Mistake, mistake, mistake. A strange word: stinging, somehow. Lauren Oliver More Quotes by Lauren Oliver More Quotes From Lauren Oliver It's as though the words are trapped, buried under past fears, past lives, like fossils compressed under layers of dirt. Lauren Oliver layers dirt past it occurs to me that there is so much I never knew about him--his past, his role in the resistance, what his life was like in the Wilds, before he came to Portland, and I feel a flash of grief so intense it almost makes me cry out: not for what I lost, but for the chances I missed. Lauren Oliver resistance grief past They couldn’t have known that even this was a lie—that we never really choose, not entirely. We are always being pushed and squeezed down one road or another. We have no choice but to step forward, and then step forward again, and then step forward again; suddenly we find ourselves on a road we haven’t chosen at all. But maybe happiness isn’t in the choosing. Maybe it’s in the fiction, in the pretending: that wherever we have ended up is where we intended to be all along. Lauren Oliver choices lying fiction The memories seem like snapshots from someone else’s life. Lauren Oliver snapshots seems memories I will make a pact with you: I will do it if you will do it, always and forever. Take down the walls. Lauren Oliver pact wall forever We are all punished for the lives we have chosen, in one way or another. Lauren Oliver one-way chosen way This is what we are made for: promises, pledges, and sworn oaths of obedience. Lauren Oliver obedience made promise When he speaks again, I can tell that he's smiling. "So I guess we saved each other. Lauren Oliver saved i-can speak You must hurt, or be hurt. Lauren Oliver hurt People are like houses. They could open their doors. You could walk through their rooms and touch the objects hidden in their corners. But something--the structure, the wiring, the invisible mechanism that kept the whole thing standing--remai ned invisible, suggested only by the fact of its existing at all. Lauren Oliver house doors people I think of the quietness of Julian's voice as he said I love you, the steadiness of his rib cage rising and falling against my back, as we sleep.I love you, Julian. But the words don't come. Lauren Oliver sleep love fall This was what true fear was--that you could never know other people, not completely. That you were always just guessing blind. Lauren Oliver guessing blind people But maybe you carried your demons with you everywhere, the way you carried your shadow. Lauren Oliver demon shadow way The house, the pond, the tree-it was all both overwhelmingly familiar and different from what she remembered-smaller and shabbier, somehow. It was like waking up to find that your reflection in the mirror had aged overnight, or had sprouted a new mole: You were forced to admit that things changed, whether you gave them permission to or not. Lauren Oliver mirrors reflection house My parents were pretty liberal, but they were still parents. I definitely had my teenage rebellion. Lauren Oliver rebellion teenage parent Most of us won't see one another after graduation, and even if we do it will be different. We'll be different. We'll be adults--cured, tagged and labeled and paired and identified and placed neatly on our life path, perfectly round marbles set to roll down even, well-defined slopes. Lauren Oliver growing-up adults path Requiem has been controversial because people dont feel I gave it closure. Lauren Oliver closure controversial people I thought if I followed the rules, things would turn out all right. that's the thing about the cure, isn't it? It isn't just about deliria at all. It's about order. A path for everyone. You just have to follow it and everything will be okay. That's what the DFA is about. That's what I belevied in-what I've had to believe in. Because otherwise, it's just...chaos. Lauren Oliver path order believe Dystopian novels help people process their fears about what the future might look like; further, they usually show that there is always hope, even in the bleakest future. Lauren Oliver might people looks The rules of Panic are simple. Anyone can enter. But only one person will win. Lauren Oliver panic simple winning