Ruta Sepetys Quotes

Killers aren't always assassins. Sometimes, they don't even have blood on their hands.

~ Ruta Sepetys

Good men are often more practical than pretty said Mother. Andrius just happens to be both.

~ Ruta Sepetys

How did I get here How did I end up in the arms of a boy I barely knew but knew I didn't want to lose I wondered what I would have thought of Andrius in Lithuania. Would I have liked him Would he have liked me

~ Ruta Sepetys

I felt as if I were riding a pendulum. Just as I would swing into the abyss of hopelessness, the pendulum would swing back with some small goodness.

~ Ruta Sepetys

...we're dealing with two devils who both want to rule hell.

~ Ruta Sepetys

They were happy to help someone, to succeed at something, even if they weren't to benefit.

~ Ruta Sepetys

I leapt eagerly into books. The characters’ lives were so much more interesting than the lonely heartbeat of my own.

~ Ruta Sepetys

We cannot be too cautious, Hannelore. Just because someone knocks on the door doesn't mean you have to open it. Sometimes, sweet girl, there are wolves at the door. If we are not careful, they might eat us.

~ Ruta Sepetys

I didn't need his criticism. I carried enough guilt on my own. I had done everything wrong. I had the highest marks in school but couldn't master common sense.

~ Ruta Sepetys

What did I want? I wanted the war to be over so I could ask her out.

~ Ruta Sepetys

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

~ Ruta Sepetys

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

~ Ruta Sepetys

Revolting. If women were so careless to become pregnant at such a time, let women sort it out.

~ Ruta Sepetys

Sometimes there is such beauty in awkwardness.

~ Ruta Sepetys

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

~ Ruta Sepetys

Everyone has a price,” she said.“But clearly not everyone has a soul

~ Ruta Sepetys

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?

~ Ruta Sepetys

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.

~ Ruta Sepetys

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

~ Ruta Sepetys

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.

~ Ruta Sepetys

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

~ Ruta Sepetys

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.

~ Ruta Sepetys

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.

~ Ruta Sepetys

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.

~ Ruta Sepetys

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.

~ Ruta Sepetys

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

~ Ruta Sepetys

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

~ Ruta Sepetys

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

~ Ruta Sepetys

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?

~ Ruta Sepetys

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

~ Ruta Sepetys

It's safer for you to stay with the others,' he said.Safer? He didn't realize.I was already dead.

~ Ruta Sepetys

They got everything money can buy, their bank accounts are fat, but they ain't happy. They ain't ever gonna be happy. You know why? They soul broke. And money can't fix that, no sir.

~ Ruta Sepetys

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

~ Ruta Sepetys

My husband, Andrius, says that evil will rule until good men or women choose to act. I believe him. This testimony was written to create an absolute record, to speak in a world where our voices have been extinguished. These writing may shock or horrify you, but that is not my intention. It is my greatest hope that the pages in this jar stir your deepest well of human compassion. I hope they prompt you to do something, to tell somone. Only then can we ensure that this kind of evil is never allowed to repeat itself.

~ Ruta Sepetys

You stand for what is right, Lina, without the expectation of gratitude or reward.

~ Ruta Sepetys

Sometimes kindness can be delivered in a clumsy way. But it's far more sincere in its clumsiness than those distinguished men you read about in books. Your father was very clumsy.”Sometimes there is such beauty in awkwardness. There's love and emotion trying to express itself, but at the time, it just ends up being awkward. Good men are often more practical than pretty . . . . [He] just happens to be both.

~ Ruta Sepetys

They have a baby grand piano, but no one in the family plays. They have shelves of books they've never read, and the tension between the couples was so thick it nearly choked us.

~ Ruta Sepetys

I stared at the enormous homes, the landscaping and flower beds immaculate. It was as if dollar bills, instead of leaves, hung from the trees.

~ Ruta Sepetys

Light fell, and so did my confidence.

~ Ruta Sepetys

No Son [. . .] Not a traitor to your country. Much worse. A traitor to your soul.

~ Ruta Sepetys