Top 100 Malorie Blackman Quotes (2026 Update)
Page 2 of 3

51. “Sorry implies that if you could go back, you’d do things differently. We both know that you wouldn’t change a thing.”

— Malorie Blackman

52. “Feel free to bugger off and die at any time.’ Dan scowled.”

— Malorie Blackman

53. “It seemed to me we’d practised segregation for centuries now and that hadn’t worked either. What would satisfy all the noughts and the Crosses who felt the same as Mum? Separate countries? Separate planets? How far away was far enough? What was it about the differences in others that scared some people so much?”

— Malorie Blackman

54. “You have to live in a world divided into Noughts and Crosses. A world where you will be biologically both and socially neither. Mixed race. Dual heritage. Labels to be attached.”

— Malorie Blackman

55. “Silence sits like a voyeur with popcorn, watching both of us.”

— Malorie Blackman

56. “You bring me bliss, my rainbow child.”

— Malorie Blackman

57. “Being in and being accepted are two different things.”

— Malorie Blackman

58. “Except that the teachers had totally ignored us, and the Crosses had used any excuse to bump into us and knock our books on the floor, and even the noughts serving in the food hall had made sure they served everyone else in the queue before.”

— Malorie Blackman

59. “Oh, they’re fine,’ said Jaxon. ‘They.”

— Malorie Blackman

60. “Politics gets nastier and more vicious with each passing year. It’s not a parade of ideals or ethics any more. It’s about celebrity, false promises and image.”

— Malorie Blackman

61. “Sometimes, when love has flown or is absent, when life knocks us to the ground and won’t let us get back up, hope may be all we have left to cling to.”

— Malorie Blackman

62. “Her life was her major disappointment, her mistakes carved into every premature line in her face, but I wasn’t going to let her use my life as her second chance.”

— Malorie Blackman

63. “That’s just the point,’ Callum said with sudden bitterness. ‘This place is like the whole world and the whole world is like this place. So where could I go?”

— Malorie Blackman

64. “Life was too precious to be so fragile.”

— Malorie Blackman

65. “To tell the truth, I was looking forward to school tomorrow. I was actually going to secondary school. I could make something of myself, do something with my life. Once I had a proper education behind me, no one could turn around and say, ‘You’re not smart enough or good enough.’ No one. I was on my way UP! And with a proper education behind me, nothing could stand between Sephy and me. Nothing. three.”

— Malorie Blackman

66. “Wherever you went, I’d go with you,’ I decided. ‘Though you’d soon get bored with me.”

— Malorie Blackman

67. “If you’d slapped me or punched me or even stabbed me, sooner or later it would have stopped hurting.”

— Malorie Blackman

68. “I’m a Cross – closer to God.”

— Malorie Blackman

69. “Disappointment raced through me. But then, what did I expect? ‘Sephy, I could never be bored of you, with you, around you. You’re exciting, scintillating, overwhelming company!’ Yeah, right! Dream on, Sephy!!”

— Malorie Blackman

70. “The single yellow diamond stud he wore in his left ear twinkled like a giggle in the morning sunlight.”

— Malorie Blackman

71. “A word Dad had used. But it was a word that had hurt my best friend. A word that was now hurting me so very, very much. I hadn’t fully realized just how powerful words could be before this.”

— Malorie Blackman

72. “If only Callum and I didn’t have to sneak and creep around.”

— Malorie Blackman

73. “Don’t you think I’m beautiful, Callum?′ Lynette whispered. ‘yes’ I replied truthfully ’very.”

— Malorie Blackman

74. “She treated me like a real person. She didn’t see me as just a colour.”

— Malorie Blackman

75. “Or if we can’t blame the main opposition, find a new scapegoat – a section of society with no power, no voice. Blame the travellers or the noughts or the immigrants. Cheap, gutter politics to appeal to the lowest common denominator.”

— Malorie Blackman

76. “Don’t put words in my mouth. I’m sick of people putting words in my mouth.”

— Malorie Blackman

77. “Why was it that when noughts committed criminal acts, the fact that they were noughts was always pointed out?”

— Malorie Blackman

78. “Can anyone tell me what all these scientists and pioneers really had in common?’ Mr Jason asked. A few more hands went up at that. Mr Jason wasn’t the only one who was relieved – not that I was going to answer any more questions anyway. ‘Yes, Harriet?’ said Mr Jason. ‘They’re all men?’ Harriet replied. ‘Our examples are, but there have been plenty of women pioneers and scientists and achievers as well,’ Mr Jason smiled. ‘So can anyone tell me what else all the people mentioned have in common?”

— Malorie Blackman

79. “The truth doesn’t stop being the truth just because you don’t want to talk about it or won’t face it.”

— Malorie Blackman

80. “Jon didn’t deliver, then Jarvis would. Even with his demotion, he was still my eyes and ears within Eva’s.”

— Malorie Blackman

81. “Ladies and gentlemen, for your delectation and delight, another performance of ‘You’re a nought and don’t you ever forget it, blanker boy.”

— Malorie Blackman

82. “And in a world desperate to pigeon-hole and categorize and stereotype, she may feel forced to come down on one side or the other. And the truth is, she’s both. And the truth is, she’s neither.”

— Malorie Blackman

83. “His eyes were a lot older than fifteen.”

— Malorie Blackman

84. “NLM is a peaceful protest group made up of Noughts, Crosses and all right-minded citizens worldwide who despise bigotry and injustice. We.”

— Malorie Blackman

85. “Suddenly all I had were questions.”

— Malorie Blackman

86. “This world is full of sheeple, not people, all longing to be told what to do, how to think. Sheeple who are lost without someone to follow. And you know the best part? Even when most of them know they’re being led over a cliff, they’ll still follow because it’s less effort than thinking for themselves. It’s the human condition.”

— Malorie Blackman

87. “What did Noughts see when they looked at me – a light-skinned Cross? What did Crosses see when they looked at me – a dark-skinned Nought? I had to stop seeing myself through anyone’s eyes but my own. But.”

— Malorie Blackman

88. “Colin’s dropped out and Shania’s been expelled for no reason and.”

— Malorie Blackman

89. “What is right, what is morally just, cannot be silenced or kept in the shadows. There is no stronger spotlight than the truth.”

— Malorie Blackman

90. “She had the longest tail I’d ever seen on any creature. It curled right round the classroom and moved gently up and down like a huge, long finger waving.”

— Malorie Blackman

91. “I didn’t want to blame her for the way the police treated me and every other nought I knew. I didn’t want to hold her responsible for the way security guards and store detectives followed me around every time I entered a department store.”

— Malorie Blackman

92. “You see, I’ll never get out of hell if there’s not even you left to pray for me.”

— Malorie Blackman

93. “Is this about politics or money?’ ‘What’s the difference?”

— Malorie Blackman

94. “I called her Minnie all the time. She loved our house as much as I hated it.”

— Malorie Blackman

95. “I can’t remember when our lives had become so complicated.”

— Malorie Blackman

96. “He suddenly seemed so much older, not just in years but in the things he knew and had experienced.”

— Malorie Blackman

97. “I just stopped living with grief and instead let grief live with me.”

— Malorie Blackman

98. “Mr Corsa threatened that he was going to send a letter home to my mum and e-mail my dad.”

— Malorie Blackman

99. “She looked up to stare at her reflection in the mirror, as if she’d never seen her face before either.”

— Malorie Blackman

100. “She was like an oasis in this scorching hot desert.”

— Malorie Blackman