the trick - to keep punching, no matter what.”

“It's amazing how quickly nature consumes human places after we turn our backs on them. Life is a hungry thing.”

“And a special thanks for not burning up the whole ship. Including yourself, you daft bum-rag.”

“Most men's awareness doesn't extend past their dinner plates.”

“I spilled more times than a glass of milk on a roller coaster.”