Memorable Quotations

Here is a list of memorable quotes and lines from the novel. They are sorted by individual character, then in pairs. This page is a work in progress as we will continually be adding more quotes, so remember to check back. Enjoy!

THE SEEKER:
Welcome to Earth, Wanderer. – (p.21)

You’re afraid to fly? You’ve traveled through deep space eight times and you’re afraid to take a shuttle to Tucson, Arizona? – (p.69)

JARED:
Feisty for a peace-loving body snatcher, aren’t you? – (p.33)

Melanie Stryder! You will not leave me. Don’t you love me? Prove it! Prove it! – (p.432)

Right now, if I was given the choice between having the world back and having you, I wouldn’t be able to give you up. Not to save five billion lives. – (p.78)

Don’t worry, Mel. Miracles don’t work that way. I’ll never lose you. I’ll never let you get away from me. – (p. 80)

Yes, let’s finish this, Wanderer, Lives in the Stars, Rides the Beast. Stealing a few unguarded crates won’t present much of a challenge for you, will it? – (p.527)

WANDERER:
I need you to kiss me, Ian. Now. Please. – (p.427)

Perfect. Killed by wild dogs. Who would have thought it would end so… so trivially? How anticlimactic. – (p. 103)

All four of them stared with blank expressions. First they were surprised when I didn’t answer, and now they were surprised when I did. Humans were impossible to please. – (p. 204)

We come to experience, not to change. Health takes priority over philosophy, though. – (p. 204)

Like anyone inside these emotional bodies, I was a sucker for flattery. – (p. 213)

You don’t think your sister can be scary? Remember the time you went too far up the canyon, and when you came home late she ‘threw a raging hissy fit,’ according to Jared? – (p. 247)

I couldn’t give you a weapon if I wanted to, Jeb. We don’t have some great weakness, an Achilles’ heel. – (p 248)

I didn’t let you fall because …because I’m not like you. I’m not saying that I’m not …like humans. Because there are others here who would do the same. There are kind and good people here. People like your brother, and Jeb, and Doc… I’m saying that I’m not like you personally. – (p.376)

I wasn’t sure I believed him. Not sure at all. Humans were good liars. – (p.376)

Ian didn’t respond to my plea. I was surprised at the amount of anxiety this caused me, at how much I didn’t want him hurt. – (p. 261)

Thank you. For more than the Cheetos, you know. For so much. – (p.361)

I knew it would begin with the end, and the end would look like death to these eyes. I had been warned. – (p.9)

The blackness took all but this: a face… This face I would have known among millions. – (p.12)

MELANIE:
You never know how much time you’ll have. – (p.80)

That’s how we realized you were here, you know? She said, thinking of the sickening news headlines again. Where the evening news was nothing but inspiring human-interest stories, when pedophiles and junkies were lining up at the hospitals to turn themselves in, when everything morphed into Mayberry, that’s when you tipped your hand. – (p.108)

You know what will happen. Kyle broke the rules. Jeb will shoot him, or they’ll kick him out. Maybe Ian will beat the snot out of him first. That would be fun to watch. – (p. 339)

Listen up, Wanda. I know exactly what you don’t want to be. But we’re human, and we’re selfish, and we don’t always do the right thing. We aren’t going to let you go. Deal with it. – (p.604)

You’re not a parasite. – (p.606)

We girls have to stick together. – (p.349)

JEB:
Well, now, here’s a pickle. – (p.117)

That’s a real interesting name you’ve got there. Maybe sometime you’ll tell me how you got it. Bet that’s a good story. But it’s kind of a mouthful, don’t you think? Wanderer? …Mind if I call you Wanda, for short? It flows easier.” (p.211).

My house, my rules. – (p.366)

JAMIE:
I’m not a kid, Wanda. I can take care of myself. – (p.223)

I talked to Jared last night. He’s going to stop picking on you – he promised – (p. 278)

Ian didn’t come. He just sat here with you- he said he didn’t care what you looked like. He wouldn’t let anyone else put a finger on your tank at all, not even me or Mel. – (p.605)

You’re pretty good with sarcasm. I thought the parasites – I mean the souls – didn’t like negative humor. Just the happy stuff. – (p. 254)

IAN:
I’m going to hurt her? I am? You hypocritical swine! – (p.571)

This moment should be preserved. I never thought I’d live to see the day that Kyle O’Shea would admit to being wrong. – (p.585)

Her name is Wanda, not it. You will not touch her. Any mark you leave on her, I will double on your worthless hide. – (p.291)

Melanie is a very pretty girl. Even beautiful… But, pretty as she is, she’s a stranger to me. She’s not the one I… care about. – (p.389)

Wanda. You really are the worst liar I’ve ever met. – (p.369)

You. Are. Not. Leaving. Me. – (p.572)

KYLE:
Life for a life. – (p.376)

SUNNY:
I don’t want to be a plant. – (p.567)

MISCELLANEOUS:
KATHY: In so many millennia, the humans never did figure love out. How much is physical, how much in the mind? How much accident and how much fate? Why did perfect matches crumble and impossible couples thrive? I don’t know the answers any better than they did. Love simply is where it is. My host loved Curt’s host, and that love did not die when the ownership of the minds changed. – (p.44)

MELANIE: If you wanted to cleanse the planet, you could have blown it up.
WANDERER: Despite what your science fiction writers dream, we simply don’t have the technology. – (p.108)

IAN: Why isn’t this Seeker giving up like the rest?
WANDERER: I don’t know. She’s not like other souls. She’s…annoying. – (p.184).

IAN: You’re such an idiot, Kyle.
KYLE: You got the brains; I got the looks. Seems fair. – (p.378).

JARED: Jealous, O’Shea?
IAN: Actually…I am. Surprisingly so. – (p.385)

JAMIE: You want something, Ian?
IAN: Sure, kid. I want you to tell Jared he’s shameless. – (p.395)

WANDERER: He’s your brother.
IAN: He knew what he was doing. He’s my brother, yes, but he did what he did, and you are…you are…my friend. – (p. 341)