Patrick Ness > Quotes

“We are the choices we make.”
― Patrick Ness, The Knife of Never Letting Go

“It's not that you should never love something so much that it can control you.
It's that you need to love something that much so you can never be controlled.
It's not a weakness.
It's your best strength.”
― Patrick Ness, The Ask and the Answer

“Here's what I think," I say and my voice is stronger and thoughts are coming, thoughts that trickle into my noise like whispers of truth. "I think maybe everybody falls," I say. "I think maybe we all do. And I don't think that's the asking."
I pull on her arms gently to make sure she's listening.
"I think the asking is whether we get back up again.”
― Patrick Ness, The Knife of Never Letting Go

“Without a filter, a man is just chaos walking.”
― Patrick Ness, The Knife of Never Letting Go

“You do not write your life with words, the monster said. You write it with actions. What you think is not important. It is only important what you do.”
― Patrick Ness, A Monster Calls

“The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don't got nothing much to say.
About anything.
"Need a poo, Todd."
"Shutup, Manchee."
"Poo. Poo, Todd."
"I said shut it.”
― Patrick Ness, The Knife of Never Letting Go

“There is not always a good guy. Nor is there always a bad one. Most people are somewhere in between.”
― Patrick Ness, A Monster Calls

“But a knife ain't just a thing, is it? It's a choice, it's something you do. A knife says yes or no, cut or not, die or don't. A knife takes a decision out of your hand and puts it in the world and it never goes back again. ”
― Patrick Ness, The Knife of Never Letting Go

“To say you have no choice is to relieve yourself of responsibility”
― Patrick Ness, Monsters of Men

“Stories are wild creatures, the monster said. When you let them loose, who knows what havoc they might wreak?”
― Patrick Ness, A Monster Calls

“It's not how we fall. It's how we get back up again.”
― Patrick Ness, Monsters of Men

“In this world of numbness and information overload, the ability to feel, my boy, is a rare gift indeed.”
― Patrick Ness, The Ask and the Answer

“Faith with proof is no faith at all.”
― Patrick Ness, The Ask and the Answer

“His noise is getting quieter, but I can still see it there still-
See how he feels the skin of my hand against his, see how he wants to take it and press it against his mouth, how he wants to breathe in the smell of me and how beautiful I look to him, how strong after all that illness, and how he wants to just lightly touch my neck, just there, and how he wants to take me in his arms and-
"Oh, God," he says, looking away suddenly. "Viola, I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"
But I just put my hand to the back of his neck-
And he says, "Viola-?"
And I pull myself towards him-
And I kiss him.
And it feels like, finally.”
― Patrick Ness, Monsters of Men

“War is like a monster," he says, almost to himself. "War is the devil. It starts and it consumes and it grows and grows and grows." He's looking at me now. "And otherwise normal men become monsters, too (392).”
― Patrick Ness, The Knife of Never Letting Go

“You can't say everything, so you don't say nothing.”
― Patrick Ness, The Knife of Never Letting Go

“How do you know yer alive if you don't hurt?”
― Patrick Ness, The Ask and the Answer

“Stories are important, the monster said. They can be more important than anything. If they carry the truth.”
― Patrick Ness, A Monster Calls

“You starting to feel hope yet?" Viola asks, her voice curious.
"No," I say, fuddling my noise. "You?"
Her eyebrows are up but she shakes her head. "No, No."
"But we're going anyway."
"Oh, yeah," Viola says. "Hell or high water."
"It'll probably be both," I say.”
― Patrick Ness, The Knife of Never Letting Go

“To live is to fight, to preserve life is to fight everything that man stands for.”
― Patrick Ness, The Ask and the Answer

“I'll find you-

Keep calling for me, Viola-

Cuz here I come.”
― Patrick Ness, Monsters of Men

“Stories are the wildest things of all, the monster rumbled. Stories chase and bite and hunt.”
― Patrick Ness, A Monster Calls

“When luck ain't with you it's against you." ~pg 92”
― Patrick Ness, The Knife of Never Letting Go

“I wish I had a hundred years, she said, very quietly. A hundred years I could give to you.”
― Patrick Ness, A Monster Calls

“Hope may be the thing that pulls you forward, may be the thing that keeps you going, but that it's dangerous, that it's painful and risky, that it's making a dare in the world and when has the world ever let us win a dare?”
― Patrick Ness, The Knife of Never Letting Go

“War makes monsters out of men.”
― Patrick Ness

“Your mind will believe comforting lies while also knowing the painful truths that make those lies necessary. And your mind will punish you for believing both.”
― Patrick Ness, A Monster Calls

“I promised to keep on going but maybe keep on going means coming back first.”
― Patrick Ness, The Knife of Never Letting Go

“The Noise is a man unfiltered, and without a filter, a man is just chaos walking.”
― Patrick Ness, The Knife of Never Letting Go

