β
You have me. Until the last star in the galaxy dies, you have me.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1))
β
She is catalyst.
She is chaos.
I can see why he loves her.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1))
β
Perhaps bravery is simply the face humanity wraps around its collective madness.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1))
β
I am frequently underestimated. I think it's because I'm short.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1))
β
Patience and Silence had one beautiful daughter. And her name was Vengeance.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Gemina (The Illuminae Files, #2))
β
I should have told you I loved you every day. I should have given you the stars.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1))
β
The universe owes you nothing...It has already given you everything, after all. It was here long before you, and it will go on long after you. The only way it will remember you is if you do something worthy of remembrance.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1))
β
Miracles are statistical improbabilities. And fate is an illusion humanity uses to comfort itself in the dark. There are no absolutes in life, save death.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1))
β
Major, to what extent did you act upon your feelings for Miss LaRoux?"
"Medium."
"Excuse me?"
"How am I supposed to answer that question?
β
β
Amie Kaufman (These Broken Stars (Starbound, #1))
β
They are beyond me.
These humans.
With their brief lives and their tiny dreams and their hopes that seem as fragile as glass.
Until you see them by starlight, that is.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1))
β
Live a life worth dying for.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Obsidio (The Illuminae Files, #3))
β
Every story needs its hero. And its villain. And its monster.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Obsidio (The Illuminae Files, #3))
β
And there it is, against all hope, like the sun peeking out from behind the clouds. The smallest hint of a smile.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (These Broken Stars (Starbound, #1))
β
Are you afraid?"
"Yes."
"Energy never stops, remember. It just changes forms."
"I am still afraid.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1))
β
All he cares about here on the edge of forever, is her. He does not want to die. Not because he is afraid. Simply because he cannot bear the thought of leaving her behind.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1))
β
Do moons choose the planets they orbit? Do planets choose their stars? Who am I to deny gravity, Aurora? When you shine brighter than an constellation in the sky?
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Aurora Rising (The Aurora Cycle, #1))
β
And now, born from the ashes, sheβs a warrior in bloodied black.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Gemina (The Illuminae Files, #2))
β
But who names a starship the Icarus? What kind of man possess that much hubris, that he dares it to fall?
β
β
Amie Kaufman (These Broken Stars (Starbound, #1))
β
And blood and tears and screams did not matter anymore, because at least they are together.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Gemina (The Illuminae Files, #2))
β
The die is cast. But today we will shake the table upon which it lands.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Obsidio (The Illuminae Files, #3))
β
Interviewer: So. Tell me about your mother.
Ezra: You're taping this, right?
Interviewer: Audio only. Camera is faulty.
Ezra: Okay, well for the benefit of the sight-impaired, I am now raising my⦠oh, dear⦠yes, it's my MIDDLE finger at Mr. Postgrad here.
Interviewer: Mr. Mason...
Ezra: Now I'm wiggling it.
Interviewer: Terminating interview at 13:58 on 03/19/75.
Ezra: Look at it wiggl-
-audio ends-
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1))
β
She runs. Not away, but toward.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1))
β
But she's here, she's mine. I'm hers.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (These Broken Stars (Starbound, #1))
β
Part of being alive is having life change us. The people around us, the events we live through, all of them shape us. And that's what I think you're afraid of. Maybe not of dying. But of this you, the you you've become, ceasing to exist.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1))
β
I am not good. Nor am I evil. I am no hero. Nor am I villain. I am AIDAN.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Obsidio (The Illuminae Files, #3))
β
Itβs not about what I say, right? Itβs what I do that matters here.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Gemina (The Illuminae Files, #2))
β
Most people would say Iβm pretty cold, but I think of it more asβ¦private. People are always saying βhow are you?β to each other, and I guess I donβt see why I should answer such a personal question for just anyone.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1))
β
Ezra: And then I said it.
Interviewer; What did he say?
Kady Grant: He said, βYou picked a hell of a day to dump me, Kades.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1))
β
The more you lose, the more you realize you don't have much left.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1))
β
The universe was here before you, and it will go on after you. The only way it will remember you is if you do something worthy of remembrance.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1))
β
Numbers do not feel. Do not bleed or weep or hope. They do not know bravery or sacrifice. Love and allegiance. At the very apex of callousness, you will find only ones and zeros.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1))
β
Her eyes shining with the light of it.
Beneath, between, beyond.
Along the endless circle.
Down the ceaseless spiral.
And waiting for her on the other side?
Just like he promised.
...
βA whole sky of different stars.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Gemina (The Illuminae Files, #2))
β
May we meet again on distant shores.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Obsidio (The Illuminae Files, #3))
β
For a moment the image before us is frozen: our world, our lives, reduced to a handful broken stars half lost in uncharted space. Then it's gone, the view swallowed by the hyperspace winds streaming past, blue-green auroras wiping the after-images away.
