K.A. Riley > Quotes

“Needing help isn’t weakness. Weakness is not helping someone who needs it.”
― K.A. Riley, Recruitment

“He pulls me close and kisses me. “For luck?” I ask. He shakes his head. “For love.”
― K.A. Riley, Synthesis

“We see it, believe in it, we’re force-fed it, and we call it the Truth.”
― K.A. Riley, Sacrifice

“You’ll have a million obstacles in your path. Don’t be one of them.”
― K.A. Riley, Terminus

“Step One: Dress your kid up in pink frilly bullshit. Tell her repeatedly that she needs to be rescued from a life of solitude by a rapey prince who will one day come along, plant a kiss on her lips and ensure that she never needs to lift a finger, read a book or expand her knowledge in any way. Check. Step Two: Grow up. Earn a very moderate education. Just enough to convince yourself that you’re properly liberated from the shackles of the Patriarchy. Check. Step Three: Meet a man who’s not quite Satan, but thinks he’s God. Check. Step Four: Marry him, thereby cementing his legal claim to your body and soul. Check. Step Five: Pop out a kid. Check. Step Six: Make banana bread at least once a week until bananas become contraband, while sporting a highly flammable apron that says, “Kiss the Cook” in big stupid red letters. Check.”
― K.A. Riley, Rise of the Inciters

“Knowledge. That’s the key to freedom.”
― K.A. Riley, Render

“The important thing is this: to be ready at any moment to sacrifice what you are for what you could become.” — Charles Dickens”
― K.A. Riley, Sacrifice

“Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.” — Carl Sagan”
― K.A. Riley, Survival

“All they knew was fear. That’s the power of propaganda.”
― K.A. Riley, Render

“I think people tend to believe whatever suits the narrative of their lives.” “That’s a bit cynical, isn’t it? You’re basically saying we all wear blinders, even when we know the people in charge might be doing horrible things.” “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
― K.A. Riley, Awaken

“To the Survivors. Vengeance will be yours. “Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.”
― K. A. Riley, Survival

“We see what we’ve been conditioned to see with our restricted minds and limited vision.”
― K.A. Riley, Sacrifice

“It’s almost as if all the bad exists to make us appreciate the good.”
― K.A. Riley, Awaken

“becoming more by needing less.”
― K.A. Riley, Cult of the Devoted

“We never thought to ask if it was real. Who would we ask, anyway? How could anyone ever really know for sure? Our entire country is based on faith in the government. Not just in the people running it but in the belief that there is a government at all. Democracy isn’t a tangible thing. It’s an idea, and it can be manipulated like any idea, especially when so many people out there, people like us, don’t have the resources, or sometimes even the desire, to challenge it one way or the other.”
― K.A. Riley, Rebellion

“The manipulation, the gaslighting, the entrenched so-called patriotism, the behind-the-scenes brainwashing—it was as impressive as it was horrifying. I’m not sure if a nation can have a communal Dissociative Disorder, but ours sure as hell tried.” “Dissociative Disorder?”
― K.A. Riley, Endgame

“He told me his philosophy: Preemptively tell the world that you suck, and they'll never accuse you of sucking. At the very worst, they'll pity you for your suckiness, and that's way better than having them think you're arrogant. There was a morbid logic to it.”
― K.A. Riley, Recruitment

“If they agree to come with us, then, by definition, the cause isn’t hopeless,” Rain says.”
― K.A. Riley, Survival

“You’re a magical squishy-wishy granddaughter!”
― K. A. Riley, Seeker’s World

“if coincidence is just a word someone made up to describe those rare times when we can see the connections that are around us all the time?”
― K.A. Riley, Cult of the Devoted

“If a lot of people are suffering because of a few people, why didn’t the majority do something about it a long time ago? Why’d everyone let it get so bad?” “If you drop a lobster in a pot of boiling water,” Zyrha tells him, “it’ll thrash around for its life.” “Wouldn’t we all?” Darrion smirks. “If you drop the lobster in a pot of cool water and slowly raise the temperature, it’ll die without a struggle. It’ll get used to the incremental increases until it’s too late to know it’s dead. You asked how we got here. The temperature had been rising in the Old States for a long time. People were dying left and right without a struggle. A few leaders had control over everything: money, power, the military, health care, schools, utilities, transportation, laws, courts, and the media. They had everything. Everything except the one thing every person in power needs.” “What’s that?” Darrion asks through a strained quiver. “An enemy.” “An enemy,” he repeats. “The question became which one. There were so many to choose from.” Zyrha claps her hands and gives a sarcastic laugh. “Black people. Brown people. Asians. Mexicans. Arabs. Women. The biracial. The multiracial. Old people. Young people. Short people. The overweight, the underweight, the sick, the helpless, the homeless, the unemployed. The asexual, the bisexual, the homosexual, the transgendered. People with special needs. The neurodivergent. Pot-smokers. Immigrants. Socialists. Communists. Atheists. Jews. Muslims. Intellectuals. Influencers. Athletes. Academics. Writers. Pacifists. Celebrities.” Zyrha pauses to draw in a long breath. “They were all contrived of course. They were invented enemies designed to occupy the amygdala—that’s the brain’s fear center—so the prefrontal cortex—the part of the brain responsible for rational thought and good decision-making—wouldn’t take over. Anyway, there’d been a lot of manufactured enemies, and, frankly, they’d been done to death.”
― K.A. Riley, Endgame

“For some people, getting themselves to ‘good’ depends on how bad they can make things for everyone else.”
― K.A. Riley, Transfigured

“They say ignorance is bliss.” “Well, they’re wrong. Ignorance is infuriating.”
― K.A. Riley, Rebellion

“Hmm?”
― K.A. Riley, Awaken

“See. That’s what I was thinking, but I didn’t say anything before. We’re supposed to find out the chances of the”
― K.A. Riley, Recruitment

“May that bitch rot in Hell, I say under my breath. I hope she really is dead.”
― K.A. Riley, Reign

“The promise of a better life is the most powerful weapon people like the Directorate and the Bishop have. They assault us with that promise over and over again, and I’m not sure we ever learn. We trust and we hope, we listen as they bombard us with lies.”
― K.A. Riley, Reign

“I plop down on my bed and kick off my boots. “I just don’t feel like I know who I am anymore,” I sigh. “Not in a bad way. More like I feel like I’m turning into someone else. Or something else.” Brohn sits down on his bed across from me and gives my knee a little squeeze. “Well, whatever happens in these next few days, whatever or whoever you find yourself turning into, you’ll always be you to me.” “Brohn,” I say, dropping onto my back and staring up at the ceiling, “I think that’s probably the weirdest and nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me.”
― K.A. Riley, Rebellion

“Look,” he told them, his arms extended as he stood between the two red-faced boys, “You’re both right and you’re both wrong. We’re all screwed, and I haven’t pooped in like three days, so can we all just agree that helping me find some fiber should be our top priority?”
― K.A. Riley, Recruitment

“share your talents, teach others what you know, learn from others what you don’t know, and ask as many questions as you can. Those words kind of became the school’s unfortunately-long slogan over time.”
― K.A. Riley, Recruitment