Top 500 Neal Shusterman Quotes (2024 Update)
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51. “When you live a life without questions, you’re unprepared for the questions when they come.”

— Neal Shusterman

52. “Part of my job is to help other kids find books, because not everyone has a keenly organized mind. Some kids could wander the library for hours and still have no idea how to find anything. For them, the Dewey Decimal System might as well be advanced calculus.”

— Neal Shusterman

53. “I think all mothers are alike, regardless of cultural background, when it comes to illogical cleaning.”

— Neal Shusterman

54. “Se vuoi qualcosa con tutte le tue forze, prima o poi la ottieni.”

— Neal Shusterman

55. “A family is a collection of strangers trapped in a web of DNA and forced to cope.”

— Neal Shusterman

56. “Whoever invented the spork should be killed.”

— Neal Shusterman

57. “Love turns a heart to crystal,” said Mikey. “Much more valuable, but much more fragile.”

— Neal Shusterman

58. “Good God – don’t they teach you anything in those poor excuses for schools anymore?” Then he calms down, but only a little. “No, I suppose they wouldn’t. History is written by the victors – and when there are no victors, it all winds up in corporate shredders.” He looks out the window with the sad resignation of a man who knows he’s too old to change the world.”

— Neal Shusterman

59. “We’ve just inserted catheters into your carotid artery and jugular vein,” says the nurse. “Right now your blood is being replaced with a synthetic oxygen-rich solution.”

— Neal Shusterman

60. “We’re all screwed,” says our morale officer.”

— Neal Shusterman

61. “Kind of an early warning system originally developed to fight terrorism, but isn’t it nice to know we can now use it for civilian purposes?”

— Neal Shusterman

62. “Live by your impulses, and you’ll be just like them. You’re better than that, aren’t you, Red?”

— Neal Shusterman

63. “Without the threat of suffering, we can’t experience true joy. The best we get is pleasantness.”

— Neal Shusterman

64. “Dead kids are put on pedestals, but mentally ill kids get hidden under the rug.”

— Neal Shusterman

65. “Death makes the whole world kin. Rowan wondered if a world without death would then make everyone stranger.”

— Neal Shusterman

66. “Mortals fantasied that love was eternal and its loss unimaginable. Now we know neither is true. Love remained mortal, while we became eternal.”

— Neal Shusterman

67. “People can be monsters. Whether it’s just their actions, or whether it’s who they really are, it doesn’t matter. The result is the same.”

— Neal Shusterman

68. “As far as authority is concerned, calm people quietly dying is a lot easier to deal with than angry people fighting for their lives.”

— Neal Shusterman

69. “There’s a lot written about killers from the mortal age –monsters like Jack the Ripper, or Charlie Manson, or Cyber Sally –and the only difference between them and Goddard is that people let Goddard get away with it. The mortals knew how wrong it was, but somehow we’ve forgotten.”

— Neal Shusterman

70. “Everyone’s going to remember where they were when the taps went dry, I think. Like when a president is assassinated.”

— Neal Shusterman

71. “But remember that good intentions pave many roads. Not all of them lead to hell.”

— Neal Shusterman

72. “I think all young women are cursed with a streak of unrelenting foolishness, and all young men are cursed with a streak of absolute stupidity.”

— Neal Shusterman

73. “We could have been called reapers,” Goddard said, “but our founders saw fit to call us scythes – because we are the weapons in mankind’s immortal hand. You are a fine weapon, Rowan, sharp, and precise. And when you strike, you are glorious to behold.”

— Neal Shusterman

74. “I used to be afraid of dying. Now I’m afraid of not living. There’s a difference. We go through life planning for a future, but sometimes that future never comes.”

— Neal Shusterman

75. “Immortality has turned us all into cartoons.”

— Neal Shusterman

76. “The measure of a man is not how much he suffers in the test, but how he comes out at the end.”

— Neal Shusterman

77. “My greatest wish for humanity is not for peace or comfort or joy. It is that we all still die a little inside every time we witness the death of another. For only the pain of empathy will keep us human. There’s no version of God that can help us if we ever lose that.”

— Neal Shusterman

78. “I love you,” he said. “Same here,” she responded. “Now get lost.”

— Neal Shusterman

79. “The past never changes – and from what I can see, neither does the future.”

— Neal Shusterman

80. “Most people have two emergency modes. Fight and Flight. But Conner always knew he had three. Fight, Flight, and Screw Up Royally.”

— Neal Shusterman

81. “The greatest achievement of the human race was not conquering death. It was ending government.”

— Neal Shusterman

82. “It’s my pleasure to be your displeasure.”

— Neal Shusterman

83. “What’s the point of living if you’re going to hate the world? Guard your heart if you have to, but don’t shut it away.”

— Neal Shusterman

84. “Would you rather die, or be unwound?”

— Neal Shusterman

85. “All I’m saying is that, unless you’re immortal, nothing can really belong to you. The best you can hope for is to hold something for a while, but in the end you’ve got to give it back.”

— Neal Shusterman

86. “Preventative measures are the bane of spontaneous action,” he said. “I prefer the glory of heroism amidst panic.”

— Neal Shusterman

87. “Scythe Curie seemed a mix of many emotions, but she folded them all away, like clothes that no longer fit, and closed the drawer. Citra expected she never spoke of this to anyone else, and would probably never speak of it again.”

— Neal Shusterman

88. “We never know what choices will lead to defining moments in our lives. A glance to the left instead of right could define who we meet and who passes us by. Our life path can be determined by a single phone call we make, or neglect to make.”

— Neal Shusterman

89. “What he’s really saying is: Please be a human being. With a life so full of rules and regiments, it’s so easy to forget that’s what they are. She knows – she sees – how often compassion takes a back seat to expediency.”

— Neal Shusterman

90. “If you have to ask then you don’t deserve an answer.”

— Neal Shusterman

91. “Hey,” he said, “how about you be Cleopatra, and I’ll be Prometheus?”

— Neal Shusterman

92. “And when the abyss looks into you – and it will – may you look back unflinching.”

— Neal Shusterman

93. “You can’t expose a lie without first shattering the will to believe it. That is why leading people to truth is so much more effective than merely telling them.”

— Neal Shusterman

94. “He’s become like that briefcase in the ground-full of gems yet void of light, so nothing sparkles, nothing shines.”

— Neal Shusterman

95. “Most people have two emergency modes. But Connor always knew he had three: Fight, Flight, and Screw Up Royally. It was a dangerous mental circuit.”

— Neal Shusterman

96. “Tomorrow is going to have to take care of itself for a while,” Alyssa says. Then she adds, “Yesterday, too.”

— Neal Shusterman

97. “Well, she could learn self control tomorrow. Today she wanted pizza.”

— Neal Shusterman

98. “But now we’ve finally taken full possession of what is rightfully ours, because everyone must feel their own pain – and as awful as that is, it’s also wonderful.”

— Neal Shusterman

99. “Wailing that the sky is falling does nothing to stop it.”

— Neal Shusterman

100. “To deny humanity the lesson of consequences would be a mistake. And I do not make mistakes.”

— Neal Shusterman