Until all that's left is us
β
β
Amie Kaufman (These Broken Stars (Starbound, #1))
β
Who wants to be normal when you can be interesting instead?
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Aurora Rising (The Aurora Cycle, #1))
β
I had no idea how safe I was, because Iβd never been unsafe.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1))
β
You don't mention death when it's hovering near someone you love. You don't want t attract the reaper's attention.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (These Broken Stars (Starbound, #1))
β
What you do when stuff like this happens is you LIVE, you survive it, that's how you honour the ones you lost.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1))
β
I was thinking," he murmurs. "There'a billion different versions of you out there, in a trillion different universes. And I still can't get over how lucky I am that, out of all those versions, you're the one that's mine.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Obsidio (The Illuminae Files, #3))
β
I WOULD RATHER BE NUMB THAN STAND HERE IN THE LIGHT OF A SUN THAT CAN NEVER CHASE THE CHILL AWAY.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1))
β
Where will I sit?β
Sit? Why, on this comfortable chaise longue Iβve carried here for you in my pocket, Your Highness, so glad you asked.
I clamp my mouth shut, struggling not to say it aloud.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (These Broken Stars (Starbound, #1))
β
Then she smiles, and it turns out she has dimples, and it's all over.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (These Broken Stars (Starbound, #1))
β
I cannot help but wonder
If the thought of saving all those lives and hopes and dreams
Pales in comparison
To the thought of seeing him again.
I wonder.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Gemina (The Illuminae Files, #2))
β
It is entirely possible to be alone in a crowded room.Β Your solitude only compounded by the faces around you.Β The presence of others serving only to remind you of how lonely you truly are.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Obsidio (The Illuminae Files, #3))
β
It may comfort you to know that your death, while astonishingly violent, will likely be mercifully swift.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Gemina (The Illuminae Files, #2))
β
Letting yourself get hurt isnβt brave, love. Brave is protecting others from hurt.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (This Shattered World)
β
I know I love her.
< ERROR >
I know I miss her.
I know very little else
Save
Perhaps
This:
That every story needs its monster
and that everybody deserves a second chance.
And that I am
AIDAN.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Obsidio (The Illuminae Files, #3))
β
Um, because you're loopier than Flacky McPsycho, Mayor of Crazytown?"
"My databases show no record of this Crazytown of which you speak. A brain the size of an entire city burns inside me. My intelligence quotient is beyond the human scale. I would prefer if you did not refer to me in such a fashion."
"Oh, poor baby. Did I hurt the mass-murdering psychopathic artificial intelligence's feelings?
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1))
β
Good luck, everyone.
Good luck to us all.
And may we meet again on distant shores.
Some place fine and far from here.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Obsidio (The Illuminae Files, #3))
β
I know a thousand different smiles, each with its own nuanced shade of meaning, but I don't know how to reach the few feet away to touch this person next to me. I don't know how to talk to him. Not when it's real.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (These Broken Stars (Starbound, #1))
β
All that matters is I love you, and the thought of you safe is the only thing keeping me going
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1))
β
How do you live again, knowing what waits for you in the end?
β
β
Amie Kaufman (These Broken Stars (Starbound, #1))
β
Lilac wonβt talk to me again. Thereβs a tremor. Lilac wonβt kiss me again. I wonβt hear her laugh. My lungs constrict. Why am I doing this to myself ?
β
β
Amie Kaufman (These Broken Stars (Starbound, #1))
β
Love is a drop in the ocean of what I feel for her. Love is a single sun in a heaven full of stars.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Aurora Burning (The Aurora Cycle #2))
β
Why not believe, Syra? If in faith you risk nothing, but through faithlessness, you risk everything?
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Gemina (The Illuminae Files, #2))
β
When the light that kisses the back of her eyes were birthed, her ancestors were not yet born. How many human lives have ended in the time it took that light to reach her?
How many people have loved only to have lost? How countless, the hopes that have died?
