Patrick Ness Quotes

American-British novelist and children's writer

Patrick Ness FRSL (born 17 October 1971) is an American-British author, journalist, lecturer, and screenwriter. Born in the United States, Ness moved to London and holds dual citizenship. He is best known for his books for young adults, including the Chaos Walking (2008–2010) trilogy and A Monster Calls (2011). Ness won the annual Carnegie Medal in 2011 and in 2012, for Monsters of Men and A Monster Calls.
He is one of seven writers to win two Medals, and the second to win consecutively. He wrote the screenplay of the 2016 film adaptation of A Monster Calls, and was the creator and writer of the Doctor Who spin-off series Class.

From: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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"So we forgive each other?" The crooked smile climbs up one more time. "Again?"
And I look right into his eyes, right into him as far as I can see, because I want him to hear me, I want him to hear me with everything I mean and feel and say.
"Always," I say to him. "Every time."

Life ain't fair.
It ain't.
Not never.
It's pointless and stupid and there's only suffering and pain and people who want to hurt you. You can't love nothing or no one cuz it'll all be taken away or ruined and you'll be left alone and constantly having to fight, constantly having to run just to stay alive.

I think maybe everyone falls... I think the asking is whether we get back up again.

Noise ain't Truth, Noise is what men want to be true, and there's a difference twixt those two things so big that it could ruddy well kill you if you don't watch out.

Stories are important, the monster said. They can be more important than anything. If they carry the truth.

"The parson refused to believe the Apothecary could help, said the monster. When times were easy, the parson nearly destroyed the Apothecary, but when the going grew tough, he was willing to throw aside every belief if it would save his daughters.

"So?" Conor said. "So would anyone! So would everyone! What did you expect him to do?

Your mind will believe comforting lies while also knowing the painful truths that make those lies necessary. And your mind will punish you for believing both. (Fight it) by speaking the truth. If you speak the truth, you will be able to face whatever comes.

In this world of numbness and information overload, the ability to feel, my boy, is a rare gift indeed.

That's the thing I'm learning about being thrown out on yer own. Nobody does nothing for you. If you don't change it, it don't get changed.

What a sad thing men are. Can't do nothing good without being so weak we have to mess it up. Can't build something without tearing it down.
It ain't the Spackle that drove us to the end.
It was ourselves.

To see the ocean once is to learn how to miss it. ~Mistress Coyle

Sarah felt that any world that needed this many lessons must have something deeply wrong with it.

"TODD!" I yell again and I reach him and his Noise opens even farther and wraps around me like a blanket and I'm grabbing him to me, grabbing him to me like I'll never let him go and he calls out in pain but his other arm is grabbing me back -
"I thought you were dead," he's saying, his breath on my neck. "I thought you were dead."
"Todd," I say and I'm crying and the only thing I can say is his name. "Todd."

You are keeping the possibility [of peace] open. No wise leader would do anything less

"Usually when a man calls a woman a bitch," a voice calls over from a cart pulling up near us at the edge of camp,"its because she's doing something right."