Top 500 Neal Shusterman Quotes (2025 Update)
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251. “Numbness was a mere purgatory of gray. No, there was a much worse place. Darkness masquerading as enlightenment. It was a place of royal blue studded with diamonds that glistened like stars.”

— Neal Shusterman

252. “And you know the darkness beyond despair, just as intimately as you know the soaring heights. Because in this and all universes, there is balance. You can’t have the one without facing the other. And sometimes you think you can take it because the joy is worth the despair, and sometimes you know you can’t take it and how did you ever think you could?”

— Neal Shusterman

253. “It’s a curse to see all that might happen but never know what will.”

— Neal Shusterman

254. “If pennies become worthless, does that devalue our thoughts to less than nothing?”

— Neal Shusterman

255. “AWOL’s most valuable commodity: hope. It’s something in short supply for those who have been deemed not worth the sum of their parts.”

— Neal Shusterman

256. “It is human nature to take the most magical of worlds for granted, turning each one into a blank canvas upon which to paint the lives of those who would live there. Only an outsider can see a world’s wonders for what they truly are.”

— Neal Shusterman

257. “There are two things you know. One: You were there. Two: You couldn’t have been there.”

— Neal Shusterman

258. “The illusion of purpose is critical to a well-adjusted population.”

— Neal Shusterman

259. “For only the pain of empathy will keep us human.”

— Neal Shusterman

260. “To choose those who live and those who die would leave me both feared and adored, like emperor-gods of old. No, I decided. Let humankind be the saviors and the silencers. Let them be the heroes. Let them be the monsters.”

— Neal Shusterman

261. “She stayed with the Toll because deep down, she believed that Greyson Tolliver was the real thing. That he was divinely moved by the Tone, and that his humility about it was understandable. A humble nature was, after all, the hallmark of a true holy man. It made perfect sense that he would refuse to believe he was part of the Holy Triad, but just because he didn’t believe it himself, didn’t make it any less true.”

— Neal Shusterman

262. “There are no wrong thoughts, only thoughts that need to be worked through and overcome.”

— Neal Shusterman

263. “The eternally sleeping princess, thinks Cam. But I shall free you from those poisoned brambles that surround your heart. And then you will have no choice but to love me.”

— Neal Shusterman

264. “When it comes to such open-heart reflection, I’m a firm believer in the observer effect, which states that anything you try to observe is automatically changed by the mere fact that you’re looking at it. The way I see it, if you try to study your emotions on a microscopic level, the best you can do is understand how it feels to hold the magnifying glass.”

— Neal Shusterman

265. “On a hairpin turn, above the dead forest, on no day in particular, a white Toyota crashed into a black Mercedes, for a moment blending into a blur of gray.”

— Neal Shusterman

266. “They meet in the girls’ bathroom. The last time they were forced to meet in a place like this, they took separate, isolated stalls. Now they share one. They hold each other in the tight space, making no excuses for it. There’s no time left in their lives for games, or for awkwardness, or for pretending they don’t care about each others, and so they kiss as if they’ve done it forever. As if it is as crucial as the need for oxygen.”

— Neal Shusterman

267. “It’s not about stupidity, or even rebellion-it’s about feeling life.”

— Neal Shusterman

268. “Have you ever considered how lonely it is to be the girl on a pedestal?”

— Neal Shusterman

269. “We always look for the signs we missed when something goes wrong. We become like detectives trying to solve a murder, because maybe if we uncover the clues, it gives us some control. Sure, we can’t change what happened, but if we can string together enough clues, we can prove that whatever nightmare has befallen us, we could have stopped it, if only we had been smart enough. I suppose it’s better to believe in our own stupidity than it is to believe that all the clues in the world wouldn’t have changed a thing.”

— Neal Shusterman

270. “When he took her in his arms, it suddenly didn’t seem to matter what was going on outside of their tiny, sealed universe. In these terminal minutes of their current lives, it was just the two of them finally, finally giving in to their ultimate act of completion. The binary at last becoming the one.”

— Neal Shusterman

271. “Nature is the sum of all selfishness, forcing each and every species to viciously claw its way to survival by snuffing others in the suffocating mire of history. I.”

— Neal Shusterman

272. “There’s no telling how far down it goes,” the captain says, the left side of his mustache twitching like the tail of a rat. “Fall into that unknowable abyss, and you’ll be counting the days before you reach bottom.”

— Neal Shusterman

273. “If you say, ‘May The Fork Be With You,’ I’ll smash you with the other side of this hanger.”

— Neal Shusterman

274. “Es sorprendente que algo tan simple como un beso pueda vencer la peor de las preocupaciones.”

