Rebellion Quotes

“We never thought to ask if it was real. Who would we ask, anyway? How could anyone ever really know for sure? Our entire country is based on faith in the government. Not just in the people running it but in the belief that there is a government at all. Democracy isn’t a tangible thing. It’s an idea, and it can be manipulated like any idea, especially when so many people out there, people like us, don’t have the resources, or sometimes even the desire, to challenge it one way or the other.”
― K.A. Riley, Rebellion

“Do you have any idea how many people, when given the choice between pursuing their strengths or their weaknesses, choose the latter? Selfishness is a weakness. So are pride, ignorance, narcissism, racism, sexism, ageism, ableism. And yet countless people follow those impulses at the expense of the real strengths—honesty, generosity, curiosity, selflessness—they’ve been conditioned to repress.”
― K.A. Riley, Rebellion

“They say ignorance is bliss.” “Well, they’re wrong. Ignorance is infuriating.”
― K.A. Riley, Rebellion

“I plop down on my bed and kick off my boots. “I just don’t feel like I know who I am anymore,” I sigh. “Not in a bad way. More like I feel like I’m turning into someone else. Or something else.” Brohn sits down on his bed across from me and gives my knee a little squeeze. “Well, whatever happens in these next few days, whatever or whoever you find yourself turning into, you’ll always be you to me.” “Brohn,” I say, dropping onto my back and staring up at the ceiling, “I think that’s probably the weirdest and nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me.”
― K.A. Riley, Rebellion

“who must sense that he’s suddenly become the center of attention. He lifts his smooth feathered head and cracks out a series of coarse kraas! which sound way too loud for this early in the morning, and I’m wondering if the Insubordinates, our fellow rebels who are sleeping in the dozens of other rooms on this floor, think we’re in here running an aluminum garbage can through a corn-thresher. Manthy clamps her hands over her ears, and Cardyn puts his finger to his lips in a pointless effort to tell Render to be quiet. Render barks out another string of raspy kraas! and then spreads his wings and suddenly seems gigantic, like a prehistoric flying dinosaur or something. I don’t need to activate my psychic connection with him to know what’s on his mind: he’s hungry, and he doesn’t like being cooped up. It was comforting for me to know he was in here with us all night but having lived his life in the boundless mountain air, he’s not a big fan of walls or ceilings. I hop up from the end of my cot and go over to the window. I’ve barely got it open when the familiar woosh of feathery purplish-black whizzes by my face, and Render is soaring out over the quiet city with the first pinkish rays of the morning sun lighting him up like a glistening missile. This is our first time in such a big city, and I panic for a second as I watch him disappear into a forest of tall office buildings of reflecting black glass and synth-steel. I let out a long, soft breath when I spot him banking and circling as he happily scouts around the city for something he can scavenge for breakfast. I turn back to Brohn and the others just as the door to our room creaks open on old-style metal hinges to reveal Wisp and Granden, and I’m suddenly shaken out of the illusion that we’re all just a bunch of normal teenagers in a normal situation”
― K.A. Riley, Rebellion