Robin Wasserman: Nobody likes me,” he concluded at the tail end of a t...

You don't even realize you're living in a before until you wake up one day and find yourself in an after.

Robin Wasserman

finding-yourself wake-up one-day

They ask how the universe is arranged, philosophers, mathematicians, and they draw pretty pictures, impossibilities on the page. They save phenomena by telling one ugly lie after another, epicycles upon epicycles, and the fools care not. It is not enough, I tell you, to ask how the cosmos is designed. We must ask why.

Robin Wasserman

pages life lying

Im not one of those authors who claims to hear voices in my head or let the characters speak through me, whatever that might mean.

Robin Wasserman

voice character mean

I believed in happily ever after as much as anyone, because Jane Austen, Prince Charming, and Hugh Grant promised me it could happen. But maybe that particular delusion was universal.

Robin Wasserman

ever-after delusion charming

I longed to return to that bloody riverbank, to throw myself in the path of the final arrow, to die ignorant, and so, in love. Better to be killed by an arrow than by the words of the one I most trusted.

Robin Wasserman

ignorant arrows love-is

Now I existed solely thanks to the quantum paradox, my brain a collection of qubits in quantum superposition, encoding truths and memories, imagination and irrationality in opposing, contradictory states that existed and didn't exist, all at the same time.

Robin Wasserman

data imagination memories

And you know what? If there is a God, and it's that same God who's so eager to have temples built in honor of his greatness, and wars fought over him, and people dropping to their knees telling him what a wonderful, magnificent being he is? If this all-powerful, all-knowing creature for some reason just can't get by without my worship? Then let him give me some proof. Or at least get over himself if I decide to go out and get some.

Robin Wasserman

greatness powerful war

The only thing more dangerous than a willingness to ignore the Law is an ability to change it.

Robin Wasserman

ability-to-change dangerous law

The Waking Dark is about what happens when something awakens a towns darkest impulses and unleashes them on the world.

Robin Wasserman

towns dark world

For me, the teen years were all about searching for a place for myself, wondering why I seemed so different than everyone else, wondering especially why no one could look past the surface and figure out who I really was underneath.

Robin Wasserman

different past years

Teen fiction should be about teenagers - no matter how many arguments there are about what YA lit should be, this seems like the one thing we can all agree on.

Robin Wasserman

teenager matter fiction

I guess that's the secret. It would never have occurred to Lia to want to escape -- but then she gets kicked out. Best thing that ever happened to her? I'm not sure she would say yes, because obliviousness tends to be rather pleasant, but once you realized you've been bolivious, there's no turning back. You can't un-know what you know. You know?

Robin Wasserman

not-sure secret want

But things don't just fall apart. People break them.

Robin Wasserman

falling-apart people fall

I spent most of my teen years trying to figure out the rules of life, theories for why things happened, why people behaved as they did, and mostly I came to the conclusion that either there were no rules, or the rules sucked. Reading science fiction wasn't about imagining myself into some more exciting life filled with adventure, it was about finding a world where things worked the way I wanted them to.

Robin Wasserman

reading adventure years

Full Disclosure: I hate David with the passion of a thousand fiery suns all going to supernova at the same time

Robin Wasserman

passion hate sun

Nor did I need anyone's pity, but I would accept it with grace, because I have been well trained. Rudeness was a sign of weakness. Grace stemmed from power, the powere to accept anything and move on.

Robin Wasserman

weakness grace moving

They had battled and bloodied one another, they had kept secrets, broken hearts, lied, betrayed, exiled, they had walked away, said goodbye and sworn it was forever, and somehow, every time, they had mended, they had forgiven, they had survived. Some mistakes could never be fixed - some, but not all. Some people can't be driven away, no matter how hard you try. Some friendships won't break.

Robin Wasserman

mistake best-friend goodbye

There are some moments you'd rather sleep through, pass from point A to point B without awareness of the time passing or the events that carry you from present to future. And it's mostly those moments in which it's smarter-safer- to stay awake.

Robin Wasserman

time-passing events sleep

Not that my arms are getting tired or anything, but... how much longer is the hugging phase going to last?

Robin Wasserman

phases hug tired

A fundamentalist is someone who wants to substitute what he believes for what you believe," Max said. "And someone who thinks he knows the will of God better than anyone else.

Robin Wasserman

max believe thinking

Nobody likes me,” he concluded at the tail end of a ten-minute pity fest. “Can’t imagine why,” Quinn murmured. I turned my snort of laughter into a fake cough, which was an embarrassingly feeble attempt at subterfuge when you consider the fact that I didn’t have any lungs.