Veronica Roth

"I may be biased, but I think I have the best readers ever."

"There’s no way to please everyone, because that mythical book with the ending that every single person wants can’t exist—you want different things, each one of you. The only thing I can do, in light of that fact, is write an honest story as best I can."

"I thought about reaching out with my authorial hand and snatching her from that awful situation. I thought about it and I agonized over it. But to me, that felt dishonest and emotionally manipulative. This was the end she had chosen, and I felt she had earned an ending that was as powerful as she was."

"He doesn’t like the ceiling that blocks his view of the stars. And he doesn’t like religious spaces, in general—the obsession with wrong and right, purity and pollution, modernity and eternity, it doesn’t make sense to him."

"As far as Niko knows, that’s nonsense, but mortals are always devising nonsense."

"“As a general rule, I don’t feel the need to antagonize people,” Niko says. “There’s plenty of anger in the world already. But it can be interesting to see how people react.”"

"When someone targets innocents among my people, then yes. I hunt them. And I think the world is better for it."

"Gentle souls cast as devils in humankind’s ongoing stage play of existence. It’s Oppression 101: find a bad guy, and if you can’t, make one up."

"Suffering isn’t atonement."

"“Don’t fear pain, Dymek,” he said. “Fear…losing your purpose, losing your family, losing yourself. Those things are worse than pain.”"

"“You want me to be jealous?” “Can you blame me for being curious what it feels like?” Niko smiles a little. “I am what I am, after all.” “Some people would call that a red flag.” “The fact that I can turn into a deadly monster in an instant should be a much bigger, redder flag.”"

"One of the great lies humanity tells is that time produces wisdom. Oh, Ala will concede that time creates more opportunities for a person to become wise, but it’s hardly a guarantee."

"He feels like there’s a hand tugging him back toward the house where Dymitr is being tortured by people who claim to love him. But they don’t love him, Niko thinks. Because if love doesn’t allow change, then what the fuck is that love worth?"

"“You need to calm down,” Ala says to him, her eyes closed. “I can’t concentrate with you scared like this, it’s like you’re waterboarding me with hot chocolate.”"

"“There’s nothing otherworldly about you.” “Oh really?” Niko laughs a little. “The fact that I can make you see things that aren’t there, that seems completely ordinary to you?” “Hallucinogenic mushrooms can also make me see things that aren’t there. I don’t call them supernatural, either.”"

"“Do you know,” it says, “a zmora can tell the difference between dread and fear. A person fears what’s unknown, but they dread what’s known.”"

"[T]hat’s something Roth does extraordinarily well – explain the toughest parts of life. Love, loss, heartbreak, joy and faith."

"Veronica Roth has a very blunt and not-so-sugarcoated way of killing people off."