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

— Ruta Sepetys

He threw his burning cigarette onto our clean living room floor and ground it into the wood with his boot. We were about to become cigarettes.

— Ruta Sepetys

He wanted to know something about me. I leaned over and put my mouth to his ear. It was barely a whisper.' I'm a murderer.

— Ruta Sepetys

He wrapped his arms around me and planted a kiss straight on my lips, hard and long. It felt like I was watching the kiss instead of being inside of it.

— 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 Andrews in Lithuania. Would I have liked him Would he have liked me

— Ruta Sepetys

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

— Ruta Sepetys

I became good at pretending. I became so good that after a while the lines blurred between my truth and fiction. And sometimes, when I did a perfect job of pretending, I even fooled myself.

— Ruta Sepetys

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

— Ruta Sepetys

I don't want to see no dead body. Willie ain't in there. She put her walkin' shoes on. She has gone to see the Lord.

— 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