Alex Kelly

“She needs to wake up," said Boots. "Hazard is crying. When does she wake up?" Gregor could not find it within him to give his standard reply. To pretend that in a short time Thalia would be back with them, laughing and happy. And somehow it seemed wrong to try. Boots was getting older. Very soon, she would begin to realize the truth on her own, anyway. "She's not going wake up," he told her. "She's dead."
"She doesn't wake up?" said Boots.
"No, not this time," said Gregor. "This time, she had to go away."
Boots looked around at all their faces, at Hazard crying. "Where did she go?" No one had an answer. "Where is Thalia when she doesn't wake up?"
The question hung in the air for an eternity. Finally, it was Howard who spoke up. "Why, she's in your heart, Boots."
"My heart?" said Boots, putting both hands on her chest.
"Yes. That's where she lives now," said Howard.
"She can fly away?" asked Boots, pressing her palms tightly against her heart as if to keep Thalia from escaping.
"Oh, no, she will stay there forever," said Howard.”
― Suzanne Collins, Gregor and the Marks of Secret

“Anything that was good for me would feel good in the moment and give me more energy and enthusiasm for the important things in my life. A truly good thing would not pull me away from a project that I felt passionate about. It would not give me an exhilarating high, later leaving me drained, distracted, or guilty. A truly good thing would not dull the shine of the rest of my life.”
― Ashleigh Renard, Swing

“He was safe for the moment, here in the playground, but people all over the world were suffering, starving, fleeing, killing one another as they waged their wars. How much energy they put into harming one another. How little into saving. Would it ever change? What would it take to make it change? He thought of Luxa's hand pressed into Ripred's paw. That's what it would take. People rejecting war. Not one or two, but all of them. Saying it was an unacceptable way to solve their differences. By the look of things, the human race had a lot of evolving to do before that happened. Maybe it was impossible. But maybe it wasn't. Like Vikus said, nothing would happen unless you hoped it could. If you had hope, maybe you could find the way to make things change. Because if you thought about it, there were so many reasons to try.”
― Suzanne Collins, Gregor and the Code of Claw

“After tripping a couple of times, she realized that the only was she was going to make progress and safely get through her section of the race was to stay completely in the moment. She quickly figured out that the only way to get to the end of the dark, unknown trail was to keep looking straight ahead. It was when she was focused only on the trail in front of her that she could take each secure step.”
― Ashleigh Renard, Swing