A Conspiracy of Stars Quotes

“Facts are not always facts. The version of the truth we know is what is shown to us.”
― Olivia A. Cole, A Conspiracy of Stars

“Fear makes people stupid,”
― Olivia A. Cole, A Conspiracy of Stars

“Don’t call me stupid,” Yaya says, taking a half step toward me. The shine of tears in her eyes is gone: she’s fully angry now and it shows. But I’m angry too. Is this how humans got ourselves into this mess? By believing that we have as much right to this planet as the Faloii? Do we think we own the galaxy? I’m surprised they haven’t already thrown us back out into the stars.”
― Olivia A. Cole, A Conspiracy of Stars

“There’s more to the world than logic.”
― Olivia A. Cole, A Conspiracy of Stars

“Albaturean or not,” he says, jerking his head over his shoulder to indicate the shopkeeper. “I wish I could do that.” “What? Make vague references to unity based on obscure references to the past?” I roll my eyes. Rondo’s laugh startles me. “What?” I frown. “I think that might be the realest thing you’ve ever said.”
― Olivia A. Cole, A Conspiracy of Stars

“My smile fades and I’m very aware of the blood in my veins. I wonder if he’s mad after what I said. In any case, my blood feels happy to see him, even as nervousness pools in my stomach. Illogical, I tell myself, annoyed by my contradictory reactions to his presence, and I find myself examining my fingers. Is attraction quantifiable? My heartbeat is empirical, but what does it actually mean?”
― Olivia A. Cole, A Conspiracy of Stars

“My father and I live under different suns. In reality, it is the same: red and hungry, an intense crimson eye that sends the sweat fleeing from my skin. It’s as beautiful as it is harsh, but my father sees none of the beauty. The past has dulled his wonder, and so the light of this planet shines differently on each of us. For me, it is part of home. For him, it is a beacon over a prison. Like others in N’Terra, he had his heart set on another sun. This one is a poor replacement.”
― Olivia A. Cole, A Conspiracy of Stars

“But home isn’t just memory, I’ve decided: it’s knowledge, knowing where you belong and where you fit.”
― Olivia A. Cole, A Conspiracy of Stars

“Before I can allow myself to explore the idea of whether Rondo also thinks she’s the prettiest girl on the planet, I snatch myself back from the precipice and hope that my momentary logical stutter hasn’t showed in my eyes. “And where would you suggest we start?” I ask. She looks me square in the eye. “I would suggest that we look in our slates for the identification charts, because I don’t have a damn clue.” Disarmed, I laugh—loudly—without meaning to. She gives me a half smile and shrugs in a nonchalant way, but I glimpse a flash of shy pleasure in the way she blinks her eyes away from mine. This is the part where I’m supposed to snap back with something as clever as it is barbed, but all my words seem dull now.”
― Olivia A. Cole, A Conspiracy of Stars

“My body on fire with their pain.”
― Olivia A. Cole, A Conspiracy of Stars

“The whole world and all of its pain in my head, infinite lights extinguishing in agony.”
― Olivia A. Cole, A Conspiracy of Stars

“Make vague references to unity based on obscure references to the past?”
― Olivia A. Cole, A Conspiracy of Stars

“The vasana!” I shout. “I saw Dr. Albatur with Vasana 11. The dirixi fangs. I saw the procedure. I know what you’re doing back there in the secret parts of the Zoo! Don’t act so—” “Dr. Albatur?” she interrupts. “You saw the Head of the Council tampering with the brain of a vasana?” I wonder briefly if she’s manipulating me: running an experiment on my strange, colorful brain; an experiment she’s recording with some hidden device. “Yes,” I snarl, sizing her up for any discernible reaction. “I snuck into a restricted part of the Zoo. I saw Dr. Albatur. I saw the vasana. I saw everything.”
― Olivia A. Cole, A Conspiracy of Stars

