109+ Lois Lowry Quotes (Insightful, Emotional And Thought-provoking)

Lois Lowry is an American writer known for her children's and young adult literature. She is the author of popular books such as The Giver, Number the Stars, and Gooney Bird Greene. Her work often features themes of family, social justice, and personal growth.

Top 10 Lois Lowry Quotes

1. Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps the singing bird will come.
2. We live in times that are in many ways ambiguous. Maybe that's why kids want precision in what they read - they don't like that moral ambiguity.
3. The life where nothing was ever unexpected. Or inconvenient. Or unusual. The life without colour, pain or past.
4. The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It's the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared.
5. The writer after all is only half the book, the other half is the reader.
6. Kids deserve the right to think that they can change the world.
7. People in the know say The Giver was the first young adult dystopian novel.
8. I was a sidelines child: never class president, never team captain, never the one with the most valentines in my box.
9. It's the choosing that's important, isn't it?
10. We gained control of many things. But we had to let go of others.

Lois Lowry Short Quotes

• He wept because he was afraid now that he could not save Gabriel. He no longer cared about himself
• Of course they needed to care. It was the meaning of everything.
• Memory is the happiness of being alone.
• Making lists of reasons was sometimes a good way to figure things out.
• I feel sorry for anyone who is in a place where he feels strange and stupid.
• The mind can’t explain it, and you can’t make it go away. It’s called love.
• It's a funny thing about names, how they become a part of someone.
• Evil can do anything, for a price.
• So many of my books, I don't want to say they have messages, but they have important things to say.
• People do things that turn out badly, often for the most benevolent of reasons.

Lois Lowry Famous Quotes And Sayings

Early on I came to realize something, and it came from the mail I received from kids. That is, kids at that pivotal age, 12, 13 or 14, they're still deeply affected by what they read, some are changed by what they read, books can change the way they feel about the world in general. I don't think that's true of adults as much. — Lois Lowry

When I wrote 'The Giver,' it contained no so-called 'bad words.' It was set, after all, in a mythical, futuristic, and Utopian society. Not only was there no poverty, divorce, racism, sexism, pollution, or violence in the world of 'The Giver'; there was also careful attention paid to language: to its fluency, precision, and power. — Lois Lowry

If you were to be lost in the river, Jonas, your memories would not be lost with you. Memories are forever. — Lois Lowry

You will be faced, now, with pain of a magnitude that none of us here can comprehend because it is beyond our experience. The Receiver himself was not able to describe it, only to remind us that you would be faced with it, that you would need immense courage. — Lois Lowry

There's much more. There's all that goes beyond – all ... that is Elsewhere – and all that goes back, and back, and back. I received all of those, when I was selected. And here in this room, all alone, I re-experience them again and again. It is how wisdom comes. And how we shape our future. — Lois Lowry

I often compare myself as a kid to my own grandchildren, who are around 11 and 14 now. That's the age kids usually read my book. And I remember myself, we'd gone through a world war. My father was an army officer so I was aware of what was going on. But I wasn't bombarded with images of catastrophe like many kids are today. — Lois Lowry

Our people made that choice, the choice to go to Sameness. Before my time, before the previous time, back and back and back. We relinquished color when we relinquished sunshine and did away with difference. We gained control of many things. But we had to let go of others. — Lois Lowry

I've always been interested in medicine and was pleased when my brother became a doctor. But after thinking seriously about that field, I realized that what intrigued me was not the science, not the chemistry or biology of medicine, but the narrative - the story of each patient, each illness. — Lois Lowry

Even trained for years as they all had been in precision of language, what words could you use which would give another the experience of sunshine? — Lois Lowry

He hunched his shoulders and tried to make himself smaller in the seat. He wanted to disappear, to fade away, not to exist. — Lois Lowry

Sometimes I wish they'd ask for my wisdom more often - there are so many things I could tell them; things I wish they would change. But they don't want change. Life here is so orderly, so predictable - so painless. It's what they've chosen. — Lois Lowry

They were satisfied with their lives which had none of the vibrance his own was taking on. And he was angry at himself, that he could not change that for them. — Lois Lowry

The whole world had changed. Only the fairy tales remained the same. "And they lived happily ever after. — Lois Lowry

I knew that there had been times in the past-terrible times-when people had destroyed others in haste,in fear, and had brought about their own destruction — Lois Lowry

For the first time, he heard something that he knew to be music. He heard people singing. Behind him, across vast distances of space and time, from the place he had left, he thought he heard music too. But perhaps, it was only an echo. — Lois Lowry

I make up the characters in my books, but of course my consciousness is filled with every child I've ever known, including my two grandchildren, my own kids (I had four) and especially myself as a child, because that person still lives inside me, too. — Lois Lowry

I think when you've had success, publishers and reviewers and readers are willing to let you try something new if you've already proven yourself. They're excited about what you're doing, you have people interested in it, and actually waiting for it. It's empowering. — Lois Lowry

