Top 200 Ruta Sepetys Quotes (2026 Update)
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201. “Sorrow. Anger. An expanse of emptiness that takes form as a separate entity living inside of you. It digs, takes root, and dwells there. And somehow, you know that even if it worms its way out, there will be no relief. If it leaves, there will be nothing left but charred remains, like the inside of a house torched by fire.”

— Ruta Sepetys

202. “I will find you.”

— Ruta Sepetys

203. “Is it good or bad that the defining items of his life can fit into one small box?”

— Ruta Sepetys

204. “Better to die standing than live kneeling.”

— Ruta Sepetys

205. “Words are weapons. I’ll be able to fight our American and Birtish enemies with words, not only guns.”

— Ruta Sepetys

206. “Pathetic, and yet I survive. This woman closes her eyes and she is gone. I’ve wished for death since the first day, and yet I survive. Can it really be so hard to die?”

— Ruta Sepetys

207. “We know us. They’re wrong. And don’t ever allow them to convince you otherwise. Do you understand?”

— Ruta Sepetys

208. “Was it better to know, or better not to?”

— Ruta Sepetys

209. “When it’s time, we have to be ready.” “For what?” asked Cici. “To fight,” he replied.”

— Ruta Sepetys

210. “Willie never spoke about her childhood. I stared at the picture, shocked that she had ever been a child at all. Somehow, I imagined Willie Woodley had been born with a rusty voice and street smarts to outwit any hustler. But here she was, a sweet child with a wide smile. What had happened to the Willie in the photo? I often longed to look at childhood photos of myself, but there weren’t any.”

— Ruta Sepetys

211. “Everyone has been calm for a year or two. But if it be your will... Let the silence remain.”

— Ruta Sepetys

212. “He wrapped his arms around me and planted a kiss straight on my lips, hard and long. It felt like I was watching the kiss instead of being inside of it.”

— Ruta Sepetys

213. “That’s what the letter from Ms. Mona Wright had said. I still had no idea what “Ms.” meant. I’d have to look it up in the practical business-writing handbook. It was obviously a title of some sort.”

— Ruta Sepetys

214. “Gold is tried by fire and brave men by adversity,” says Rafa.”

— Ruta Sepetys

215. “When he asks Fuga about his stillness, his friend shrugs and says, “El momento.” The moment. To Fuga, the past no longer exists. The future is yet to exist. Fuga pledges loyalty to the “is,” not the “if.”

— Ruta Sepetys

216. “What is the cost of self-worth?”

— Ruta Sepetys

217. “Light fell, and so did my confidence.”

— Ruta Sepetys

218. “Mileage doesn’t make the man.”

— Ruta Sepetys

219. “Should he look directly at them and acknowledge their sacrifice or look away and honor their dignity?”

— Ruta Sepetys

220. “That sounded like something Mother would say, throwing color onto a black-and-white picture.”

— Ruta Sepetys

221. “It’s not her fault, but Sissy’s presence seems to amplify his mother’s absence. It stings.”

— Ruta Sepetys

222. “Was there a lot of carryin’ on in there?” asked Cokie. “I don’t know,” I said. “You don’t know?” said Patrick, turning around from the front seat. “Jo, they have a baby grand piano, but no one in the family plays. They have shelves of books they’ve never read, and the tension between the couples was so thick it nearly choked us.”

— Ruta Sepetys

223. “Death hath a thousand doors to let out life; I shall find one.”

— Ruta Sepetys

224. “Twenty-three million people. Names and history, largely unknown. Then – A metal box. Found next to a grave. Inside was a manuscript. This is how one boy told the story. Din biroul lui Cristian Florescu.”

— Ruta Sepetys

225. “You think you know someone. And when you realize you’re wrong, the humiliation steals something from you. Your mind becomes a thick forest of dark thoughts and you wonder; ’what else am I not seeing?”

— Ruta Sepetys

226. “Attendants and domestics have been part of Daniel’s life since birth. They fade into his background, like Franco’s security guards. They are silent witnesses, seemingly blind and deaf to all conversations and indiscretions. But they are not blind and deaf. Everything is noted.”

— Ruta Sepetys

227. “I stood there, thinking about Dora’s question. What sort of a woman steals from her child?”

