Mrs. Murdo, walkind even more briskly to keep her spirits up, was crossing Harken Square when something fell to the pavement just in front of her with a terrific thump. How extraordinary, she thought,...
She realized all at once that Doon, thin, dark eyed Doon, with his troublesome temper and his terrible brown jacket, and his good heart---- was the person she knew better than anyone now. He was her b...
When someone has been mean to you, why would you want to be good to them?' 'You wouldn't want to. That's what makes it hard. You do it anyway. Being good is hard. Much harder than being bad.
Doon was touched. Kenny looked like a tiny little wisp, but there was something strong inside him. --People of Sparks--
Now Doon seemed to care for his new friends more than he did for her. Every time she thought about him she felt a thud of pain, like a bruised place inside her.
People didn't make life, so they can't destroy it. Even if we were to wipe out every bit of life in the world, we can't touch the place life comes from. Whatever made the plants and animals and people...
How can you stand to do it? The poor little mouse!Grover shrugged. It's nature, he said. Nature likes the snake just as much as the mouse.
Maybe there was no happily ever after [...] but there was happiness sometimes and she had it now, doing what she knew she was born for.
She loved exploring every nook and cranny
Why, if its going to be allright, do we see it getting worse every day?
People find a way through just about anything.
People in Ember rarely threw anything away. They made the best possible use of what they had.
Lina couldn't sleep at first, thinking of the old songs and what they meant. Someone, long ago, had hoped that at least a few people would survive and had wanted them to remember her city and the trea...
Doon went up close to the wall of the hotel and examined the words scratched there. He pictured the people who had done it, clutching their burnt chunks of wood, writing with big, angry strokes in the...
But that was what made things so exciting--nothing was ever how you expected it to be.
What must the ancient world have been like, she wondered, with all these strange things moving around in it? Was it wonderful or terrible?
Just look at it!
She started back down the trail. If no dogs find the food, she thought, maybe squirrels will. Or that white bear. Or if no one finds it, then it can all be for God. Only not for the Prophet's God, her...
Resentment increased on both sides, until any little accident could flare up into a fight.
It wasn't because they had extraordinary powers, really, but because of how well they used the ordinary powers everyone had: the power of courage, the power of kindness, the powers of curiosity and kn...