Uglies Quotes

“The woman looked like she was starving, her ribs thrusting out from her sides, her legs so thin that Tally wondered how they didn’t snap under her weight. Her elbows and pelvic bones looked sharp as needles. But there she was, smiling and proudly baring her body, as if she’d just had the operation and didn’t realize they’d sucked out way too much fat. The funny thing was, her face was closer to being pretty than any of the rest. She had the big eyes, smooth skin, and small nose, but her cheekbones were too tight, the skull practically visible beneath her flesh. “What on earth is she?” “A model.” “Which is what?” “Kind of like a professional pretty. I guess when everyone else is ugly, being pretty is sort of, like, your job.”
― Scott Westerfeld, Uglies

“The features that we take from our parents are the things that make us different. A big nose, thin lips, high forehead—all the things that the operation takes away.”
― Scott Westerfeld, Uglies

“Everyone ugly was in bed by now.”
― Scott Westerfeld, Uglies

“By the entrance to the compound a few rabbits hopped aimlessly, too addled by their sudden freedom to make a break for it.”
― Scott Westerfeld, Uglies

“Eating breakfast by the river, Tally took time to appreciate her SwedeBalls.”
― Scott Westerfeld, Uglies

“There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion.”
― Scott Westerfeld, Uglies

“Shay scowled. “What, can’t you stand me? Do you need to get some picture into your head so you can imagine it instead of my face?” “Shay! Come on. It’s just for fun.” “Making ourselves feel ugly is not fun.” “We are ugly!” “This whole game is just designed to make us hate ourselves.”
― Scott Westerfeld, Uglies

“Shay, I never would have gotten used to the idea. I don’t want to be ugly all my life. I want those perfect eyes and lips, and for everyone to look at me and gasp. And for everyone who sees me to think Who’s that? and want to get to know me, and listen to what I say.” “I’d rather have something to say.”
― Scott Westerfeld, Uglies

“You’re still yourself on the inside, Shay. But when you’re pretty, people pay more attention.” “Not everyone thinks that way.” “Are you sure about that? That you can beat evolution by being smart or interesting?”
― Scott Westerfeld, Uglies

“Yesterday they’d taken Tally’s final measurements, rolling her all the way through an imaging tube. Should she tell this new ugly that sometime this afternoon, her body was going to be opened up, the bones ground down to the right shape, some of them stretched or padded, her nose cartilage and cheekbones stripped out and replaced with programmable plastic, skin sanded off and reseeded like a soccer field in spring? That her eyes would be laser-cut for a lifetime of perfect vision, reflective implants inserted under the iris to add sparkling gold flecks to their indifferent brown? Her muscles all trimmed up with a night of electrocize and all her baby fat sucked out for good? Teeth replaced with ceramics as strong as a suborbital aircraft wing, and as white as the dorm’s good china? They said it didn’t hurt, except the new skin, which felt like a killer sunburn for a couple of weeks.”
― Scott Westerfeld, Uglies

“What was this place?” Tally asked. “I think they made newspapers here,” David said. “Like books, but you threw them away and got a new one every day.” “You’re kidding.” “Not at all. And you thought we wasted trees in the Smoke!”
― Scott Westerfeld, Uglies

“In this city, apparently, the authorities crushed revolutions before they started, by turning them into homework.”
― Scott Westerfeld, Uglies

“The big eyes and lips said: I’m young and vulnerable, I can’t hurt you, and you want to protect me. And the rest said: I’m healthy, I won’t make you sick. And no matter how you felt about a pretty, there was a part of you that thought: If we had kids, they’d be healthy too. I want this pretty person.…”
― Scott Westerfeld, Uglies

“you find out that the city fools you about how things really work.”
― Scott Westerfeld, Uglies

“The Rusties didn’t put their factories underground, and they all worked together like bees in a hive instead of at home.”
― Scott Westerfeld, Uglies

“Being in the city all the time made everything fake, in a way.”
― Scott Westerfeld, Uglies

“Clear-cutting” was the word for what the Rusties had done to the old forests: felling every tree, killing every living thing, turning entire countries into grazing land. Whole rain forests had been consumed, reduced from millions of interlocking species to a bunch of cows eating grass, a vast web of life traded for cheap hamburgers.”
― Scott Westerfeld, Uglies

“But the magic was all based on lies. She didn’t deserve the look in David’s eyes.”
― Scott Westerfeld, Uglies

“Perhaps the logical conclusion of everyone looking the same was everyone thinking the same.”
― Scott Westerfeld, Uglies