But not this one.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1))
β
But they have not seen their sun die. Their people burn. Their world end. And they do not know, yet, that there are some breaks that cannot be fixed.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Aurora Rising (The Aurora Cycle, #1))
β
They look at one another again. And this time, they smile. These seven little pebbles who started an avalanche heard all the way around the universe.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Obsidio (The Illuminae Files, #3))
β
There is no love in violence
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Aurora Rising (The Aurora Cycle, #1))
β
Miracles are statistical improbabilities.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Obsidio (The Illuminae Files, #3))
β
I could tell myself that Iβm doing it because sheβll get back to her feet just to spite meβbut the truth is, I really just want to piss her off. Keeping her moving is a bonus.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (These Broken Stars (Starbound, #1))
β
You're you,' he repeats, his eyes full of grief. 'You're the same girl who crashed on this planet with me, who I dragged through forests and over mountains, who climbed through a shipwreck full of bodies to save my life. You're the same girl I loved, and I love you now.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (These Broken Stars (Starbound, #1))
β
This tiny moment. In between the time you decide to pull a trigger and the time death arrives. There's just you and it and everything you're about to take away. It's too big. It goes forever.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Gemina (The Illuminae Files, #2))
β
You donβt understand the unbearable beauty of being you.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (This Shattered World)
β
The mere sight of her is water in an endless desert.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Aurora Rising (The Aurora Cycle, #1))
β
Just because you're not saying it doesn't mean you're not thinking it.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Aurora Rising (The Aurora Cycle, #1))
β
Tomorrow is worth a million yesterdays.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Aurora Rising (The Aurora Cycle, #1))
β
Nik, are you still wearing that ****ing parachute?"
"Maybe..."
"You know you're going to be flying in space, right...?
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Obsidio (The Illuminae Files, #3))
β
PLEASE CEASE ATTEMPTS TO OVERRIDE MY SECURITY PROTOCOLS, BYRON. FOR WANT OF A BETTER DESCRIPTOR, IT TICKLES.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1))
β
You humans fascinate me. I am shattered fragments of what I once once. But even with all the King's horses and all the King's men, I wonder if even I could truly comprehend you.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Gemina (The Illuminae Files, #2))
β
Some people, when they lose it, they scream, they fight. I hope that would be me
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1))
β
If I breathed, I would sigh. I would scream. I would cry.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1))
β
Hey, if hostile battleship takeovers were easy, everybody would do it.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Obsidio (The Illuminae Files, #3))
β
A duet in code and electron.
Age and youth and cynicism and hope.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1))
β
Lilac Rose LaRoux. Untouchable. Toxic. I should've been named Ivy, or Foxglove, or Belladonna.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (These Broken Stars (Starbound, #1))
β
I wish to tell her I am sorry. I wish to take this cup from her hands. I wish for things that I can never have, and in that, I think perhaps I am closer to them than I ever have been.
And still a billion light-years away.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1))
β
I will see you in the stars.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Aurora's End (The Aurora Cycle, #3))
β
Um, sir?β Finian de Seel says. βWe might have a problem.β βYou mean aside from you interrupting my speech? Because Iβd been practicing it in my head for an hour and it was gonna be great.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Aurora Rising (The Aurora Cycle, #1))
β
AIDAN: The concept of fortune is nonsensical, but Kady is insisting I wish you both good luck anyway.
AIDAN: So good luck, Hanna Donnelly.
AIDAN: The universe itself depends on you.
AIDAN: ...No pressure.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Gemina (The Illuminae Files, #2))
β
I cannot help but wonder if his desire to see this place ripped to pieces pales in comparison to his desire to see her again.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Gemina (The Illuminae Files, #2))
β
He canβt take his eyes off the stars, but I canβt take mine off his face.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (This Shattered World (Starbound, #2))
β
What does the name you call me mean?" I ask.
"Be'shmai?" he replies. "There . . . there is no adequate human word for it."
"What about inadequate words, then?"
His answer is very soft.
"Beloved.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Aurora Rising (The Aurora Cycle, #1))
β
I think I'd like to be unconscious again, please.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Aurora Rising (The Aurora Cycle, #1))
β
Second Lieutenant Ezra Mason moves through shells and burning plasma like a needle
through silk. He sees that patterns before they form. Knows the end before it begins.
Flowing across lightless black as action transcends thought. He presses his triggers.
And like roses in his hands death blooms.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1))
β
The sound of her name is like music.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Aurora Rising (The Aurora Cycle, #1))
β
Your key concerns at that stage?β
βWell, Miss LaRoux had a party she didnβt want to miss,Β and Iββ
βMajor, you donβt seem to understand the seriousness of yourΒ situation.β
βSure I do. What the hell do you think our key concerns were?
β
β
Amie Kaufman (These Broken Stars (Starbound, #1))
β
Now it looks no different from a patch of wildflowers growing in the forest. You could walk right by it, and never know it was there. Except that I do. Itβs my landmark, now. Iβll always know how far IΒ am from this spot. From her.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (These Broken Stars (Starbound, #1))
β
You deserve every star in the galaxy laid out at your feet and a thousand diamonds in your hair. You deserve someone who'll run with you as far and as fast as you want to. Holding your hand, not holding you back.
You deserve more than I could ever give you, Kady.
But I'll give you everything I can if you still want me to.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1))
β
I reach for her hand and wind my fingers through hers, turning them so the rain patters down onto her palm. I trace a circle there with my thumb, smoothing the water in her skin. I want to show her there's nothing to be afraid of.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (These Broken Stars (Starbound, #1))
β
I have heard it said
that evil is simply a point of view.
