Top 200 Ruta Sepetys Quotes (2024 Update)
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101. “In 1991, after fifty years of brutal occupation, the three Baltic countries regained their independence, peacefully and with dignity. They chose hope over hate and showed the world that even through the darkest night, there is light. These three tiny nations have taught us that love is the most powerful army. Whether love of a friend, love of country, love of God, or even love of enemy- love reveals to us the truly miraculous nature of the human spirit.”

— Ruta Sepetys

102. “Komorov thought he was torturing us. But we were escaping into a stillness within ourselves. We found strength there.”

— Ruta Sepetys

103. “As the saying goes, better to die standing than live kneeling.”

— Ruta Sepetys

104. “Charlie Marlowe never wrote horror, but somehow horror was writing Charlie Marlowe.”

— Ruta Sepetys

105. “The brutality was shocking. Disgraceful acts of inhumanity. No one wanted to fall into the hands of the enemy. But it was growing harder to distinguish who the enemy was.”

— Ruta Sepetys

106. “Good luck comes at a price. Bad luck is free.”

— Ruta Sepetys

107. “Shelves without books were lonely and just plain wrong.”

— Ruta Sepetys

108. “So I build my own nest and feather it with thoughts of you.”

— Ruta Sepetys

109. “Hitler said KdF brought opportunity for everyone, all were equal. But how could all be equal if some were favored?”

— Ruta Sepetys

110. “Some were desperate to remember and others were desperate to forget.”

— Ruta Sepetys

111. “But I had learned to read very young. They could never take that away from me.”

— Ruta Sepetys

112. “Perhaps tomorrow I would actually put pen to paper.”

— Ruta Sepetys

113. “Success meant survival. Failure meant death. I wanted life. I wanted to survive.”

— Ruta Sepetys

114. “It amazed me how some people could touch an instrument and create something so beautiful, and when others tried, like me, it just sounded like mangled noise.”

— Ruta Sepetys

115. “He said nothing, just pulled me down into his lap and wrapped his arms around me.”

— Ruta Sepetys

116. “What determines how we remember history and which elements are preserved and penetrate the collective consciousness? If historical novels stir your interest, pursue the facts, history, memories, and personal testimonies available. These are the shoulders that historical fiction sits upon. When the survivors are gone we must not let the truth disappear with them. Please, give them a voice.”

— Ruta Sepetys

117. “Focus your lens on the Spanish people,” Ben lifts his cigarette and points it at Daniel, “but don’t be stupid. There is a dark side here. Sure, they’re selling sunshine and castanets to the tourists. But that’s not all Franco’s selling. One wrong move and the police will be on you. You’ll be dead in a dirt pit.”

— Ruta Sepetys

118. “I looked back to the hole. What if we were digging our own grave?”

— Ruta Sepetys

119. “Abandoned or separated from their families, they were forced to battle the beast of war on their own, left with an inheritance of heartache and resposibility for events they had no rile in causing.”

— Ruta Sepetys

120. “She held her breath in one hand and her suitcase in the other.”

— Ruta Sepetys

121. “My husband, Andrius, says that evil will rule until good men or women choose to act.”

— Ruta Sepetys

122. “You must be brave,” says Rafa. “One Texano against three Vallecanos.” “Bravery and stupidity are sometimes interchangeable.” Rafa lights up. “Yes! But fear brings dimension to our lives. Without fear we will never meet courage.”

— Ruta Sepetys

123. “No money, no cradle. Earnings pay rent on their mother’s grave. If payment is not made, her body will be dug up and thrown in a common trench.”

— Ruta Sepetys

124. “Doll. Dame. Kitten. Baby. American men have many terms for women. Just when Ana thinks she has learned them all, a new one appears. In her English class at the hotel, these words are called terms of endearment.”

— Ruta Sepetys

125. “Ladies and gentlemen, we have a match. The two kids both have hand-me-down names of the ill repute.” Jesse turned to me. “But actually, I win. You’re named after a madam. I’m named after a murderer. So mine’s worse.”

