The Ask and the Answer (Chaos Walking, #2)

by Patrick Ness

Without pain, it feels almost like I don’t have a body at all, almost like I’m a ghost, sitting in a chair, blinded and eternal. Like I’m dead already. Cuz how do you know yer alive if you don’t hurt?

“We are the choices we make, Todd,” the Mayor says. “Nothing more, nothing less.

“you’ll learn that war only destroys. No one escapes from a war. No one. Not even the survivors. You accept things that would appal you at any other time because life has temporarily lost all meaning.”

“War makes monsters of men,”

“To live is to fight,” she snaps. “To preserve life is to fight everything that man stands for.”

And 1017 just looks at me. And I swear to God, it’s a look of triumph.

“It’s too late,” he says and his voice is so sad my own eyes start to wet. “I’ve been dead, Viola. I’ve been dead.”

save me?” He’s shaking his head slowly. “I’ve done terrible things, Viola. Terrible things–” “We all fall, you said.” I’m gripping him hard now. “We all fall but that’s not what matters. What matters is picking yourself up again.”

She looks him right in the eye. And says, “No, she tried to kill you.” Oh, good girl. My Noise swells with pride. That’s my girl.

“One, if you can control yourself, you can control others. Two, if you can control information, you can control others.”

“But that makes you powerful, Todd Hewitt. In this world of numbness and information overload, the ability to feel, my boy, is a rare gift indeed.”

It’s not that you should never love something so much 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–