It’s strange how time can make a place shrink, make its strangeness ordinary.
VERONICA ROTHIt’s strange how time can make a place shrink, make its strangeness ordinary.
VERONICA ROTHMy mother once told me that we can’t survive alone,but even if we could, we wouldn’t want to. Without a faction, we have no purpose and no reason to live.
VERONICA ROTHI know exactly how we fit together, his arm around my waist, my hands on his chest, the pressure of his lips on mine. We have each other memorized.
VERONICA ROTHSometimes crying or laughing are the only options left, and laughing feels better right now.
VERONICA ROTHI didn’t know that idiocy caused people to just start spontaneously bleeding from the nose.
VERONICA ROTHBeing honest doesn’t mean you say whatever you want, wherever you want. It means that what you choose to say is true.
VERONICA ROTHPride is what killed Al, and it is the flaw in every Dauntless heart. It is in mine.
VERONICA ROTHWe both have war inside us. Sometimes it keeps us alive. Sometimes it threatens to destroy us.
VERONICA ROTHBut now, I am also learning this: we can be mended. We mend each other.
VERONICA ROTHI laugh, and it’s laughter, not light, that casts out the darkness building within me, that reminds me I am still alive, even in this strange place where everything I’ve ever known is coming apart.
VERONICA ROTH“Oh, you know,” I say. “Sun shining. Birds chirping.” She raises an eyebrow at me, as if reminding me that we are in an underground tunnel.
VERONICA ROTHNo matter how long you train someone to be brave, you never know if they are or not until something real happens.
VERONICA ROTHI gasp, pressing both palms to my chest. Now the monstrous thing has its claws around my throat, squeezing my airway. I twist and put my head between my knees, breathing until the strangled feeling leaves me.
VERONICA ROTHI also don’t believe that whatever comes after life depends on my correctly reciting a list of my transgressions…I don’t believe that what comes after depends on anything I do at all.
VERONICA ROTHThe fire, the fire. It rages within, a campfire and then an inferno, and my body is its fuel.
VERONICA ROTHOne choice can transform you. One choice can destroy you. Once choice will define you.
VERONICA ROTH