A breeze blows up, touching my cheek like a little child's kiss. It flutters a piece of paper. "Trash, out there? Must belong to one of us." We move closer, and when I reached for it, I find...... a perfect paper airplane.

— Ellen Hopkins

A chat With the Grim Reaper should be enough to scare away any thought of relapse. Wish it were that easy, but not even days conversing with death can disintegrate the claws of addiction.

— Ellen Hopkins

A daughter is a rainbow - a curve of light through scattered mist that lifts the spirit with her prismatic presence. Is a shadow - a reminder of something brilliant ducking out of sight, too easily drawn away. She is an aria, swelling within the concern chamber, an echo reverberating across a miniature sea. She is a secret, whispered, a hint of what we cannot know until it finds us. Furthermore, she is a sliver of her father, a shard of her mother. A daughter is a promise, kept.

— Ellen Hopkins

Afraid to die loveless. Because I think if you die without knowing love in this life, that's how you'll spend eternity. Alone. Frozen. Do you think hell is fiery? I don't. I think hell is frozen.

— Ellen Hopkins

Alone everything changes. Some might call it distorted reality but it's exactly the place I need to be.

— Ellen Hopkins

Am I more afraid Of taking a chance and learning I'm somebody don't know, or of risking new territory, only to find I'm the same old me? There is comforting the tried and true. Breaking ground might uncover a sinkhole, one impossible to climb out of. And setting sail in uncharted waters might mean capsizing into sea monster's jaws. Easier to turn my back on these things than to try them and fail. And yet, a whisper insists need to know if they are Oran't integral to me. Status quo is a swamp. And stagnation is slow death.

— Ellen Hopkins

And at some point I would like to talk my publisher into doing an anthology of my poetry alongside some teen readers' poetry. It would be fun, and really wonderful to get their stuff out there.

— Ellen Hopkins

And the scary thing is, I’m on a fast track to that same aviary. Unless I find my wings.

— Ellen Hopkins

Anger is a valid emotion. It's only bad when it takes control and makes you do things you don't want to do.

— Ellen Hopkins

Anger is easier than forgiveness.

— Ellen Hopkins