01UndatedWars have a way reinventing people. And making too many things disappear.-SoniaNeal Shusterman / quote ↗
02UndatedSometimes, Lev, I just want to smack you.""You already hit him with a car.Neal Shusterman / quote ↗
03UndatedTheir fate rested entirely on me. I could save them by telling the truth. I could destroy them by lying. No one should have that much power.Neal Shusterman / quote ↗
04UndatedYou see, Risa, survival is a dance between our needs and our consciences. When the need is great enough, and the music loud enough, we can stomp conscience into the ground.'Risa closes her eyes. She knows the dance...'It's the way of the world,' Divan continues. 'Look at unwinding, society's grand gavotte of denial. There will, no doubt, come a time when people look to one another and say, 'My God, what have we done?' But I don't believe it will happen any time soon. Until then, the dance must have music; the chorus must have its voice. Give it that voice, Risa. Play for me.'But Risa's fingers offer him nothing, and the Orgao Organico holds the obdurate, unyielding silence of the grave.Neal Shusterman / quote ↗
05UndatedIt's always the lesser of two evils.''I don't see why there have to be any evils at all.'-ConnorNeal Shusterman / quote ↗
06UndatedI almost told her everything right then. I wanted to tell her about the Wolves, and how I was supposed to hate them, but when you spend your days with evil, some of it is bound to soak into your clothes, like cigar smoke in a closed room.Neal Shusterman / quote ↗
07UndatedWhether consciousness is implanted in us by something divine, or whether it is created by the efforts of our brains, the end result is the same. We are.Neal Shusterman / quote ↗
08UndatedThey will find whatever button will make you dance, and dance you will, no matter how hideous the tune.Neal Shusterman / quote ↗
10UndatedHole..." He grips Risa's hand tighter. "Hole, Risa, hole..." And she smiles "Yes, Connor," she says. "You're whole. You're finally whole.Neal Shusterman / quote ↗
12UndatedI wrote Unwind for lots of reasons, and it poses questions about alot of subjects. To state it briefly, I wanted to point out how when peopletake intractable positions on an issue, and stick to extreme sides,sometimes the result is a compromise that is worse than either extreme. Imeant it as a wake up call to society -- and to point out that sometimes theproblem IS that we take sides on an issue, when a different sort of approachis needed. It's also to pose questions about what it means to be alive.Where does life begin, where does it end -- and point out that there is nosingle answer to these questions. The problem is people who think there aresimple answers. People who see things as simple black-and-whiteright-and-wrong are the type of people who will end up with a world like theworld in Unwind.Neal Shusterman / quote ↗
13UndatedThe good Lord wouldn't have put it in your heart if it wasn't right.Neal Shusterman / quote ↗
14UndatedDon't you recognize me, Mary? It's your good friend Allie the Outcast - although it looks like you're the one who's the out-cast now." Then Allie realized something with far too much glee. "Now that you're here - alive and all - there's something I've wanted to do for a very long time."Then Allie reached back, curled her fleshie's right hand into a fist, and swung it toward Mary with all her might.This was one strong fleshie!The punch connected with Mary's eye so hard, that Mary's entire body spun around, and she collapsed into a leopard chair. Allie's knuckles hurt, but it was a good kind of pain."My eye!" wailed Mary. "Oh! My eye.Neal Shusterman / quote ↗
15UndatedShe was deemed an unfit mother, in spite of the fact that she goes to the gym every day,' Hal once told me. . . .Beautiful people are often forgiven for many things--and maybe she's gotten through life that way, but I don't forgive her for anything--and I don't even know what awful things she's done other than showing a lack of parental fitness.Neal Shusterman / quote ↗
17UndatedI'm going out to find her, to make things right, or atleast properly wrong.Neal Shusterman / quote ↗
18Undated...One thing you learn when you've lived as long as I have-people aren't all good, and people aren't all bad. We move in and out of darkness and light all of our lives. Right now, I'm pleased to be in the light.Neal Shusterman / quote ↗
19UndatedWe are, however, creatures of containment. We want all things in life packed into boxes that we can label. But just because we have the ability to label it, doesn't mean we really know what's in the box.It's kind of religion. It gives us comfort to believe we have defined something that is, by its very nature, indefinable. As to whether or not we've gotten it right, well, it's all a matter of faith.Neal Shusterman / quote ↗
20UndatedYou can't change laws without first changing human nature... You can't change human nature without first changing the law.Neal Shusterman / quote ↗
21UndatedThe 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.Neal Shusterman / quote ↗
22UndatedThis 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.Neal Shusterman / quote ↗
23UndatedHope can be bruised and battered. It can be forced underground and even rendered unconscious, but hope cannot be killed.Neal Shusterman / quote ↗