“I thought I could wait to tell you until everything was figured out,” she says. “I didn’t think you’d have any contact with actual animals until you were twenty-one, when you were in the labs. The philax was an accident and then the damned internships.” She flops her hands to her sides, the hands that look like mine. “And the dead animals?” I demand, my anger still large and bright. “What about that? They’re eating animals in there!” My throat convulses at the thought of eating something dead, a body that was once alive and walking around, stripped and lifeless and cooked like zarum. “It’s wrong,” my mother says, her jaw setting. “It was never supposed to happen. But it was commonplace before Faloiv—a custom passed down from the Origin Planet—and many of the elders of N’Terra resisted the Faloii’s order when we landed.”
― Olivia A. Cole, A Conspiracy of Stars

“Dr. Espada says only one word. “Listen,” he says, his eyes piercing through his spectacles, and then turns away. Confused, I go on standing in the doorway for a moment, the buzz in my head quieting, until Alma turns back, halfway down the hall, calling for me. I slowly follow her toward the outdoors, where the sun settles low into the horizon, birds flying straight across its girth, oblivious to its heat.”
― Olivia A. Cole, A Conspiracy of Stars

“Look at you,” I say, greeting her with a shoulder bump. She smiles her wide smile. “My hair is getting so long. My mother says her grandparents called this an Afro.” “That’s correct,” says a voice I know to be Dr. Espada’s. Our teacher stands in the doorway of the Greenhouse, his arms folded and his smile broad. “One of the most regal hairstyles in the galaxy. The captain of the Vagantur wore one. Captain Williams.”
― Olivia A. Cole, A Conspiracy of Stars

“My mother hmms and goes to the kitchen, where cupboards dug into the clay wall are filled with round fruits of orange and green, plus the long thick sticks of zarum, which are dried plant tubers but taste, I overheard my father say once, like something called meat.”
― Olivia A. Cole, A Conspiracy of Stars

“It makes a beautiful sound.” “You can play it?” I’m impressed. My dad tried me on his drum once or twice, but it wasn’t a skill that came naturally to me. “A little.” “How did you learn?” “A woman in my compound was teaching me before she passed. Now I’m teaching myself. This was hers.” “Can I see it?” We catch eyes for an instant, his as deeply brown as mine but the lashes thicker, making his expression gentle. I look away, at his hands where they grip the edge of the case. “Of course you can.” Something about the way he says it—soft—makes my face hot.”
― Olivia A. Cole, A Conspiracy of Stars

“I see you’re curious about my hood,” he says. His tone is unpleasant to my ears, the sound of someone drawing a line and daring you to cross it. “Yes, sir,” I say without hesitating. He squints at me. “So. Ask.” I consider his expression, wondering if he means it. I almost look at my father for confirmation, but the idea of needing permission to ask a simple question irks me. “What animal did we learn this technology from?” I finally say. Dr. Albatur smirks. “So very N’Terra of you, Miss English,” he says. “To assume everything we know is from this hot little globe. No, what I wear isn’t an innovation of Faloiv. This technology is of the Origin Planet: the material is from the hull of the Vagantur.” My forehead wrinkles involuntarily. “I wasn’t aware we dismantled the ship for personal items,” I say.”
― Olivia A. Cole, A Conspiracy of Stars

“And we’re supposed to be clever, we students of N’Terra, children of whitecoats. It is our skills that will determine our survival. The founders of N’Terra had not meant for us to stay forever: Faloiv was the only habitable world their scouts had time to chart before evacuating the Origin Planet, and a meteor to the Vagantur’s hull during descent damaged the ship’s power cell irreparably. What had originally been envisioned as a brief stop on the hunt for a more survival-friendly sphere had become the final destination of the Vagantur. The original Council tried for twenty years to fix the ship before they gave up. Now here we are.”
― Olivia A. Cole, A Conspiracy of Stars

“Before, when my father and I would actually talk, he might have told me that the kunike turn a different color if what’s approaching can be considered prey. This alternate color would signal the hidden pack to attack rather than flee. But these conversations are long past. At sixteen, I’m expected to know these things already, and I do.”
― Olivia A. Cole, A Conspiracy of Stars