Ellen had said that her mother was afraid of the ocean, that it was too cold and too big. The sky was, too, thought Annemarie. The whole world was: too cold, too big. And too cruel. — Lois Lowry

-a whole world can lie before someone, if love is there when one wakes. — Lois Lowry

Now he saw another elephant emerge from the place where it had stood hidden in the trees. Very slowly it walked to the mutilated body and looked down. With its sinuous trunk it struck the huge corpse; then it reached up, broke some leafy branches with a snap, and draped them over the mass of torn thick flesh. Finally it tilted its massive head, raised its trunk, and roared into the empty landscape. — Lois Lowry

As a shy, introverted, scholarly child (long ago) I don't know what I would have done without libraries! My family moved often. I was always the new kid in town. The library always offered me my first and most important friendship: the place where I felt right at home. I still feel that way today, about libraries. — Lois Lowry

It is very risky. But each time a child opens a book, he pushes open the gate that separates him from Elsewhere. — Lois Lowry

For a contributing citizen to be released from the community was a final decision, a terrible punishment, an overwhelming statement of failure. — Lois Lowry

I think of every book as a single entity, and some have later gone on to become a series, often at the request of readers. — Lois Lowry

What if they were allowed to choose their own mate? And chose wrong? — Lois Lowry

Writing is hard work, and fun, and requires you to keep your backside in a chair when you would sometimes like to put it elsewhere. So the only wisdom is the advice to keep at it, I guess. — Lois Lowry

Always in the dream, it seemed as if there were a destination: a something--he could not grasp what-that lay beyond the place where the thickness of snow brought the sled to a stop. He was left, upon awakening, with the feeling that he wanted, even somehow needed, to reach the something that waited in the distance. The feeling that it was good. That it was welcoming. That it was significant. But he did not know how to get there. — Lois Lowry

Gabe?" The newchild stirred slightly in his sleep. Jonas looked over at him. "There could be love", Jonas whispered. — Lois Lowry

Think only on the climb. Think on what you control — Lois Lowry

Writing is self employment, so you can make your own schedule. — Lois Lowry

Time goes on, and your life is still there, and you have to live it. After a while you remember the good things more often than the bad. Then, gradually, the empty silent parts of you fill up with sounds of talking and laughter again, and the jagged edges of sadness are softened by memories. — Lois Lowry

The fact that I lost my son permeates my being. — Lois Lowry

It be better, I think, to climb out in search of something, instead of hating, what you're leaving. — Lois Lowry

The community of the Giver had achieved at such great price. A community without danger or pain. But also, a community without music, color or art. And books. — Lois Lowry

You eat canned tuna fish and you absorb protein. Then, if you're lucky, someone give you Dover Sole and you experience nourishment. It's the same with books. — Lois Lowry

What's important is the preparation for adult life, and the training you'll receive in your Assignment. — Lois Lowry

Genius disregards the boundaries of propriety. Genius is permitted to shout if shouting is productive. — Lois Lowry

- My instructors in science and technology have taught us about how the brain works. It's full of electrical impulses. It's like a computer. If you stimulate one part of the brain with an electrode, it... - They know nothing. — Lois Lowry

He was free to enjoy the breathless glee that overwhelmed him: the speed, the clear cold air, the total silence, the feeling of balance and excitement and peace. — Lois Lowry

I don't set out to transmit a message. I don't write with a political point of view. There are no religious overtones. Looking back at my books, I can say, 'Oh, yes, it is there.' But it's not in my mind when I write. — Lois Lowry

Then I went home to continue my life, which had changed a little, as lives do every day, inching by microspecks forward toward whatever surprises are coming next. — Lois Lowry

There will always be a place for bunnies to talk in rhyme, but that's not what I do. — Lois Lowry

I don't for one second think about the possibility of censorship when I am writing a new book. I know I am a person who cares about kids and who cares about truth and I am guided by my own instincts, and trust them. — Lois Lowry

I'm not terribly conversant with children's literature in general. I tend to read books for adults, being an adult. — Lois Lowry

Gathering Blue' was a separate book. I wanted to explore what a society might become after a catastrophic world event. Only at the end did I realize I could make it connect to 'The Giver. — Lois Lowry

It was almost December, and Jonas was beginning to be frightened. — Lois Lowry

...now he saw the familiar wide river beside the path differently. He saw all of the light and color and history it contained and carried in its slow - moving water; and he knew that there was an Elsewhere from which it came, and an Elsewhere to which it was going — Lois Lowry

And they are beginning to realize that the world they live in is a place where the right thing is often hard, sometimes dangerous, and frequently unpopular. — Lois Lowry

But there's a whole world waiting, still, and there are good things in it. — Lois Lowry

Mama was crying, and the rain made it seem as if the whole world was crying. — Lois Lowry

