Neal Shusterman

How can you pass laws about things that nobody knows?""They do it all the time," says Hayden. "That's what law is: educated guesses at right and wrong.

I love you, Risa," he says. "Every last part of me.

They meet in the girls' bathroom. The last time they were forced to meet in a place like this, they took separate, isolated stalls. Now they share one. They hold each other in the tight space, making no excuses for it. There's no time left in their lives for games, or for awkwardness, or for pretending they don't care about each others, and so they kiss as if they've done it forever. As if it is as crucial as the need for oxygen.

I__ evolving, is the thing; I__ a god becoming a constellation.___he constellations are mostly demigods,_ I point out. __nd they didn__ get to be constellations until after they died.__e laughs at that, and says, __eath is a small sacrifice to become immortal.

We're this big melting pot, but someone turned up the heat too high, and the stew started to burn. Gangs, crime, fights, and fear are now a regular part of our local stew.

Makes sense, the earth is quick to consume the flesh of things that ain't natural.

Live by your impulses, and you'll be just like them. You're better than that, aren't you, Red?

Hope in the shadow of fear is the world's most powerful motivator.

When I touched that boy, I felt something. Something awful. Something I can__ describe.___e all felt it,_ Nick said.__ou may have felt it, but I caused it._ Then both his eyes seemed to go far away. __omething changed out there. I don__ know what it was, but something in the world changed because that kid didn__ deserve what I did to him__nd the powers that be know that I did it._ Nick watched as a tear fell from his Everlost eye and disappeared through the living world table.__hat if,_ said Nick, not even sure what he was going to say yet, __hat if you were that kid and you were told you could change the world, but you would have to sacrifice yourself to do it?__larence chuckled at the thought. __ believe that question was already asked a long time ago, and that creepy kid did not look anything like Jesus to me.___ut you do think that something changed. . . .___ don__ know whether it__ good or bad.___hat if it__ neither?_ suggested Nick. __hat if we get to make it one or the other?

Respect doesn't come without a little resentment.

...You know something, don't you?""I know lots of things--your inquiry needs to be more specific.""Just answer the question.""True/false or multiple choice?

Then, in spite of everything, he began to smile. So much of his existence in Everlost had been full of despair. Despair, and a fear of losing what he had. But Allie was not lost, she was just there across the river, waiting for him to find her. Nick was not lost either--not entirely.It was then that Mikey McGill realized something. It must have been his sister who first called this place Everlost, because by naming it so, it stripped away all hope except for a faith in her, and the "safety" she could provide. Well, Mary was wrong on all counts, because nothing in Everlost was lost forever, if one had the courage to search for it.Mikey held tightly on to this shining truth as he and the golem sunk into the earth. Then with all the force of his heart, his mind, and his soul, Mikey McGill began to dig.

Heaven might shine bright, but so do flames.

Elasticity is a fundamental principle of perception,

while it__ five in the morning here, it__ also five in the evening somewhere in China__roving that incompatible truths make perfect sense when seen with global perspective.

Hope can be bruised and battered. It can be forced underground and even rendered unconscious, but hope cannot be killed.

This is not going to be easy. I'm good at being bad, but I'm bad at being good. I don't know the first thing about good deeds.

The way I see it, the impossible happens all the time; but we're so good at taking it for granted, we forget it was once impossible.