Top 117 Quotes & Sayings by Alexandra Bracken

It might be the history major in me, but I look to the past when I try to construct my fictional futures.

From the time I was in first grade or so, my dad collected 'Star Wars' toy figures from the 1970s and '80s, and we'd take weekend family trips to antique shops and to toy stores. My father collected a crazy amount of 'Star Wars' stuff over the years, and he and I traveled to many conventions.

When I first read 'Outlander' a few years ago, I was shocked to find that Jamie was the complete package: incredibly smart, incredibly witty, strong but emotionally vulnerable, passionate to a fault - and, well, the Scottish accent doesn't hurt! I actually stopped reading at several points to swoon over something he said... he's really that good.

We are all protective over the things we love.

Between the ages of 8 and 12, all I wanted to read were 'Star Wars' books.

'The Darkest Minds' came from a period in my life where I felt my most powerless, when I was a teenager.

I absolutely love Johnny Depp, and I genuinely think he's one of the best actors of our time.

In 'The Darkest Minds,' Zu's trauma manifests in her choosing to remain silent. It's her one small way she can feel in control of her otherwise uncontrollable situation.

The powers of the teenagers in 'The Darkest Minds' were always meant to represent that inherent drive that young people have to make change, and how the world pushes back against it.

Being a very tall person, I have always felt a kinship with giraffes.

One of the things I noticed while I lived in New York City was how different the kids and teens were that grew up there versus, you know, my suburban upbringing. They have this innate resilience and toughness to them, and they're incredibly self-sufficient, usually from a pretty young age.

I think history is just so cyclical.

I had this almost secret life of going to 'Star Wars' conventions because,' when I was younger, Star Wars' had phased into the uncool part of its life and had yet to become cool again for everybody else.

Much like dystopian and post-apocalyptic books are a way to explore the worst-case scenarios lurking around the corner, fantasy can serve as a wonderful tool for showing kids that they have an inherent power in them to create change, both in themselves and in their community.

For those of you looking for your action-packed read, check out 'Red Queen' by Victoria Aveyard and 'Vengeance Road' by Erin Bowman. One's a fantasy and one's a Western, but they both feature strong leading ladies and some harrowing twists!

Everything in New York is a fight. It's a fight to get on the subway. It's a fight to go to CVS. It's a fight to get a cab. And eventually, it wears you down.

When I was trying to figure out how the government might go about creating the camps in 'The Darkest Minds,' I researched the Japanese internment camps here in the United States, specifically propaganda the government used, and how they capitalized on people's fears.

The truth is, I love history and studied it in college, with a particular focus on early American history. My love is so deep, in fact, I went to school at The College of William & Mary in Colonial Williamsburg.

I always try to have my supernatural or fantasy elements feel grounded in reality so they're easier for the reader to accept and digest.

After I finished 'The Darkest Minds' series, I knew I wanted to take a risk and work on something completely different - lighter in tone, with a little bit more romance, and a completely different set of characters - that would also, um, finally justify my liberal arts degree.

I think when we lose somebody, when we interact with those things that they also loved - like, you listen to their favorite music, or you read their favorite books - it's just a way to get in touch with them and your memories of them.

Fear makes us do things we would otherwise never agree to do, and people can be emotionally manipulated into believing something during times of great stress and tragedy.

I would be honored if someone reads my books and it inspires them to write their own work.

Familial betrayal is, to me, the most heartbreaking kind - because if you can't trust your family to love you and protect you, who can you really trust?

In the years between 'Afterlight' and 'Legacy,' we see a Zu who has watched all of her older friends head out into the world to do meaningful work while she's made to wait and hang back because of her age. It reinforces a feeling in her that she's falling further and further behind and won't ever catch up to them.

I didn't get to experience proper autumn until I was eighteen and heading off to college on the East Coast!

I was genuinely lucky to have the professors I did, many of whom took a very humanist approach in teaching history that went beyond memorizing dates and battles and all of that - basically, looking at the life of individuals throughout history, aided by fascinating primary sources.

I've learned to really love revision over the years and worked hard to build up my craft muscle to make my revisions less and less painful with each book.

There's so much standing around and waiting with moviemaking!

Dreaming led to disappointment, and disappointment to a kind of depressed funk that wasn’t easy to shake. Better to stay in the gray than get eaten by the dark.

Let's carpe the hell out of this diem.

We want you. We wanted you yesterday, we want you today and we'll want you tomorrow. There's nothing you could do to change that.

Because she knows what it's like to live in a world of black, and black, and the tiny bit of white, but when she escaped it, she didn't find the rainbow of colors, the dresses, the singing, the dancing. She only found ugliness.

The thing that scares me is that some part of me understands where they're coming from. They took everything from us, you know? Why shouldn’t we be able to take it back if we have the power to?

Owain crossed his arms over his chest. "I've gone straight. Only good, clean jobs for me now." "So, in other words," North said, "you're living in poverty?

The Darkest Minds tend to hide behind the most unlikely faces.

They want you to think that darkness or evil is only something that gets inflicted on you by the outside world, but I know better, and I think the freak does, too. Sometimes the darkness lives inside you, and sometimes it wins.

The most important thing you ever did was learn how to survive. Do not let anyone make you feel like you shouldn't have.

And people like you are the reason we have middle fingers.

You can destroy a factory, and they'll build another. But once you destroy a life, that's it. You never get that person back.

But there's a beginning in an end, you know? It's true that you can't reclaim what you had, but you can lock it up behind you. Start fresh.

But inside or out, I was alone, and I was beginning to wonder if I always had been, if I always would be.

You get a good review, and it’s like crack. You need another hit. And another. And another. I know authors are like Tinkerbell and generally need applause to survive, but it’s a slippery slope.

I bet it gets pretty lonely with only your ego for company.

I used to dream about turning back time, about reclaiming the things I'd lost and the person I used to be.

He's so busy looking inside people to find the good that he misses the knife they're holding in their hand.

They were never scared of the kids who might die, or the empty spaces they would leave behind. They were afraid of us-the ones who lived.

We'll just have to try to make better mistakes tomorrow.

Cause, frankly, the way I see it, you and me? Inevitable.

I'm a monster, you know. I'm one of the dangerous ones. No you aren't, he promised. Your one of us.

If you're going to knock down my suggestion, you'd better have one to replace it.

But part of surviving is being able to move on.

Life isn’t fair." I said. "It’s taken me a while to get that. It’s always going to disappoint you in some way or another. You’ll make plans, and it’ll push you in another direction. You will love people, and they’ll be taken away no matter how hard you fight to keep them. You’ll try for something and won’t get it. You don’t have to find meaning in it; you don’t have to try to change things. You just have to accept the things that are out of your hands and try to take care of yourself. That’s your job.

Ruby, I lied before. I would have run. —CG

The darkest minds never fade in the afterlight.

Everyone needs reality to punch them in the face every once in a while. Keeps you on guard.

Did you know...you make me so happy that sometimes I actually forget to breath? I'll be looking at you, and my chest will get so tight...and it's like, the only thought in my head is how much I want to reach over and kiss you.

I think maybe the most frustrating feeling in the world is to have something to say buy not know how to put it into words. To have lived through something but not be able to get it out of you before it festers.

What I’m trying to get at is, as bad as everything seems, I think, at its heart, life is good. It doesn’t throw anything at us that it knows we can’t handle—and, even if it takes its time, it turns everything right side up again.

If a heart could break once, it shouldn't have been able to happen again.