— Ruta Sepetys

126. “Each day when the train stopped, we’d lean out of the car and try to count the number of bodies thrown. It grew every day. I noticed Jonas kept track of the children, making marks with a stone on the floor board of the car. I looked at his marks and imagined drawing little heads atop each one – hair, eyes, a nose, and a mouth.”

— Ruta Sepetys

127. “Terror was out there. And it chased us.”

— Ruta Sepetys

128. “Look at you, locked and loaded, like Mae West of the Motor City.”

— Ruta Sepetys

129. “The sweet girl in Madrid... It probably wouldn’t have worked. The divide was too wide. Memories are hungry, tesoro. You musn’t feed them. I’d hate to think that a teenage fling might leave you alone for the rest of your life.”

— Ruta Sepetys

130. “History divided us, but through reading we can be united in story, study, and rememberance. Books join us together as a global reading community but more important a global human community striving to learn from the past.”

— Ruta Sepetys

131. “I stared at the enormous homes, the landscaping and flower beds immaculate. It was as if dollar bills, instead of leaves, hung from the trees.”

— Ruta Sepetys

132. “We brought her into the house. My stomach pushed up into my throat. The Polish girl was my sister’s age. What had human beings become? Did war make us evil or just activate an evil already lurking within us?”

— Ruta Sepetys

133. “But when she sat alone her face looked cheerless and forlorn, full of tears waiting patiently to fall.”

— Ruta Sepetys

134. “Revolting. If women were so careless to become pregnant at such a time, let women sort it out.”

— Ruta Sepetys

135. “Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be taken by anybody else, these pages must be shown.”

— Ruta Sepetys

136. “But we escaped into a stillness within ourselves. We found strenght there.”

— Ruta Sepetys

137. “Like the character of Daniel, I wanted to understand. I wanted to reciprocate the affection, comprehension, and compassion that the people in Spain had shown toward me and the history within my books. As my research progressed, I realized that the refrains were accurate. Not only is it difficult for an outsider to understand, I often found myself asking, “What right do we have to history other than our own?”

— Ruta Sepetys

138. “The perfect word is like the perfect camera angle. It expresses the true nature of the situation. Change the camera position slightly, and the picture tells tales.”

— Ruta Sepetys

139. “My biggest fear was that the old Charlie was in there somewhere trying to communicate, but a synaptic disconnect made his behavior erratic.”

— Ruta Sepetys

140. “More than ten thousand people had been on board the Gustloff. The gruesome details of the sinking would be reported in every world newspaper. The tragedy would be studied for years, become legendary.”

— Ruta Sepetys

141. “Stalin has stolen more than lands. Hannelore, he has stolen human dignity. I see it in their forlorn eyes and broken posture. It’s all the fault of the Communists.”

— Ruta Sepetys

142. “We have only died if you forget us.”

— Ruta Sepetys

143. “Yes, most are very happy. But they have no parents.” Sister exhales her annoyance. “It is better to have no parents than the wrong parents.”

— Ruta Sepetys

144. “Don’t get on your high horse, Jo. What, you think you’re gonna be Cinderella?” She tipped her head back and laughed. Ugly. “You think your life is going to be some fairy tale, hon, like in one of your books?” The waitress brought Mother her iced tea. I knew what to do. I should have ended the conversation there. I should have left. Instead, I sat in the booth staring at her, wishing that she could be like other mothers, wishing that she were different. Mother would never square up. I knew that.”

— Ruta Sepetys

145. “And there Emilia rests. She is safe. She is loved. Affectionately, Clara Christensen.”

— Ruta Sepetys

146. “Through my own struggles I’ve learned that knowing is something that evolves. What we think we know can be quite far from the truth. If we continue to seek and ask questions, we may one day find our way into the answers, but sometimes the answers only lead t more questions.”

— Ruta Sepetys

147. “We were not Germanizable. But our soil was.”

— Ruta Sepetys

148. “If communism is Paradise, why do we need barriers, walls, and laws to keep people from escaping? A great question indeed. In the days ahead, let us not forget these sentiments as we reflect upon communism’s aim to create a man without a memory.”

— Ruta Sepetys

149. “How would she know the truths from the untruths?”

— Ruta Sepetys

150. “The most dangerous adversary is the one you underestimate.”

— Ruta Sepetys