Kenneth Oppel quotes

But chance runs like a river through all our lives, and being prepared for surprise is the best we can do. (Kenneth Oppel)

There is a passion in you that scares me.

Kenneth Oppel

The world of 'The Hunger Games' is a paranoid survivalist's dream.

Kenneth Oppel

It's the way you look whenever she mentions her fiance. My cat looks like that before he hacks up a hairball.

Kenneth Oppel

It's somewhat disquieting that the same parents and educators who are horrified by the notion of child soldiers have bestowed upon 'The Hunger Games' a double mantle of critical praise and global bestsellerdom.

Kenneth Oppel

We used to flock to watch gladiators, public torture and executions. In more recent times, our appetite for mortal violence has been sublimated in sports, photorealistic video games, film and literature.

Kenneth Oppel

Flying into a storm, even its outer edges, did not seem like a good idea to me. And this was no ordinary tempest. Everyone on the bridge knew what it was: the Devil's Fist, a near-eternal typhoon that migrated about the North Indian basin year-round. She was infamous, and earned her name by striking airships out of the sky.

Kenneth Oppel

The seed for my novel 'Half Brother' was planted in my mind over twenty years ago, but didn't germinate until late 2007 when I came across the obituary for Washoe, an extraordinary chimpanzee who had learned over 250 words of American Sign Language.

Kenneth Oppel

Honestly," she sighed, "I don't know what kind of life we'll have together, with me always flying off in one direction and you in the other." I smiled. "It's a good thing the world's round," I said.

Kenneth Oppel

If my heart were a compass, you'd be North.

Kenneth Oppel

You two were in a cave together?' said Miss Simpkins in horror.
‘Yes,' said Kate, ‘and it was very, very dark. (Kenneth Oppel)

You can't eat [literature], that's the problem," he said. "I've tried, it's very dry, and not at all nutritious.

Kenneth Oppel

Why do you need to fly so much?” she asked. "If I don't, it'll catch up with me.” The words just came out. "What will?” I took my hands from my face, panting. I stared out at the storm. "Unhappiness.

Kenneth Oppel

The preface? Why would he waste time with the preface? Skip the preface and move on to the meat of the thing!

Kenneth Oppel

One of the reasons I wrote 'Airborn' was that I'd fallen in love with the great passenger airships which flew in the '20s and '30s. Their time was short-lived. They were frail, they tended to crash; and they could never be as fast, safe and efficient as the airplanes that replaced them.

Kenneth Oppel

The more I worked on 'Half Brother,' the more it seemed to me the story was really about love in all its possible forms - how and why we decide to bestow it, or withdraw it; how we decide what is more worthy of being loved, and what is less. We are masters of conditional love.

Kenneth Oppel