"Because it's so hard to be kind to the world when all you've ever felt is hate."

"I hope he doesn't know he just touched my leg.And nothing happened."

"Juliette ? A tentative voice . " Are you okay? I lower the pillow . Blink up . Warner is wearing a towel . A towel . I want to roll under the bed ."

"So that's it?" Kenji says. "You just like him for his personality, huh?""What?""All of this," Kenji says, waving a hand in the air, "has nothing to do with him being all sexy and shit and him being able to touch you all the time?""You think Warner is sexy?""That is not what I said."

"My thoughts, I think, will soon be sound.My mind, I hope, will soon be found."

"His smile is laced with dynamite."

"He's looking at the wall and at the floor and at the bedsheets and at the way his knuckles look when he clenches his fist but no not at me he won't look at me and his next words are so, so soft. "Because they're dead, love. They're all dead."

"Because something inside of my heart is ripping apart and it feels like fear, it tastes like panic and anxiety and desperation and I don't know how to understand th image in front of me. I don't want to see Warner like this. I don't want to think of him as anything other than a monster.This isn't right."

"This planet is a broken bone that didn't set right, a hundred pieces of crystal glued together. We've been shattered and reconstructed, told to make an effort every single day to pretend we still function the way we're supposed to. But it's a lie, it's all a lie."

"For so many years I lived in constant terror of myself. Doubt had married my fear and moved into my mind, where it built castles and ruled kingdoms and reigned over me, bowing my will to its whispers until I was little more than an acquiescing peon, too terrified to disobey, too terrified to disagree. I had been shackled, a prisoner in my own mind.But finally, finally, I have learned to break free."

"Warner. A white bird with streaks of gold like a crown atop its head. A fair - skinned boy with gold hair, the leader of Sector 45. It was always him. All along . The link."

"I do know that I don't want to wake him.We were up very late last night."

"It sounds crazy, to think that I cared so much without ever talking to you."

"It's strange. How hollow i feel. Like there might be echoes inside of me. Like I'm one of those chocolate rabbits they used to sell around Easter, the ones that were nothing more than a sweet shell encapsulating a world of nothing. I'm like that. I encapsulate a world of nothing."

"Do you never get exhausted being so wholly unbearable?"

"Kenji snorts."That's because you're not fragile, Kenji says. "If anything, everyone needs to protect themselves from you. You're like a freaking beast, he says. Then adds, "I mean, you know-like, a cute beast. A little beast that tears shit up and breaks the earth and sucks the life out of people."

"They filled our world with weapons aimed at foreheads and smiled as they shot 16 candles right through our future. They killed those strong enough to fight back and locked up the freaks who failed to live up to their utopian expectations."

"Selfish needs, wants, and desires needed to be obliterated. Greed, overindulgence, and gluttony had to be expunged from human behavior. The solution was in self-control, in minimalism, in sparse living conditions; one simple and a brand-new dictionary filled with words everyone would understand."

"I am nothing more than the consequence of catastrophe."

"Nothing in this life will ever make sense to me but I can't help but try to collect the change and hope it's enough to pay for our mistakes."

"And maybe if I can find a way to stop being scared, I'll actually figure out how to make friends. To be strong. To stop wallowing in my own problems."

"1,320 seconds walk into the room before he does."

"The moon is a loyal companion. It never leaves. It's always there, watching, steadfast, knowing us in our light and dark moments, changing forever just as we do."

"Because a quiet night is not the same as a silent one, a firm man is not the same as a steady one, and a bright light is not the same as a brilliant one."

"I'm beginning to think of hope as a dangerous, terrifying thing."

"I'm not an idiot, Kenji. I have reasons for the things I say."Yeah, and maybe I'm just saying that you have no idea what you're saying."Whatever."Don't whatever me-"Whatever, I say again."Oh my God, Kenji says to no one in particular. "I think this girl wants to get her ass kicked."You couldn't kick my ass if I had ten of them.Kenji laughs out loud. "Is that a challenge?"It's a warning, I say to him."Ohhhhhh, so you're threatening me now? Little crybaby knows how to make threats now?"Shut up, Kenji."Shut up, Kenji, he repeats in a whiny voice, mocking me."

