Ruta Sepetys

Author

1967-11-19

Quotes by Ruta Sepetys

• But how can they just decide that we're animals? They don't even know us, I said.We know us, said Mother. They're wrong. And don't ever allow them to convince you otherwise. Do you understand?

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• But wasn't there some sort of rule that said parents had to be smarter than their kids? It didn't seem fair.

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• There's a saying, 'Death hath a thousand doors to let out life; I shall find one.' But the children. That's what I struggle with.' He shook his head. 'Why the children?

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• How foolish to believe we are more powerful than the sea or the sky.

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• Your daughter, your sister. She is salt to the sea,

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• War is catastrophe. It breaks families in irretrievable pieces. But those who are gone are not necessarily lost.

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• But unlike Mama, I would not go to heaven. My secrets padlocked the gates. I'd be a torn kite stuck in the dead branches of a tree, unable to fly.

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• Mother was anchor. Mother was comfort. Mother was home. A girl who lost her mother was suddenly a tiny boat on an angry ocean. Some boats eventually floated ashore. And some boats, like me, seemed to float farther and farther from land.

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• My war had been so long, my winter so cold. But i had made it home. And for the first time in a long time, i was not afraid.

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• I wanted to stay locked away from the pain and destruction. I didn't want to be strong. I didn't want to be the 'smart girl'. I was so very tired. I just wanted it all to be over.

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• What had human beings become? Did war make us evil or just activate an evil already lurking within us?

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• In 1991, after fifty years of brutal occupation, the three Baltic countries regained their independence, peacefully and with dignity. They chose hope over hate and showed the world that even through the darkest night, there is light. These three tiny nations have taught us that love is the most powerful army. Whether love of a friend, love of country, love of God, or even love of enemy- love reveals to us the truly miraculous nature of the human spirit.

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• War had bled color from everything, leaving nothing but a storm of gray.

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• Every nation has hidden history, countless stories preserved only by those who experienced them. Stories of war are often read and discussed worldwide by readers whose nations stood on opposite sides during battle. History divided us, but through reading we can be united in story, study, and remembrance. Books join us together as a global reading community, but more important, a global human community striving to learn from the past.

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• I knew the legends of the birds. Seagulls were the souls of dead soldiers. Owls were the souls of women. Doves were the recently departed souls of unmarried girls.Was there a bird for the souls of people like me?

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• Everyone has a price,— she said.—But clearly not everyone has a soul,

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• Mother, why are you breaking your beautiful things?' I asked...'Because I love them so much.

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• Sometimes there is such beauty in awkwardness.

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• The soldier stared at Ingrid. His silence was elastic, slowly curling a rope around her neck.

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• Just when you think this war has taken everything you loved, you meet someone and realize that somehow you still have more to give.

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