You’re better than seven years of food. You’re better than windows. You’re even better than the sky.
What she had long believed was not true, and now the world was wide open to discover what was.It is like all my life I thought the sky was green.
I don’t know how you persist in being so stubborn-“”It’s a superpower. I was bitten by a radioactive mule.
Yes, we’ll yell, ‘Help, help us, goose girl, and bring the terrifying legion of warrior geese’.
You saw my leg?””How can a man help what he sees?” he said. “And, if I could add, you possess a very fine leg.
Razo hopped back up and adopted a posture that said he was completely unruffled, never had been, and in fact was ready to do something manly like lift boulders or swallow live worms.
He smiled in a way that made me want to kiss him right on the spot. Or the lips. Whichever was closer.
I’m not bossy – I just happen to be more capable than most everyone else.
I’m Razo, a member of Bayern’s Own,” he said, stopping himself from adding “Loafing is just a hobby of mine.””Bayern’s Own? But you’re a child.” Razo looked up to the sky. “I’m not a child, I’m just short.
There’s nothing more aggravating in the world than the midnight sniffling of the person you’ve decided to hate.
Mama used to say, you have to know someone a thousand days before you can glimpse her soul.
Look no farther than your hand,Make a choice and take a stand.
There you go…let it all slide out. Unhappiness can’t stick in a person’s soul when it’s slick with tears.
I’m a terrible prince. I should put my kingdom first and everything else second, but your first. I want you by my side every second, but I know I would crumble if I lost you.
… fantasy is not practice for what is real—fantasy is the opiate of women.
Sometimes my fancy gets to floating inside me, threatening to carry me away like a leaf on a wind. Better to be a stone.
I wonder if everyone who faces death hurts like this. It’s as though for the first time I realize how much just being alive makes my body ache. But I don’t want that ache to stop.
I’m writing a first draft and reminding myself that I’m simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles.
Throwing herself into learning helped Miri ignore the painful chill of solitude around her.
A castle of defense, a bastion of mightA fort where the wise teach the young to fightAn armory of weapons, sharp as hooksAre wrapped in leather and shelved as books
If we’re mad, we’re mad in large numbers, at least larger than yours.
Careful with the accusations of insanity, oh my lady whose home is a tower with windows of brick, all for the sake of some skinny-ankled, laugh-prone boy of a khan.
My heart’s so light it floats and carries me so my feet don’t walk. I sing all day and I don’t mind the washing, and that’s how I know I’m in love. Completely smitten with My Lord the cat.
Personally, I believe “Young Adult” to be an arbitrary title that means the book “Can be enjoyed by anyone/Has a main character who’s not quite an adult/Isn’t really boring.
She closed the book and put her cheek against it. There was still an odor of a library on it, of dust, leather, binding glue, and old paper, one book carrying the smell of hundreds.
The book smelled dusty and old but also carried a sweet tang, a hint of something inviting. She opened to the first page and started to read, pronouncing the words in a reverent whisper.
But, how do you know if an ending is truly good for the characters unless you’ve traveled with them through every page?
I’m going to find whoever is responsible for me sleeping out side with outside without pillows and kick them in the shins!-Enna
Over there!” “Where?” Enna asked in mock panic “Do you see something?
When you get tired of worrying and mourning your horse and trying not to be afraid, tell me and I’ll do it for you a while so you can shut your eyes and sleep peaceful.
My friends call me by my name.””You don’t have any friends.””I don’t want you to be my friend, Selia, or my servant, not now. I thought you were both. You have let me know I was wrong. So are you to treat me so. You are wrong.
And Isi always listened, never told Enna she had been foolish, never said hollow things like ‘You’ll be all right.’ . . . Isi saw Enna’s struggle and her sadness, and she understood.
Get back in my cot, girl,” said Gilsa. “You’re sickly.”No, I’m not,” said Ani.Oh, no? Well, maybe stubbornness is a sickness, did you ever think of that?