“And I put my hand on her arm to stop her rowing.
Aaron’s Noise roars up in red and black.
The current takes us on.
“I’m sorry!” I cry as the river takes us away, my words ragged things torn from me, my chest pulled so tight I can’t barely breathe. “I’m sorry, Manchee!”
“Todd?” he barks, confused and scared and watching me leave him behind. “Todd?”
“Manchee!” I scream.
Aaron brings his free hand towards my dog.
“MANCHEE!”
“Todd?”
And Aaron wrenches his arms and there’s a CRACK and a scream and a cut-off yelp that tears my heart in two forever and forever.
And the pain is too much it’s too much it’s too much and my hands are on my head and I’m rearing back and my mouth is open in a never-ending wordless wail of all the blackness that’s inside of me.”
― Patrick Ness, The Knife of Never Letting Go

“Knowledge is dangerous." ~pg 53”
― Patrick Ness, The Knife of Never Letting Go

“Do we hate paradise so much we need to make sure it becomes a trash heap?”
― Patrick Ness, Monsters of Men

“Yer the only friend I got, pigpiss... Ain't that the biggest tragedy you ever heard?”
― Patrick Ness, The Ask and the Answer

“Because humans are complicated beasts, the monster said. How can a queen be both a good witch and a bad witch? How can a prince be a murderer and a saviour? How can an apothecary be evil-tempered but right-thinking? How can a parson be wrong-thinking but good-hearted? How can invisible men make themselves more lonely by being seen?

"I don't know," Connor shrugged, exhausted. "Your stories never made any sense to me."

The answer is that it does not matter what you think, the monster said, because your mind will contradict itself a hundred times each day. You wanted her to go at the same time you were desperate for me to save her. Your mind will believe comforting lies while also knowing the painful truths that make those lies necessary. And your mind will punish you for believing both.”
― Patrick Ness, A Monster Calls

“And she says, “Then let’s just take the effing road and get ourselves to Haven.”
I smile, a little. “You said effing,” I say. “You actually said the word effing.”
― Patrick Ness, The Knife of Never Letting Go

“Ow, Todd? Ow?”
― Patrick Ness, The Knife of Never Letting Go

“It's not the mistakes I made but how I responded to them”
― Patrick Ness, Monsters of Men

“The monster showed up just after midnight. As they do.”
― Patrick Ness, A Monster Calls

“Stories don't always have happy endings."

This stopped him. Because they didn't, did they? That's one thing the monster had definitely taught him. Stories were wild, wild animals and went off in directions you couldn't expect.”
― Patrick Ness, A Monster Calls

“Too much talking," I say. "Not enough running.”
― Patrick Ness, The Knife of Never Letting Go

“He's a woman.
He's a grown woman
He's a old woman.”
― Patrick Ness, The Knife of Never Letting Go

“Knowledge is dangerous and men lie and the world changes, whether I want it to or not.”
― Patrick Ness, The Knife of Never Letting Go

“And I know I’ve lost.
Everything is lost.
Everything is over.
“As the newly appointed President of this fair planet of ours,” the Mayor says, holding out his hands as if to show me the world for the first time,” let me be the very first to welcome you to its new capital city.”
“Todd?” Viola whispers, her eyes closed.
I hold her tightly to me.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper to her. “I’m so sorry.”
We’ve run right into a trap.
We’ve run right off the end of the world.
“Welcome,” says the Mayor,” to the New Prentisstown.”
― Patrick Ness, The Knife of Never Letting Go

“...That it's making a dare to the world and when has the world ever let us win a dare?" ~pg 423”
― Patrick Ness, The Knife of Never Letting Go

“To see the ocean once is to learn how to miss it. ~Mistress Coyle”
― Patrick Ness

“Choices may be unbelievably hard but they're never impossible. To say you have no choice is to release yourself from responsibility and that's not how a person with integrity acts.”
― Patrick Ness, Monsters of Men

“Manchee comes outta the bushes and sits down next to me cuz I’ve stopped right there in the middle of a trail. He looks around to see what I might be seeing and then he says, ”Good poo, Todd.”
”I’m sure it was, Manchee.”
I’d better not get another ruddy dog when my birthday comes. What I want this year is a hunting knife like the one Ben carries on the back of his belt. Now that’s a present for a man.
“Poo,” Manchee’s says quietly.”
― Patrick Ness, The Knife of Never Letting Go

“Spackle!” Manchee barks, tho he’s too chicken to attack now that I’ve held back. “Spackle! Spackle! Spackle!”
“Shut up, Manchee,” I say.
“Spackle!”
“I said shut up!” I shout, which stops him.
“Spackle?” Manchee says, unsure of things now.
I swallow, trying to get rid of the pressure in my throat, the unbelieveable sadness that comes and comes as I look at it looking back at me. Knowledge is dangerous and men lie and the world keeps changing, whether I want it to or not.
Cuz, it ain’t a Spackle.
“It’s a girl,” I say.
It’s a girl.”
― Patrick Ness, The Knife of Never Letting Go

“The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don't got nothing much to say.
About anything.”
― Patrick Ness, The Knife of Never Letting Go

“But what is a dream, Conor O'Malley? the monster said, bending down so it's face was close to Conor's. Who is to say that it is not everything else that is the dream?”
― Patrick Ness, A Monster Calls