Scott Westerfeld Quotes (58 Quotes)

What happens when perfection isn't good enough?

All that glitters is not hovery.

That's how things were out here in the wild, she was learning. Dangerous or beautiful. Or both.

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.

But you weren't born expecting that kind of beauty in everyone, all the time. You just got programmed into thinking anything else is ugly.

The early summer sky was the color of cat vomit.

Come on, it's almost midnight. Let's go watch them cut the cake.

Be careful with the world , or the next time we meet, it might get ugly.

Her only way home was to betray her friend.

The flowers were so beautiful, so delicate and unthreatening, but they choked everything around them.

Dying is one of those things that can't be fixed. Not by talking about it, not with all the brain surge in the world.

Having a brain hurt so much sometimes.

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

The lie took form as she spoke, pulling on as many strands of truth as it could reach.

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.

I don't want to hurt you but I will if I have too - Tally Youngblood

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

The Rusty Ruins were the remains of an old city, a hulking reminder of back when there'd been way too many people, and everyone was incredibly stupid. And ugly.

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

It didn't matter what you looked like. It was how you carried yourself, how you saw yourself.

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

The very idea of making shoes by hand boggled her mind.

Okay... That's still blind-making.

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

It's not the traveling that takes courage Tally. I've done much longer trips on my own. It's leaving home.

We're not freaks, Tally. We're normal. We may not be gorgeous, but at least we're not hyped-up Barbie dolls.

You see, freedom has a way of destroying things.

Listen, you bubblehead-up-until-five-minutes-ago...

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.

What you do, the way you think, makes you beautiful.

And the worst thing was, there were no mirrors out there in the wild, so the princess was left wondering whether she in fact was still beautiful... or if the fall had changed the story completely.

She carried a knife inside of herself now, one that was always cutting her. She could feel it every time she swallowed, every time her thoughts strayed from the splendor of the wild.

Nature, at least, didn't need an operation to be beautiful. It just was.

When she awoke, the world was on fire.

At least one thing was consistent about her life: It just kept on getting more complicated.

Tally turned away. Five minutes was suddenly too long to stand here, eyes burning, unable to cry.

Or maybe when they do the operation- when they grind and stretch your bones to the right shape, peel off your face and rub all your skin away, and stick in plastic cheekbones so you look like everybody else- maybe after going through all that you just aren't very interesting anymore. -Shay, Uglies

Yes. What you do, the way you think, makes you beautiful.

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

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

Out here, you find out that the city fools you about how things really work.

Your father always suspected that being pretty-minded is simply the natural state for most people. They want to be vapid and lazy and vain-Maddy glanced at Tally-and selfish. It only takes a twist to lock in that part of their personalities. He always thought that some people could think their way out of it.

Left alone, human beings are a plague. They multiply relentlessly, consuming every resource, destroying everything they touch.

That Shay in possession of hand grenades was a comforting thought showed what kind of a night this had turned into.

Perhaps the logical conclusion of everyone looking the same is everyone thinking the same.

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

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.

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

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

My name is tally youngblood and my mind is very ugly