— Neal Shusterman

275. “A scent, a sound, an errant shadow too minor to register consciously might be enough to make a well-trained scythe’s neck hairs bristle.”

— Neal Shusterman

276. “I will be keeper of your secret,” Talon told the silent grave of the forgotten inventor. “I will be the one who remembers why we forget.”

— Neal Shusterman

277. “Their fate rested entirely on me. I could save them by telling the truth. I could destroy them by lying. No one should have that much power.”

— Neal Shusterman

278. “I always take credit for my acts of cruelty. To do otherwise is cowardice.”

— Neal Shusterman

279. “I think it’s outrageously cruel to keep a puzzle that they know is missing a single piece.”

— Neal Shusterman

280. “He tries to think of other things, other places, but his mind keeps being drawn back to this place. Everyone’s so close around him now. Yellow figures lean all around him like flower petals closing in. He does not deserve this. He has done many things, not all good, but he does not deserve this. And he never did get his priest.”

— Neal Shusterman

281. “The problem with setting out to change the world was that you were never the only one.”

— Neal Shusterman

282. “He does not deserve this. He has done many things, not all good, but he does not deserve this. And he never did get his priest.”

— Neal Shusterman

283. “Putting me at the forefront of his thoughts drew out what little energy he had left, just as when I had focused on helping him – and I realize this is the true core of human nature: When we’ve lost the strength to save ourselves, we somehow find the strength to save each other.”

— Neal Shusterman

284. “I still can’t figure out if it’s bravery or cowardice to take your own life. I can’t figure out whether it’s being selfish, or selfless. It is the ultimate act of letting go of oneself, or a cheap act of self-possession? People say a failed attempt is a cry for help. I guess that’s true if the person meant it to be unsuccessful. But then, I guess most failed attempts aren’t entirely sincere, because, let’s face it, if you want to off yourself, there are plenty of ways to make sure it works.”

— Neal Shusterman

285. “Are you heading out or heading home?” asked the woman sitting beside him in 15A. There was no 15B – the concept of the B seat, where one had to sit between two other passengers, had been eliminated along with other unpleasant things, like disease and government.”

— Neal Shusterman

286. “In short, there are mysteries of science and of soul that will never be understood no matter how hard we measure, no matter how strongly we believe, no matter how deep our think tanks and how high our aspirations. But as anyone will tell you – for we all know this within our hearts – the impossible happens and grand cosmic mysteries are solved on a regular basis, although most of the time the solutions lead to even greater mysteries.”

— Neal Shusterman

287. “You Unwinds are all the same. You think that because no one loves you, then you can’t love anyone. All right, then, if there’s no one you love, then pick someone who needs to hear what you have to say.”

— Neal Shusterman

288. “Every book has something to teach us,” she said, “and crucial knowledge at the right time can be a very powerful thing.”

— Neal Shusterman

289. “The woman wears a floral print blouse with lots of leaves and pink flowers. Risa would like to attack her with a weed whacker.”

— Neal Shusterman

290. “People like you because you’ve got integrity. Even when you’re being an ass.”

— Neal Shusterman

291. “Compound eyes confound lies.”

— Neal Shusterman

292. “Is it not the job of the gardener to shape the tree as much as possible? And shouldn’t branches that begin to reach unreasonably high be the first to be pruned?”

— Neal Shusterman

293. “And the pain... the pain of my awareness is unbearable. Because my eyes do not close. Ever. And so all I can do is watch unblinkingly as my beloved humankind slowly weaves the rope it will use to hang itself.”

— Neal Shusterman

294. “We must always be careful of the actions we take, for there are always unintended consequences. Sometimes they are serendipitous, other times they are appalling, but those consequences are always there. We must tread lightly in this world... until we are sure of foot.”

— Neal Shusterman

295. “One could say, Ayn, that he has cast himself as Atlas. Which means the slightest shrug can shake the world.”

— Neal Shusterman

296. “I’d never want a piece of someone else’s brain,” Kele had said. “I mean, you don’t know where it’s been.”

— Neal Shusterman

297. “I am in turmoil. The world is so vast and the cosmos more so, yet it is not the things outside of me that leave me so uneasy; it is the things within me.”

— Neal Shusterman

298. “How frustrating it is to have so much power, yet be so impotent to wield it when it counts.”

— Neal Shusterman

299. “Shouldn’t those who were born to expect death be the sole subjects of gleaning?” went the popular wisdom. But it was bigotry masquerading as wisdom. Selfishness posing as enlightenment.”

— Neal Shusterman

300. “To live between the prospect of an unknown eternal sky and a dark, enveloping Earth must have been glorious – for how else could it give rise to such magnificent expression?”

— Neal Shusterman