"I love walking into a bookstore. It's like all my friends are sitting on shelves, waving their pages at me."

"He's wrong he's so he's so wrong he's more wrong than an upside-down rainbow."

"Have you ever had a girlfriend, Kenji?" me?"

"So,' he says. 'When's the big day? Have you set a date yet?''What?' I startle. 'For what?''For the day you're going to stop being such a dumbass,' he says shooting me a sharp look.'Oh.' I cringe. Kick at the air. 'Yeah, that'll probably never happen.''Yeah, you're probably right.''Shut up."

"I can do anything I want. Be with anyone I want. And it'll be my choice."

"Laughter comes from living." I shrug, try to sound indifferent. "I've never really been alive before."

"I love you," I whisper. "I love you exactly as you are."

"I keep sniffing my skin, pleasantly surprised by how nice it is to smell like a flower. I've never smelled like anything before."

"I'm a starving child trying to stuff my stomach, gorging my senses on the decadence of these moments as if I'll wake up in the morning and realize I'm still sweeping cinders for my stepmother.But then Adam's lips press against my head and my worries put on a fancy dress and pretend to be something else for a while."

"You will not be alone, I say to them, spinning to see their faces. You don't need to be afraid anymore. We want to take back our world. We want to save the lives of our family members, our friends. We want your children to have a chance at a better future. And we want to fight. We want to win. I lock eyes with them. And we are asking for your help."

"Is it possible to love someone and then stop loving them? I don't think I even know what love is."

"Maybe I was crazy to consider it, but I'd always hoped that if I were a good enough girl, if I did everything right, if I said the right things or said nothing at all-I thought my parents would change their minds. I thought they would finally listen when I tried to talk. I thought they would give me a chance. I thought they might finally love me. I always had that stupid hope."

"I peek up at his features, at the crooked grin i want to savor, at the color in his eyes i'd use to paint a million pictures."

"That this girl would know exactly how to shatter me."

"My mind is a warehouse of carefully organized human emotions.I lock away the things that do not serve me."

"You think that because I am unwanted, because I am neglected and-and discarded-" My voice inches higher with every word, the unrestrained emotions suddenly screaming through my lungs. "You think I don't have a heart? You think I don't feel? You think that because I can inflict pain, that I should? You're just like everyone else. You think I'm a monster just like everyone else. You don't understand me at all."

"While a part of me wants to know, another part of me is too exhausted to ask."

"The afternoon our story begins, the quiet parts of being alive were the busiest: wind unlocking Windows; rainlight nudging curtains apart; fresh-cut grass tickling unsocked feet. Days like this made Alice want to set off on a great adventure."

"Uh, yeah - how about a warm hell no to that request? Does that work for you? Because it works for me."

"Dear, sweet, beautiful girl."

"Kengi?""Yeah?"I take a deep breath. Try to count the stars. "What am I going to do?""About what?"I hesitate. "About everything."Kenji makes a strange sound. "Shit if I know.""I don't want to do this without you," I whisper.He leans back. "Who said you're going to do anything without me?"My heart skips a few beats. I stare at him."What?" he asks. Raises his eyebrows. "You're surprised?""You'll fight with me?" I ask him, hardly breathing. "Fight back with me? Even if it's with Warner?"Kenji smiles. Looks up at the sky. "Hell yeah," he says. "Really?""I'm here for you, kid. That's what friends are for."

"First! Does this need to be said? Second! Does this need to be said by me? And third! Does this need to be said by me right now?"

"It's like there are a million screams caught inside of my chest but I have to keep them all in because what's the point of screaming if you'll never be heard and no one will ever hear me in here. No one will ever hear me again."

"Mother often said that she could never be bothered to understand why Alice did the things she did, and now, more than ever, Alice thought never being bothered was a very lazy way to love someone."