Patrick Ness Quotes

American-British novelist and children's writer

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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)

I began to feel that itch that every writer longs for: the itch to start getting words down, the itch to tell a story.

They want us a bit dumb and a bit afraid. Which for the most part, I think we are.

How can a parson be wrong-thinking but good-hearted? How can invisible men make themselves more lonely by being seen?

You told me, just now, just today, that you'd rather be dead than have to go through this much longer. I take that seriously. I don't think your suffering is fake. I don’t think these feelings about wanting it to end are fake. I don’t think your self-hatred is fake. So why do you think it’s fake?

To see the ocean once is to learn how to miss it,

You do not write your life with words, the monster said. You write it with actions.

La mente entrará en contradicción consigo misma cien veces al día'.

You’re a good boy. I wish you didn’t have to be quite so good

Everybody was hoping for something, talking about our new life to come and all that they hoped from it. Fresh air, whatever that’s supposed to mean. Real gravity, instead of the fake kind that broke every now and then (even though no one over fifteen would admit that it was actually really fun when it did). All the wide open spaces we’d have, all the new people we’d meet when we woke them up, ignoring completely what happened to the original settlers, super- confident that we were so much better equipped that nothing bad could possibly happen to us.
All this hope, and here I was, right at the very edge of it, looking out into the darkness, the first to see it coming, the first to greet it when we found out what it really looked like.

This is all sounding pretty fairy tale-ish,” Conor said, suspiciously.
You would not say that if you heard the screams of a man killed by a spear, said the monster. Or his cries of terror as he was torn to pieces by wolves. Now be quiet.

War is a monster...War is the devil. It starts and it consumes and it grows and grows and grows...And otherwise normal people become monsters, too.

What kind of person am I when seen by you?

"I don't know," Gudmund said. "I really don't, Sethy. But we've got now, which is more than a lot of people have, right? Let the future take care of itself."

There came a point when Harry stopped trying to fight back, when the blows from the monster were too strong, too many, too fast, when he began begging the monster to stop.

You felt the excitement when we chased them up the hill,” the Mayor's saying. “I saw it. It blazed through your Noise like a fire. Every man in the army felt the same thing. You're never more alive than in battle.”

“Never more dead after,” I say.