Patrick Ness Quotes
-
I write 1,000-1,500 words. The next day, I rewrite it and add 1,000-1,500 words to the end of it.
-
I try to avoid describing one interpretation of my books. Of course I have an opinion. I have things I want to say, but I don't ever want to limit anybody, to have them say, 'Oh, he said this, so that's what it's about.' I'm happy people bring their own stuff to it.
-
I don't purposely push the boundaries... I think if you pay attention to a story, it will have exactly as much 'difficult material' as it needs, and nobody will complain about it because you've earnt it.
-
I'm a long distance runner, and I get my best ideas when I'm out running. It also helps that I can't write it down immediately - if you hold onto an idea, other things will stick on it.
-
Belief is half of all healing. Belief in the cure, belief in the future that awaits.
-
Conor held tightly onto his mother. And by doing so, he could finally let her go.
-
If one of us falls, we all fall.
-
I got tired of books where the boy is a bit thick and the girl's very clever. Why does it have to such an opposition? Why can't they be like the girls and boys that I know personally, who are equally funny and equally cross? Who get things equally wrong and are equally brave? And make the same mistakes?
-
It's fun being paid to read stuff and air your opinion about it - pretty much a dream job for a writer.
-
It's always darkest before the dawn, Todd.” I look at him, baffled. “No, it ain't! What kinda stupid saying is that? It's always lightest before the dawn!
-
For me, when I start a novel, I only have a general sense of what I am going to do - usually three or four big scenes or something to which I can really respond emotionally.
-
You notice that he does not ask, Where am I?" says the Mayor's voice, moving out there, somewhere. "His first words are, Where is she? And his Noise says the same. Interesting.
-
I think the reason teenage fiction is so popular with adults is that adults hunger for narrative just as badly as teenagers do.
-
Sometimes people need to lie to themselves most of all.
-
Online is such a brilliant, brilliant way to connect with young readers - even if they just want to tweet, 'Hey, I read your book!' - that, absolutely, I connect with that. But I also treat writing as solitary and keep it to myself as long as I can.
-
No one wants to read an apologetic book.
-
Sometimes witches merit saving. Quite often, actually. You'd be surprised.
-
A monster, I think, remembering what Ben told me once. War makes Monsters of Men.
-
The justifications of men who kill should always be heard with skepticism, said the monster.
-
That's another thing about Noise. Everything that's ever happened to you just keeps right on talking, for ever and ever.
-
Forget market or publishers or whatever. Just write with fire and joy, and in my own experience, those are the stories of mine people have wanted to read.
-
Ideals, my girl,” she says. “Always easier to believe in than live.” “But if you don't at least try to live them,” Bradley says, “then there's no point in living at all.
-
You're never more alive than in battle." "Never more dead after," I say.
-
You went up a girl and came down a woman.