Top 100 Michael Grant Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king. In the darkness the man with a candle is an easy target.”

— Michael Grant

2. “We didn’t Make this World we’re just the Poor Fools who are living in it.”

— Michael Grant

3. “One minute the teacher was talking about the Civil War. And the next minute he was gone. There. Gone. No ‘poof.’ No flash of light. No explosion.”

— Michael Grant

4. “Superpowers, don’t always make you a superhero. – Duck.”

— Michael Grant

5. “It’s vital to keep a sense of humour when the world seems to have suddenly become a very strange place.”

— Michael Grant

6. “You are now free to leave the FAYZ.”

— Michael Grant

7. “But when reality was hopeless, fantasy became more and more necessary.”

— Michael Grant

8. “It’s not about who’s got powers, morons. It’s about who’s not afraid. And who’s going to do what has to be done.”

— Michael Grant

9. “I had a polynomial once. My doctor removed it.”

— Michael Grant

10. “So many things I’m not, and so few things I am.”

— Michael Grant

11. “Welcome to Perdido beach, where our motto is: Radiation, what radiation?”

— Michael Grant

12. “Sometimes you catch the wave. Sometimes the wave catches you.”

— Michael Grant

13. “Its the fate of all creators: They fall in love with their creations.”

— Michael Grant

14. “Slice and Dice, Slice and Dice.”

— Michael Grant

15. “She almost cried out with relief when she saw the eyes of the boy who had never backed down. She saw the eyes of the boy who had first stepped forward to fight Orc and later Caine and Drake and Penny. She saw Sam Temple. Her Sam Temple.”

— Michael Grant

16. “It was a sphincter at the top of a black bowl. A fitting commentary on the FAYZ, Diana thought. A giant sphincter.”

— Michael Grant

17. “Guilt was a fascinating thing: it seemed not to weaken over time. If anything it grew stronger as the circumstances faded from memory, as the fear and the necessity became abstract. And only her own actions stood out with crystal clarity.”

— Michael Grant

18. “There were always bullies, but the adults were still in charge. Now? Now the bullies rule. Different game, brother, a whole different game. We play by the bully rules now.”

— Michael Grant

19. “You don’t look so much like a great hero,′ Jarrah said. ‘I’m pretty sure I’m not,’ Mack said wearily. ‘My throat is hoarse from screaming in terror. I don’t think heroes have that problem.”

— Michael Grant

20. “We were girls, you see, not even women, just girls, most of us when we started. And the boys were just boys, not men, most of them. We’d only begun to live life, we knew little and understood less. We were unformed, incomplete. It’s funny how easy it is to see that now. If you’d called me a child three years ago when this started I’d have been furious. But looking back? We were children just getting ready to figure out what adulthood was all about.”

— Michael Grant

21. “No you sick, stupid creep, I love you. I shouldn’t. I shouldn’t. You’re sick inside, Caine, sick! But I love you. – Diana.”

— Michael Grant

22. “He’s one kind of person, you’re another. When life is going along normally, you’re sort of the same. But when life turns strange and scary, when there’s a crisis, suddenly you’re completely different people.”

— Michael Grant

23. “Hello darkness, my old friend,” Lana half sang, half whispered. “I’m coming to talk with you again.”

— Michael Grant

24. “The light of day showed you the limits of possibility. But walk through the dark, the absolute, total darkness, and the possibilities were limitless.”

— Michael Grant

25. “The gaiaphage. That’s the other word they use. ‘Gaia,’ as in world. ‘Phage,’ as in a worm or something that eats something up. I’m going to go way out on a limb here and say I don’t think something that calls itself a ‘world eater’ is a good thing.”

— Michael Grant

26. “Everyone was just killing time. But if all they did was kill time, time would end up killing them.”

— Michael Grant

27. “The warrior who had gone out from the lake to save his people by slaying the evil one was now just a boy sitting in the dirt with his fingers in a mane of blond hair. He stared at nothing. Expected nothing. Planned nothing. Just sat.”

— Michael Grant

28. “The pain was her whole world now. Pain and fear.”

— Michael Grant

29. “Because that, more than any monster, was what Sam had feared: that he was weak and cowardly. He had a terrible fear of being afraid.”

— Michael Grant

30. “Sam, there comes a time when the world no longer needs heroes. And then the true hero knows to walk away.”

— Michael Grant

31. “Let me guess: you’re secretly a wizard who was raised by muggles.”

— Michael Grant

32. “God knew our lives would be really bad sometimes. Like maybe we’d be turned into a monster and then our best friend would get killed. So he made up this story about hell, so we could always say, ‘Well it could be worse. It could be hell.’ And then we’d keep going.”

— Michael Grant

33. “She was no longer theirs. She was his. And he was hers. And this was their world.”

— Michael Grant

34. “Ninth graders with machine guns: its hard to make that a happy story.”

— Michael Grant

Featured in: Quotes About Stories

35. “If God gives you a Quiznos, can I have a bite? No way. You have to pray for your own food.”

— Michael Grant

36. “Man, don’t ever be sorry you don’t want to kill someone.”

— Michael Grant

37. “Caine met Diana’s disbelieving gaze and laughed aloud. “Why so gloomy? Doesn’t every little girl want to grow up to be a queen?” “Princess,” Diana said. “So, you got a promotion,” Caine said.”

— Michael Grant

38. “You cant be trapped by other people you can only be trapped by your fear, defy and win!”

— Michael Grant

39. “And sometimes you lie to me and sometimes I lie to you And there isnt a thing you could possibly do All these half-destroyed lives Arent as bad as they seem but now i see blood and I hear screams then I wake up and its just a bad dream...”

— Michael Grant

40. “Will you understand if I tell you that there are times when it is better to feel the pain yourself than to see it and hear it in another?”

— Michael Grant

41. “I had a hard childhood. Hard for my parents. Not that bad for me.”

— Michael Grant

42. “I suppose we’ll behave like a bunch of holier-than-thou hypocrites. Because the alternative is to look at ourselves in the mirror and know that we are capable of dark and terrible things.”

— Michael Grant

43. “Sam- I didn’t know you had a last name I thought you were like Iman or Madonna or Beyonce. You just needed the one name. Dekka- Yeah sure, me and Beyonce.”

— Michael Grant

44. “He didn’t mind if she hated him. They were never going to be a cute romantic couple like Sam and Astrid. Clean-cut, righteous, all that. The perfect couple. He and Diana were the imperfect couple.”

— Michael Grant

45. “Fantasies don’t have to make any sense,” he snapped. “That’s what makes them fantasies. They aren’t meant to be logical, they’re meant to keep you from losing your mind or panicking or wanting to kill yourself.”

— Michael Grant

46. “Guilt is a parasite on the soul, a worm that begins small and grows, grows, feeding on every moment of fleeting happiness. It stabs at you when you laugh. It cuts when you recognize beauty, receive affection, experience joy. It reminds you at the very worst moments that you have done wrong and are not worthy of happiness.”

— Michael Grant

47. “But if all they did was kill time, time would end up killing them.”

— Michael Grant

48. “An old couple came running from a motorhome, scribbling as they ran. Their sign read, Can you check on our cat, Ariel? No one would answer that, because the cats had all been eaten.”

— Michael Grant

49. “We’re sitting in the dark willing to sell our souls for another peppermint with enough uranium to give a terrorist a wet dream. – Diana.”

— Michael Grant

50. “Fear was about possibilities. Not things that happened. Things that might.”

— Michael Grant