Lois Lowry > Quotes

“The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It's the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared.”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver

“Take pride in your pain; you are stronger than those who have none”
― Lois Lowry, Gathering Blue

“It is very risky. But each time a child opens a book, he pushes open the gate that separates him from Elsewhere.”
― Lois Lowry

“We gained control of many things. But we had to let go of others.”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver

“I feel sorry for anyone who is in a place where he feels strange and stupid.”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver

“For the first time, he heard something that he knew to be music. He heard people singing. Behind him, across vast distances of space and time, from the place he had left, he thought he heard music too. But perhaps, it was only an echo.”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver

“It's the choosing that's important, isn't it?”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver

“If you were to be lost in the river, Jonas, your memories would not be lost with you. Memories are forever.”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver

“The man that I named the Giver passed along to the boy knowledge, history, memories, color, pain, laughter, love, and truth. Every time you place a book in the hands of a child, you do the same thing. It is very risky. But each time a child opens a book, he pushes open the gate that separates him from Elsewhere. It gives him choices. It gives him freedom. Those are magnificent, wonderfully unsafe things.

[from her Newberry Award acceptance speech]”
― Lois Lowry

“Of course they needed to care. It was the meaning of everything.”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver

“Memory is the happiness of being alone.”
― Lois Lowry, Anastasia Krupnick

“I liked the feeling of love,' [Jonas] confessed. He glanced nervously at the speaker on the wall, reassuring himself that no one was listening. 'I wish we still had that,' he whispered. 'Of course,' he added quickly, 'I do understand that it wouldn't work very well. And that it's much better to be organized the way we are now. I can see that it was a dangerous way to live.'

...'Still,' he said slowly, almost to himself, 'I did like the light they made. And the warmth.”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver

“The life where nothing was ever unexpected. Or inconvenient. Or unusual. The life without colour, pain or past.”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver

“It is much easier to be brave if you do not know everything.”
― Lois Lowry

“They were satisfied with their lives which had none of the vibrance his own was taking on. And he was angry at himself, that he could not change that for them.”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver

“Even trained for years as they all had been in precision of language, what words could you use which would give another the experience of sunshine?”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver

“If everything's the same, then there aren't any choices! I want to wake up in the morning and decide things!”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver

“I knew that there had been times in the past-terrible times-when people had destroyed others in haste,in fear, and had brought about their own destruction”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver

“He wept, and it felt as if the tears were cleansing him, as if his body needed to empty itself.”
― Lois Lowry, Messenger

“Things could change, Gabe," Jonas went on. "Things could be different. I don't know how, but there must be some way for things to be different. There could be colors. And grandparents," he added, staring through the dimness toward the ceiling of his sleepingroom. "And everybody would have the memories."

"You know the memories," he whispered, turning toward the crib.

Garbriel's breathing was even and deep. Jonas liked having him there, though he felt guilty about the secret. Each night he gave memories to Gabriel: memories of boat rides and picnics in the sun; memories of soft rainfall against windowpanes; memories of dancing barefoot on a damp lawn.

"Gabe?"

The newchild stirred slightly in his sleep. Jonas looked over at him.

"There could be love," Jonas whispered.”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver

“Teasing's part of the fun that comes before kissing”
― Lois Lowry, Messenger

“Gabe?"
The newchild stirred slightly in his sleep. Jonas looked over at him.
"There could be love", Jonas whispered.”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver

“It's just that... without the memories it's all meaningless.”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver

“Ellen had said that her mother was afraid of the ocean, that it was too cold and too big. The sky was, too, thought Annemarie. The whole world was: too cold, too big. And too cruel. ”
― Lois Lowry, Number the Stars

“There is something about that moment, when literature becomes accessible, and a door of the world opens. ”
― Lois Lowry

“He knew that there was no quick comfort for emotions like those. They were deeper and they did not need to be told. They were felt.”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver

“Today is declared an unscheduled holiday.”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver

“...now he saw the familiar wide river beside the path differently. He saw all of the light and color and history it contained and carried in its slow - moving water; and he knew that there was an Elsewhere from which it came, and an Elsewhere to which it was going”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver

“You may lie.”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver

“Behind him,across vast distances of space and time, from the place he had left, he thought he heard music too. But perhaps it was only an echo.”
― Lois Lowry, The Giver