It is much easier to be brave if you do not know everything. — Lois Lowry

It's hard to give up the being together with someone. — Lois Lowry

Fear dims when you learn things. — Lois Lowry

Today is declared an unscheduled holiday. — Lois Lowry

Take pride in your pain; you are stronger than those who have none — Lois Lowry

I tend not to think about audience when I'm writing. Many people who read "The Giver" now have their own kids who are reading it. Even from the beginning, the book attracted an audience beyond a child audience. — Lois Lowry

So actually, there could be parents-of-the-parents-of-the-parents-of-the parents? — Lois Lowry

That's why they call you Seer. You see more than most. — Lois Lowry

I think I've written 40 books, and none of them have been heavy on action. I'm an introspective person. — Lois Lowry

Every 'no' means you are that much closer to a 'yes. — Lois Lowry

I turn to books for a feeling of companionship: for somebody knowing what I have known. — Lois Lowry

I see all of them. All the colors. — Lois Lowry

I have learned over the course of my many years that it is a bad idea, usually, to investigate piteous weeping but always a fine thing to look into a giggle. — Lois Lowry

But then everyone would be burdened and pained. They don't want that. And that's the real reason The Receiver is so vital to them, and so honored. They selected me--and you-to lift that burden from themselves. — Lois Lowry

He wept, and it felt as if the tears were cleansing him, as if his body needed to empty itself. — Lois Lowry

I would say that most of my books are contemporary realistic fiction... a couple, maybe three, fall into the 'historic fiction' category. Science fiction is not a favorite genre of mine, though I have greatly enjoyed some of the work of Ursula LeGuin. I haven't read much science fiction so I don't know other sci-fi authors. — Lois Lowry

If everyting's the same, then there aren't any choices! I want to wake up in the morning and decide things!" (Jonas) "It's the choosing that's imortant, isn't it?" The Giver asked him. — Lois Lowry

You will fail. Then they will kill you." - Vandara to Kira, following Kira's trial. — Lois Lowry

There is something about that moment, when literature becomes accessible, and a door of the world opens. — Lois Lowry

I don't read young adult or children's books, now that my grandchildren are beyond the age of my reading to them. I read reviews, and so I'm aware of what's out there. But I tend not to read the books. — Lois Lowry

Once she read a book but found it distasteful because it contained adjectives. — Lois Lowry

I left home at the correct time but when I was riding along near the hatchery, the crew was separating some salmon, I guess I just got distraught, watching them. — Lois Lowry

Because of fear, they made shelter and found food and grew things. For the same reason, weapons were stored, waiting. — Lois Lowry

When I create characters, I create a world to inhabit and they begin to feel very real for me. I don't belong in a psych ward, I don't think, but they become very real, like my own family, and then I have to say goodbye, close the door, and work on other things. — Lois Lowry

His mind reeled. Now, empowered to ask questions of utmost rudeness-and promised answers-he could, conceivably (though it was almost unimaginable), ask someone, some adult, his father perhaps: "Do you lie?" But he would have no way of knowing if the answer he received was true. — Lois Lowry

And here in this room, I re-experience the memories again and again it is how wisdom comes and how we shape our future. — Lois Lowry

And it was lonely, to yearn, all alone. — Lois Lowry

Teasing's part of the fun that comes before kissing — Lois Lowry

I don't know what she is now. A stranger, mostly. It's as if she has become a part of a different world, one that doesn't include me anymore. — Lois Lowry

There was just a moment when things weren't quite the same, weren't quite as they had always been through the long friendship — Lois Lowry

Reading is the most important way to prepare for life. — Lois Lowry

It's just that... without the memories it's all meaningless. — Lois Lowry

Things seem more when you’re little. They seem bigger, and distances seem farther. — Lois Lowry

She fell asleep, and it was a sleep as thin as the night clouds, dotted with dreams that came and went like the stars. — Lois Lowry

I don't know what you mean when you say 'the whole world' or 'generations before him.'I thought there was only us. I thought there was only now. — Lois Lowry

It is so good to have friends who understand how there is a time for crying and a time for laughing, and that sometimes the two are very close together. — Lois Lowry

She was the only doctor's wife in Branford, Maine, who hung her wash on an outdoor clothesline instead of putting it through a dryer, because she liked to look out the window and see the clothes blowing in the wind. She had been especially delighted, one day, when one sleeve of the top of her husband's pajamas, prodded by the stiff breeze off the bay, reached over and grabbed her nightgown around the waist. — Lois Lowry

I believe without a single shadow of a doubt that it is necessary for young people to learn to make choices. Learning to make right choices is the only way they will survive in an increasingly frightening world. — Lois Lowry

I think 'The Giver' is such a moral book, so filled with important truths, that I couldn't believe anyone would want to suppress it, to keep it from kids. — Lois Lowry

Life Lessons by Lois Lowry

1. Lois Lowry teaches us to be brave and open-minded in the face of adversity, to think for ourselves and to stand up for what we believe in.
2. She also shows us the importance of family and friendship, and how these relationships can help us through difficult times.
3. Finally, Lowry encourages us to be curious and explore the world around us, as it can lead to new and exciting discoveries.