Even the jerks earn some of our affection. We can be glad they’re gone and yet still mourn the good parts.
No wolf falters before the bite, so strike.No hawk wavers before the dive, so swing.No sun pauses before the set, just strike.No rain delays before the fall, just swing.
You don’t need luck. You are powerful, clever, and fearless.
Courage is feeling justly afraid and yet still doing what is right.
Jane Austen had created six heroines, each quite different, and that gave Charlotte courage. There wasn’t just one kind of woman to be.
…even if things were broken right now. Sometimes it was the cracks that let the light in.
Life feels like fall of itself.”“’A dream within a dream.”“And I want to wake up.
Life feels like fall of itself.””‘A dream within a dream.””And I want to wake up.
Maybe I got a few words wrong, but that’s so near how the conversation went, I’m going to call it truth.
They weren’t nice words he said. He could’ve lived a good life and died never having made a person feel rubbed down to bones and too sad to hold together.
I wish stories were kinder to their characters,” Maddie said. “But I guess trouble is more interesting to read about.
A cat can make you feel well rested when you’re tired or turn a rage into a calm just by sitting on your lap. His very nearness is a healing song.
…first thing is that I love you. And the second thing is that as much as I honor your former profession, I don’t think your geese care much for your betrothed and I hope they hadn’t any plans on sharing our bed.
I’m sorry, my lady,” said Geric, rubbing his arm. “But I failed to force an apology out of the offending goose.
He had a dashing smile. It nearly dashed right off his face.
Don’t beat yourself up,” said Charlotte. “True love can be so easily mistaken for other things-friendship, humane concern, indigestion…
Briar stood, pushing up her sleeves. ‘It’s about to get all nonfiction in here’.
Ani saw herself clearly in that moment, as a face in darkness gains sudden dimensions in a flash of lightning – a young girl, a silly thing, a lapdog, a broken mare.
The snow was too light to stay, the ground too warm to keep it. And the strange spring snow fell only in that golden moment of dawn, the turning of the page between night and day.
I think sometimes, being silent and watching, can change a person.
We were quiet, two tiny specks glued down by gravity, peering at a universe that didn’t notice us back.
Sometimes it seems my identity’s a matter of opinion
Reading a book is like going on a great journey. You don’t know what’ll happen, but something is bound to change. And for me, that change has always been good.
I didn’t raise you I be good and weak. I raised you to be powerful and happy.
Don’t let the inconsequential fairy tales stand in your way! You do what makes you happy, no matter what.
The woman gestured to a seat and put on a patient face. An impatient sort of patient face, like an impatient face dressing up as a patient one for Halloween.
To be powerful, a kiss should make a journey, be its own story–begin with hesitation, move to realization, then melt into bliss.
..giving into despair was like eating poisonous berries to keep from feeling hungry.
I’d thought I wanted to live free of my mundane little cage, but the world outside was feeling more and more hazardous.
But Princess Magnolia wore glass slippers on weekdays. Princess Magnolia was afraid of snails. Sunlight made Princess Magnolia sneeze. And at the moment, the Princess in Black was hog-tying a monster.
Most people are genuinely good, sweetheart, and even the evil ones have some good in them. -Shannon Hale
Charlotte wondered if she would have recognized the crazy much earlier if he looked more like Steve Buscemi then Mr. Medieval Hotness.
Why was the judgement of the disapproving so valuable? Who said that their good opinions tended to be any more rational than those of generally pleasant people?
It doesn’t seem to matter what we think…The prince will come up here and look at us as if we’re barrels in a trader’s wagon. And if I’m salt pork and he doesn’t care for salt pork, then there’s nothing I can do.
It’s good to cry a bit, ’cause that helps us get through the rough parts. And the winter is though, there’s no doubt. But we just hang on until spring when that ache will be all but swallowed up.
And this is where I’ll end, before I know what happens next.
Clearly she was expected to say something, but panic at having to speak stole the thoughts from her head.