Neal Schusterman Quotes

“Connor is a celebrity in his dormitory. He finds it absurd and surreal that the kids here see him as some sort of symbol, when all he did was survive.”

“Connor looks flustered and cornered for a moment before he comes to his senses and says, ‘Yeah. Yeah, I am.‘”

“Connor knows his situation calls for justified caution—not just tonight, but for the next two years. Then once he turns eighteen, he’s home free.”

“This is what I was born for. It’s what I’ve lived my life for. I am chosen. I am blessed. And I am happy.”

“He was never ‘Connor’ to them. He was always ‘that Lassiter boy.‘”

″‘Make no mistake about it: What we do here is highly illegal, but that does not mean we don’t follow the rule of law. My law.‘”

“They were going on a family vacation over Thanksgiving. One problem, though: There were only three tickets.”

″‘Ain’t no one gonna tell you what’s in your heart,’ he tells Lev. ‘You gotta find that out for yourself.‘”

“The mother is nineteen, but she doesn’t feel that old.”

″‘So… everything that happened back there was all a show?’ Now it’s Connor’s turn to be unsure. ‘I guess. Sort of. Wasn’t it?‘”

“It’s a big comfort to know that their lives will continue even after he’s gone.”

″‘Don’t you see, Lev? You can save yourself. You can be anyone you want to be now.‘”

″‘They can’t unwind me now—there are laws against unwinding the disabled—but if I got the operation, they’d unwind me the moment I was healed. This way I get to stay whole.’ She smiles at him triumphantly. ‘So you’re not the only one who beat the system.‘”

“Standing ten yards away is Connor’s father, still holding the cell phone he had just called from.”

“Connor had risked his life to save Lev, just as Connor had done for the baby on the doorstep. Well, the baby had been saved, but Lev had not, and although he knows he can’t be held responsible for Lev’s unwinding, he feels as if it is his fault.”

“Thinking ahead has never been one of Connor’s strong points. If it was, he might not have gotten into the various situations that have plagued him over the past few years. Situations that got him labels like ‘troubled’ and ‘at risk,’ and finally this last label, ‘unwind.‘”

“Then, feeling the coldness of the steel against his fingertips, he pulls the fire alarm.”

“Something else drove (Connor) to run to that porch, but whatever the real reason was, Connor’s keeping it to himself.”

″‘They do it all the time,’ says Hayden. ‘That’s what law is: educated guesses at right and wrong.‘”

″‘You two can do whatever you like. Risa and I broke up this morning. Should I turn off the light when I leave?‘”

“It was a dream. Reality got in the way, that’s all. And running away doesn’t solve anything.”