Neal Shusterman is an American writer of young-adult fiction. He won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature for his book Challenger Deep. These Neal Shusterman quotes will motivate you in life.
Best Neal Shusterman Quotes
- “Once in a while our school has half days, and the teachers spend the afternoon ‘in service,’ which I think must be a group therapy for having to deal with us.” ~ Neal Shusterman
- “When you live a life without questions, you’re unprepared for the questions when they come.” ~ Neal Shusterman
- “Sure, when you’re in the midst of your own suffering, it’s easy to convince yourself that you’re no good—but we are all tested in this life…The measure of a man is not how much he suffers in the test, but how he comes out at the end.” ~ Neal Shusterman
- “Either things happen for a reason, or they happen for no reason at all. Either one’s life is a thread in a glorious tapestry or humanity is just a hopelessly tangled knot.” ~ Neal Shusterman
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“I’d rather be partly great than entirely useless.” ~ Neal Shusterman
- “Sure, I can talk like you, but I choose not to, It’s like an art, you know? Picasso had to prove to the world he could paint the right way before he goes putting both eyes on the side of a face… See if you paint wrong because that’s the best you can do, you just a chump. But you do it because you want to? Then you’re an artist…You can take that to the grave and dig it up when you need it.” ~ Neal Shusterman
- “When you truly start to care about someone you become vulnerable to all sorts of things.” ~ Neal Shusterman
- “…One thing you learn when you’ve lived as long as I have-people aren’t all good, and people aren’t all bad. We move in and out of darkness and light all of our lives. Right now, I’m pleased to be in the light.” ~ Neal Shusterman
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“Small victories are better than none.” ~ Neal Shusterman
- “I think all mothers are alike, regardless of cultural background, when it comes to illogical cleaning.” ~ Neal Shusterman
- “Hope can be bruised and battered. It can be forced underground and even rendered unconscious, but hope cannot be killed.” ~ Neal Shusterman
- “Words don’t hurt you.” Which is one of the hugest criminal lies perpetrated by adults against children in this world. Because words hurt more than any physical pain.” ~ Neal Shusterman
- “For standing between Cody and his pain is my obligation, and standing between my uncle and his pain is my rent, but the pain I coax from Bronte is my joy” ~ Neal Shusterman
- “Cities are never random. No matter how chaotic they might seem, everything about them grows out of a need to solve a problem. In fact, a city is nothing more than a solution to a problem, that in turn creates more problems that need more solutions, until towers rise, roads widen, bridges are built, and millions of people are caught up in a mad race to feed the problem-solving, problem-creating frenzy.” ~ Neal Shusterman
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“Love turns a heart to crystal…Much more valuable, but much more fragile.” ~ Neal Shusterman
- “In this world, there is a fine line between enlightenment and brain damage.” ~ Neal Shusterman
- “No true hero ever believes that they are one.” ~ Neal Shusterman
- “Sharks have a deadly form of claustrophobia. It’s not so much fear of enclosed spaces as it is inability to exist in them. No one knows why. Some say it’s the metal in aquariums that throws their equilibrium off. But whatever it is, big sharks don’t last long in captivity” ~ Neal Shusterman Quotes
- “You see, a conflict always begins with an issue – a difference of opinion, an argument. But by the time it turns into a war, the issue doesn’t matter anymore, because now it’s about one thing and one thing only: how much each side hates the other.” ~ Neal Shusterman
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“That’s what law is: educated guesses at right and wrong.” ~ Neal Shusterman
- “You think you want to know the secrets of the universe. You think you want to see the way things all fit together. You believe in your heart of hearts that enlightenment will save the world and set you free. Maybe it will. But the path to enlightenment is rarely a pleasant one.” ~ Neal Shusterman
- “Connor smiles with mocking warmth at him and glances at the tattoo on his wrist. “I like your dolphin.” ~ Neal Shusterman
- “the captain is supposed to go down with the ship” . “unless the first mate knocks him out and throws him in a lifeboat” ~ Neal Shusterman
- “How can you do the right thing when you can’t figure out what that is? When all you have before you are choices in various shades of wrong?” ~ Neal Shusterman
- “Looks are deceiving,” Risa says. “After all, when I first saw you I thought you looked reasonably intelligent.” ~ Neal Shusterman
- “But now we’ve finally taken full possession of what is rightfully ours because everyone must feel their own pain–and as awful as that is, it’s also wonderful.” ~ Neal Shusterman
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“Touch is a freaky thing when you’re not used to it. It makes you feel all kinds of things.” ~ Neal Shusterman
- “Stupid dreams. Even the good ones are bad because they remind you how poorly reality measures up.” ~ Neal Shusterman
- “If your heart tells you something but your mind tells you something else, which do you believe? Both are just as apt to lie. In fact, they play at deceit all the time. Mostly they balance each other, giving us that crucial reality check. But what happens on the rare occasions when they conspire together?” ~ Neal Shusterman Quotes
- “How can you pass laws about things that nobody knows?” “They do it all the time,” says Hayden. “That’s what law is: educated guesses at right and wrong.” ~ Neal Shusterman
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“There’s ordinary people out there doing extraordinary things.” ~ Neal Shusterman
- “It’s strange how we always want other people to feel what we feel. It must be a basic human drive. Misery loves company, right? Or when you see a movie that you love, don’t you want to drag all your friends to see it as well? Because it’s only good the second time if it’s the first time for somebody else—as if their experience somehow resonates inside of you.” ~ Neal Shusterman
- “As your older brother, it’s my sacred duty to save you from yourself.” She brings her fists down on the table, making all the dinner plates jump. “The ONLY reason you’re fifteen minutes older than me is because you cut in front of the line, as usual!” ~ Neal Shusterman
- “It comes with being sixteen,” Mom said. “You teenagers, you go into a cocoon when you turn fifteen and don’t come out for years.” “So they become butterflies when they finally come out?” my little sister Christina asked. “No,” Mom said. “They’re still caterpillars, only now they’re big fat caterpillars that smell.” ~ Neal Shusterman
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“Walls don’t fall without effort.” ~ Neal Shusterman
- “I imagine the center of the Earth must be a crowded place by now, but perhaps it is the spirits of those of us residing there that keep the Earth alive and green.” ~ Neal Shusterman
- “It does, Tennyson, because there’s a fine line between confidence and arrogance. There’s a fine line between being assertive and being a bully. And you’re on the wrong side of both lines.” ~ Neal Shusterman
- “All this time, Lev ever realized what he needed. He did not need to be adored or pitied. He needed to be forgiven. Not by God, who is all forgiving. Not by people like Marcus and Pastor Dan, who would always stand by his side. He needed to be forgiven by an unforgiving world.” ~ Neal Shusterman
- “His life has been like a ballpark, hasn’t it? All lines, structure, and rules, never changing. But now he’s been hit over the wall into unknown territory.” ~ Neal Shusterman
- “The way I see it, truth only looks good when you’re looking at it from far away. It’s kind of like that beautiful girl you see on the street when you’re riding past in the bus… there she is, this amazing girl walking by on the street, and you think if you could only get off this stupid bus and introduce yourself to her, your life would change. The thing is, she’s not as perfect as you think, and if you ever got off the bus to introduce yourself, you’d find out… This girl is truth. She’s not so pretty, not so nice. But then, once you get to know her, all that stuff doesn’t seem to matter.” ~ Neal Shusterman
