Ally Condie

And I'll tell her that I don't want my life to be samples and scraps. A taste of everything but a meal of nothing.

Love changes what is probable and makes unlikely things possible.

The beauty of dystopia is that it lets us vicariously experience future worlds - but we still have the power to change our own.

Being a teen is past for me. Worrying about the world and my place in it is not.

One of the things I've always liked about my husband is he's very good at lots of stuff. He was an English teacher when I met him. He wrote poetry and played the guitar. As time went on, he decided to go into economics, so he's very analytical and mathematical in addition to his artsy side.

We do not kiss. We do nothing but hold on and breathe, but still I know. I cannot go gently now. Not even for the sake of my parents, my family.Not even for Xander.

I'll stand next to that fountain and wait until the Official find me. And when she does and asks me what I'm doing, I'll tell her and everyone else that I know: t hey are giving us pieces of a real life instead of the whole thing. And I'll tell her that I don't want my life to be samples and scraps. A taste of everything but a meal of nothing.

It could have been different," I say, almost under my breath. If I'd kissed Indie again after she kissed me. If I hadn't known Cassia before I met Indie."But it's not," Indie says, and she's right.

My mother looks at me with love and understanding, and I realize: she knows what my father did. She knows what I want. She knows and even though she would not destroy a tissue sample or love someone who is not her Match, she still loves us, even though we have done those things.

He's throwing everything he can into the air on the chance that something might take flight. And we're the smallest, weakest bird.

I love you."lightning. Once it has forked, hot-white, from sky to earth, there is no going back.It's time. I feel it, I know it. My eyes on him, his on me, and both of us breathing, watching, tired of of waiting. Ky close his eyes, but mine are still open. what will it feel like, his lips on mine? Like a secret told, a promise kept? Like that line in the poem-a shower of all my days- silvery rain falling all around me, where the lighting meets the earth? The whistle blows below us and the moment breaks. We are safe.For now.

That__ how I know they are dreams. Because the simple and plain and everyday things are the ones that we can never have. (Cassia Reyes)

So much of life is in the smallness of moments...but they are harder to mark. So we need the grander celebrations and occasions. People like to feel significant

What are the gifts given to we who live Below?""Long life, health, strength, and happiness.""What is the curse of those who live Above?""Short life, illness, weakness, and misery.""Is this fair?""It is fair. It is as the gods decreed at the time of the Divide. Some have to stay Above so that humanity might survive Below.""Then give thanks.

Everyone dies. The don't all have the chance to see what they wanted most. At least I've seen the Above. At least I've known True.

I'm falling in love. I am in love. and it's not with Xander, though I do love him. I'm sure of that, as sure as I am of the fact what I feel for Ky is something different.

Ky still looks at me and I wonder for a moment if he is going to ask me what I am thinking about. But of course, he doesn't. He doesn't learn things by asking questions... He learns by watching.

I know how it feels when people look right through you, or worse, see you as something or someone other than what you are.