Quotes By Author: Marie Lu

“Time heals all wounds. But not this one. Not yet.”

“Tell me there is still good in the world. Tell me there is still hope for all of us.”

“I have killed and hurt. I have conquered and pillaged. I have done all of this in the name of my own desires, have done everything in life because of my own selfishness. I have always taken what I wanted, and it has never given me happiness. If I return to the surface, alone, I will forever remember this moment, the moment I decided to choose my own life over my sister’s. It will haunt me, even with Magiano at my side, until my death. What I saw for myself in my future is a future I cannot have, not with the past that I have already created. It is an illusion. Nothing more.Perhaps, after all the lives I have taken, my atonement is to restore life to one.”

“No one wants you to be yourself. They want you to be the version of yourself that they like”

“Well enough,” I reply. “Remember, you’re drunk. And happy. You’re supposed to be lusting over your escort. Try smiling a little more.”Day plasters a giant artificial smile on his face. As charming as ever. “Aw, come on, sweetheart. I thought I was doing a pretty good job. I got my arm around the prettiest escort on this block—how could I not be lusting over you? Don’t I look like I’m lusting? This is me, lusting.” His lashes flutter at me.He looks so ridiculous that I can’t help laughing. Another passerby glances at me. “Much better.”

“Where I come from, we’re more about efficiency,’ he replies. ‘A knife like this’ll skewer food, smear butter, and slit throats all at the same time.”

“Now, as we stand three feet apart and stare at each other, I feel the full distance that comes with spending so much time apart, a moment filled with the electricity of a first meeting and the uncertainty of strangers.”

“It is better to have an enemy who will fight you in an open field then a lover who will kill you in your sleep.”

“Day leans in toward me. He reaches up to touch my face. I can tell it still hurts him to use his fingers, and his nails are dark with dried blood. “You’re brilliant,” he says. “But you’re a fool to stay wish someone like me.”I close my eyes at the touch of his hand. “Then we’re both fools.”

“Love is illogical, love had consequences–I did this to myself, and I should be able to take it.”

“I always knew, on some level, that I wouldn’t live long. It’s simply not written in my stars.”

“The irony of life is that those who wear masks often tell us more truths than those with open faces.”

“I scream for everything that has gone wrong. I scream for everything broken in our lives.”

“Forever and ever, kid, until you’re sick and tired of seeing me.”

“I don’t know if anyone’s ever told you this”, he begins. He doesn’t blush, and his eyes don’t dart away. Instead I find myself staring into a pair of oceans – one perfect, the other blemished by that tiny ripple. “You’re very attractive.”I’ve been complimented on my appearance before. But never in his tone of voice. Of all the things he’s said, I don’t know why this catches me off guard. But it startles me so much that without thinking I blurt out, “I could say the same about you.” I pause. “In case you didn’t know.”A slow grin spreads across his face. “Oh, trust me. I know.”