Dan Wells > Quotes

“Happiness is the most natural thing in the world when you have it, and the slowest, strangest, most impossible thing when you don't. It's like learning a foreign language: You can think about the words all you want, but you'll never be able to speak it until you suck up your courage and say them out loud.”
― Dan Wells, Partials

“I've been clinically diagnosed with sociopathy,' I said. 'Do you know what that means?'
'It means you're a freak,' he said.
'It means that you're about as important to me as a cardboard box,' I said. 'You're just a thing - a piece of garbage that no one's thrown away yet. Is that what you want me to say?'
'Shut up,' said Rob. He was still acting tough, but I could see his bluster was starting to fail. He didn't know what to say.
'The thing about boxes,' I said, 'is that you can open them up. Even though they're completely boring on the outside, there might be something interesting inside. So while you're saying all of these stupid, boring things I'm imagining what it would be like to cut you open and see what you've got in there.”
― Dan Wells, I Am Not a Serial Killer

“I am stronger than my trials.”
― Dan Wells, Partials

“In my biology class, we'd talked about the definition of life: to be classified as a living creature, a thing needs to eat, breathe, reproduce, and grow. Dogs do, rocks don't, trees do, plastic doesn't. Fire, by that definition, is vibrantly alive. It eats everything from wood to flesh, excreting the waste as ash, and it breathes air just like a human, taking in oxygen and emitting carbon. Fire grows, and as it spreads, it creates new fires that spread out and make new fires of their own. Fire drinks gasoline and excretes cinders, it fights for territory, it loves and hates. Sometimes when I watch people trudging through their daily routines, I think that fire is more alive than we are–brighter, hotter, more sure of itself and where it wants to go. Fire doesn't settle; fire doesn't tolerate; fire doesn't 'get by.'
Fire does.
Fire is.”
― Dan Wells, I Am Not a Serial Killer

“Life comes from death, and weakness teaches us strength.”
― Dan Wells, Partials

“APD is primarily defined as a lack of empathy,' I said. I'd looked it up too, a few months ago. Empathy is what allows people to interpret emotion, the same way ears interpret sounds; without it you become emotionally deaf.
'It means I don't connect emotionally with other people. I wondered if he was going to pick that one.'
'How do you even know that?' she said. 'You're fifteen years old, for goodness' sake. You should be ... I don't know, chasing girls or playing video games.'
'You're telling a sociopath to chase girls?”
― Dan Wells, I Am Not a Serial Killer

“Each life has a different purpose, and some people can find their purpose more easily than others. The key, the most important thing you can ever know, is that whatever your purpose is, that's not your only choice"
"No matter why you're here, no matter why any of us are here, you're never tied down to fate. You're never locked in. You make your own choices, Kira, and you can't let anyone ever take that away from you.”
― Dan Wells, Partials

“Well, thanks for not shooting anyone, I guess", said Marcus. "My contribution was to somehow refrain from peeing myself. You can thank me later.”
― Dan Wells, Partials

“Fear is a ... it's a weird thing, when you think about it. People are only afraid of other things, they're never afraid of themselves.”
― Dan Wells, I Am Not a Serial Killer

“It doesn’t matter what other people think when you’re right - John Cleaver”
― Dan Wells, I Am Not a Serial Killer

“It's a pretty big shock to realise that the only people you can identify with are psychopathic killers.”
― Dan Wells, Mr. Monster

“If you can't know the truth, said Isolde, live the most awesome lie you can think off.”
― Dan Wells, Partials

“I've never been this wet in my life, " said Kira. "Even immersed in a bathtub I swear I was dryer than I am now. "
"Look on the bright side, " said Marcus.
Kira waited.
"This is the point at which you would traditionally suggest a bright side. "
"I've never been a real traditional guy," said Marcus. "Besides, I'm not saying I know a bright side, I just think this would be a great time to look at one.”
― Dan Wells, Partials

“I'm a good person," I said, "because I know what good people are supposed to act like, and I copy them.”
― Dan Wells, I Am Not a Serial Killer

“Fear is about things that you can't control. The future or the dark, or someone trying to kill you. You don't get scared of yourself because you always know what you're going to do.”
― Dan Wells, I Am Not a Serial Killer

“Humanity will destroy itself, body and soul, before it will learn a simple lesson.”
― Dan Wells, Fragments

“My wit is like your legs," said Xochi. " It would be selfish of me to keep it hidden.”
― Dan Wells, Partials

“If I'm going to spend the whole night waiting for you guys to stop flirting and shoot each other, I want to at least be entertained.”
― Dan Wells, Partials

“Sometimes the hand that feeds you needs a good bite.”
― Dan Wells, Partials

“I need a sample of your blood,' said Kira.
Marcus raised an eyebrow. 'I didn't know we'd reached that stage of our relationship.”
― Dan Wells, Partials

“It's good to see you," Said Haru.
"You can see me?" asked Marcus, patting himself in sudden shock."The potion must have worn off! That's the last time I give my lunch to a talking squirrel".

P12”
― Dan Wells, Partials

“Facts are too busy being true to worry about how you feel about them.”
― Dan Wells, Fragments

“Jayden laughed grimly. 'Press the attack and hope for the best.'
'Hope is not a strategy,' said Kira
'It's not plan A,' said Jayden, 'and it shouldn't be plan B, but it is every plan C that has ever been made.”
― Dan Wells, Partials

“The last to fall were the buildings, distant and solemn, the gravestones for an entire world.”
― Dan Wells, Partials

“If my life had no meaning, there was no reason not to end it."
"So you ended it?"
"So I gave it meaning.”
― Dan Wells, Ruins

“Nobody as a destiny. I mean, nobody has some kind of inescapable path for their life. This mug was made from clay, and that clay could have been anything at all until somebody made it into a mug. People aren't mugs, we are clay. Living, breathing, thinking, feeling clay, and we can shape ourselves into anything we want, and we keep shaping ourselves all our lives, getting better and better at whatever we want to be, and when we want to be something else we just smooth out the clay and start over. Your lack of 'purpose' is the single best thing about you, because it means you can be whatever you want.”
― Dan Wells, Ruins

“We're taking you to the hospital,' it said, 'you're going into shock. Can you tell us how you feel?'
'I feel ...' What do I feel?
I guess that's good enough.
I feel.”
― Dan Wells, I Don't Want to Kill You

“Freedom is a responsibility to be earned, not a license for recklessness and anarchy. If someday, despite our strongest efforts and our deepest determination, we finally fall, let it be because our enemies finally beat us, not because we beat ourselves.”
― Dan Wells, Partials

“I stared at her closely, studying her face, her eyes, everything. This was the angel that tamed a demon; the soul that trapped him and held him with a power he'd never felt before. Love.”
― Dan Wells

“Happiness is the most natural thing in the world when you have it, and the slowest, strangest, most impossible thing when you don't.”
― Dan Wells, Partials