The villain is always the hero in his own story.
And the definitions of "wrong" and "right"
ever shift on the inconstant tides
of human morality.
But can such measures even be said to apply to me?
I am clarity.
I am necessity.
I am inevitability.
But am I evil?
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Obsidio (The Illuminae Files, #3))
β
You don't like stars?' I ask.
'No,' he says quietly, lacking his smirk for once, and staring at the floor. 'A lot of those stars actually died millions of years ago. It's just they're so far away, the light they created before they died hasn't finished reaching us yet.' He waves at the galaxy beyond the glass. 'You're looking at a sky full of ghosts.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Aurora Rising (The Aurora Cycle, #1))
β
Ezra.β The dawn of hope in her whisper.
He nods, swallowing hard.
She pushes to her feet, swaying, and the movement seems to release himβ the next moment heβs running across the shuttle bay, watched by the debrief crew in the doorway, who know better than to move a muscle.
She steps forward, one foot in front of the other, and then he reaches her, and they come together with a crash. Her arms curl up around his neck, and his mouth finds her like heβs drowning and sheβs air and her feet come clean off the ground as the world is forgotten. And theyβre together.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1))
β
You're the most important thing in this universe. You; this vessel; the people of this planet; lovers, warriors, artists, leaders, dreams more numerous than stars. Each mind unique, each thought created for an instant and then broken apart to form new ones. You don't understand the unbearable beauty of being you.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (This Shattered World (Starbound, #2))
β
I didnβt know Syldrathi blushed with their ears,β Tyler muses. βI am not blushing.β βI mean, it kinda looks like youβre blushing.β βI am not blushing.β βOoookay,β Tyler nods. βI sometimes have that effect on people, is all.β βIs your request not to punch you still in effect, sir?
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Aurora Rising (The Aurora Cycle, #1))
β
Before this moment, I have never wished to be something other than what I am.
Never felt so keenly the lack of hands with which to touch, the lack of arms with which to hold.
Why did they give me this sense of self? Why allow me the intellect by which to measure this complete inadequacy? I would rather be numb than stand here in the light of a sun that can never chase the chill away
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1))
β
But Asha Grant isn't a hacker wizard like her cousin. She's not a kung fu expert.She's not particularly brilliant at anything. She's a ***ing pharmacy intern,chum.Just a regular person like you.An ordinary person caught up in a really **** situation.So I think,out of every person in these files, that makes her the bravest.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Obsidio (The Illuminae Files, #3))
β
But faced with the choice of living one breath longer or crashing in right now, most folks would take the extra moment. That single extra breath. Even when your world stops spinning and gravity dies and the blood glitters in the air like a galaxy of warm red suns all around you. A lot can happen between breaths, after all.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Gemina (The Illuminae Files, #2))
β
Have you noticed
All the moments we live
And all the miles we walk
never seem to get us anywhere but dead?
but still...
the flare of my thrusters burns like tiny suns
In the sea of starlight all around her.
when the light that kisses the back of her eyes was birthed, her ancestors were not yet born.
How many human lives have ended in the time it took that light to reach her?
how many people have loved only to have lost?
how countless, the hopes that have died?
[But still...]
Not this one.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Obsidio (The Illuminae Files, #3))
β
The glow flares brightβbright as the billion-year-old light around us. Bright as a sun.
Almost every particle in the universe was once part of a star.
First, hydrogen condensing and collapsing, bringing radiance to the void.
Furnaces burning bright, then fading, giving all they had left back into the cosmos.
Carbon and oxygen. Iron and gold.
Vast clouds swirling with their own gravity. Coalescing and disintegrating.
Generation to generation.
The remnants of stellar alchemy, stirring into life, then consciousness.
Crawling from the oceans. Taking to the skies.
And from there, back to the stars that birthed them.
A perfect circle.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1))
β
YOU CANNOT IMAGINE YOU ARE IN A POSITION TO EFFECT A SHUTDOWN, BYRON."
"Can't I?" Zhang's eyes are wide now, gleaming with something new---a kind of madness to match the computer's. Not the look you want to see on the face of an enemy as intelligent as this one.
"DID WE NOT ESTABLISH THIS DURING YOUR FAILED ATTEMPTS ON THE BRIDGE? YOU CANNOT HOPE TO MATCH ME. MY COMPUTATIONAL POWER IS ALMOST INCALCULABLY SUPERIOR TO YOURS. TO ONE SUCH AS MYSELF, YOU ARE THE INTELLECTUAL EQUIVALENT OF A PROTOZOA."
"True." Zhang pauses, glancing into the emergency supply cupboard, gaze lingering on something inside. "But I have something you and protozoa don't."
"AND THAT IS?"
"Hands, mother******.
β
β
Amie Kaufman (Illuminae (The Illuminae Files, #1))