— Ruta Sepetys

228. “Patrick wanted someone else. I wanted him to be happy, but why couldn’t he be happy with me? I knew the answer. He couldn’t choose me.”

— Ruta Sepetys

229. “Questions. Why does she cling so tightly to questions? Why can’t she open her fist and let them fly away? Together with doctors, bishops, and priests, Sister Hortensia devotes her entire existence to the orphans. It is disrespectful to question their authority. Yet something nags at her. Hesitation. Doubt. She is ashamed by it, yet compelled to probe further.”

— Ruta Sepetys

230. “The sensation of speaking up, speaking aloud instead of in whispers, it was euphoric. And you could sense that others felt it too.”

— Ruta Sepetys

231. “Puri takes a deep breath. “Julia, when should a secret be kept and what should be kept a secret? If I see something that troubles me, that doesn’t feel correct, do I have the right to question it? Should I say something?”

— Ruta Sepetys

232. “The temporary victory is silent, but sings through his soul.”

— Ruta Sepetys

233. “Do others in Spain have ghosts in the attic of their mind? Do they try to face them as he does? The door to the attic creaks constantly, beckoning Rafa with a long, crooked finger back to his childhood. Back to the war.”

— Ruta Sepetys

234. “This five-foot-nothing man has absolute mental control over twenty-three million people. And his wife is part of that power. We have two dictators and they’ve insulated and trapped us.”

— Ruta Sepetys

235. “Take comfort that this silence is not yours alone, Teresa. In the fields, across the mountains, under the streets, and beneath the trees lie thousands of souls, condemned to silence. But one day, far into the future when the pain is less sharp, the voices of the dead will find harmony with the living. They will make a melody. Listen for the music, Teresa. I sing for you, my children, and for the better day I know will come.”

— Ruta Sepetys

236. “I envied him, the courage to be himself. In public.”

— Ruta Sepetys

237. “There are colors of beauty in Madrid, but also colors of hardship. Ghosts of war walk the streets in Spain. Daniel passes blind lottery vendors, citizens missing limbs, young people using canes. Should he look directly at them and acknowledge their sacrifice or look away and honor their dignity?”

— Ruta Sepetys

238. “Memories are hungry, tesoro. You mustn’t feed them.”

— Ruta Sepetys

239. “Fuga pledges loyalty to the “is,” not the “if.”

— Ruta Sepetys

240. “The baby is not yet strong. Neither is Julia. She clings desperately to the child, and together they cry through the nights.”

— Ruta Sepetys

241. “Right before you arrived, Mrs. Lefevre told us that she held a gun to her husband’s head in the bedroom last night because he smelled like Tabu.” Charlotte shook her head, whispering. “Mrs. Lefevre does not wear Tabu. But a gun? Can you imagine the insanity of that?” I shook my head, feeling the cold steel of my pistol against my leg under my skirt. Unfortunately, I knew that insanity all too well.”

— Ruta Sepetys

242. “When Ceusescu razed the center of Bucharest, a brave engineer saved several historic churches. He put them on rolling tracks and slid them to different parts of the city. Bunu called him “the engineer of heaven.”

— Ruta Sepetys

243. “The shoes always tell the story,” said the shoe poet. “Not always,” I countered. “Yes, always. Your boots, they are expensive, well made. That tells me that you come from a wealthy family. But the style is one made for an older woman. That tells me they probably belonged to your mother. A mother sacrificed her boots for her daughter. That tells me you are loved, my dear. And your mother is not here, so that tells me that you are sad, my dear. The shoes tell the story.”

— Ruta Sepetys

244. “No one wanted to fall into the hands of the enemy. But it was growing harder to distinguish who the enemy was.”

— Ruta Sepetys

245. “To Fuga, the past no longer exists. The future is yet to exist. Fuga pledges loyalty to the “is,” not the “if.”

— Ruta Sepetys

246. “What good is a story that can never be told?”

— Ruta Sepetys

247. “Everyone who isn’t a maid has one.”

— Ruta Sepetys

248. “He isolated Romania from the rest of the world and then proceeded to further isolate individual citizens by separating and positioning them against one another.”

— Ruta Sepetys