A.J. Hackwith > Quotes

“Claire lived by the firm moral philosophy that one could never have too many pockets, too many books, or too much tea.”
― A.J. Hackwith, The Library of the Unwritten

“Forgiven doesn't mean no regret. We'll always regret the wrongs we've done. It just means you're not punishing yourself for it.”
― A.J. Hackwith, The Library of the Unwritten

“Stories can die. Of course they can. Ask any author who's had an idea wither in their head, fail to thrive and bear fruit. Or a book that spoke to you as a child but upon revisiting it was silent and empty. Stories can die from neglect, from abuse, from rot. Even war, as Shakespeare warned, can turn books to graves.
We seek to preserve the books, of course. But we forget the flip side of that duty: treasure what we have. Honor the stories that speak to you, that give you something you need to keep going. Cherish stories while they are here.
There's a reason the unwritten live on something as fragile as paper.”
― A.J. Hackwith, The Library of the Unwritten

“The pain in death isn't the dying. It's the wounds we leave in our wake.”
― A.J. Hackwith, The Library of the Unwritten

“How much easier it would be if everyone knew their role: the hero, the sidekick, the villain. Our books would be neater and our souls less frayed. But whether you have blood or ink, no one's story is that simple.”
― A.J. Hackwith, The Library of the Unwritten

“The trouble with reading is it goes to your head. Read too many books and you get savvy. You begin to think you know which kind of story you’re in. Then some stupid git with a cosmic quill fucks you over.”
― A.J. Hackwith, The Library of the Unwritten

“We think stories are contained things, but they’re not. Ask the muses. Humans, stories, tragedies, and wishes—everything leaves ripples in the world. Nothing we do is not felt; that’s a comfort. Nothing we do is not felt; that’s a curse.
Librarian Poppaea Julia, 50 BCE”
― A.J. Hackwith, The Library of the Unwritten

“We have a choice, all of us, in seeing the world and system we participate in. At some point, we are confronted with the cost. What suffers for happiness. What dies for life. Even Caesar couldn't keep such a thing hidden, the blood that waters an empire's soil. You have a choice. You can choose to close your eyes and enjoy your lucky position on the good earth. You can choose to walk away.

Or you can choose to rebel.”
― A.J. Hackwith, The Library of the Unwritten

“The best stories are bled.”
― A.J. Hackwith, The Library of the Unwritten

“Stories are, at the most basic level, how we make sense of the world. It doesn’t do to forget that sometimes heroes fail you when you need them the most. Sometimes you throw your lot in with villains.”
― A.J. Hackwith, The Library of the Unwritten

“They burn them first, the stories. Humans always come for the stories first. It’s their warm-up, before they start burning other humans. It’s their first form of control, to burn the libraries, to burn the books, to burn the archives of a culture. Humans are the stories they tell. If you want to destroy your enemy, destroy their stories. Even if the people survive, it will be as if they never existed at all.”
― A.J. Hackwith, The Archive of the Forgotten

“A lie. A dream. Good stories are both.”
― a.j. hackwith, The Library of the Unwritten

“Nothing burns up humanity as thoroughly as eternity.”
― A.J. Hackwith, The Library of the Unwritten

“There is no library of secrets. Secrets cannot be kept or curated. Secrets have no need for a library but each library needs secrets. Books are a secret hidden in plain sight. Read me, they say. Look at me. Turn my pages. Touch my spine. Read my words, and content yourself.

Every book is a secret that only readers know.”
― A.J. Hackwith, The Archive of the Forgotten

“History is told by the victors, isn’t that how it goes? Fight for something and lose, you’re insurrectionists, conspirators, terrorists. Fight for something and win, you’re rebels, freedom fighters, founding fathers. History is a story told in past tense, the best kind of propaganda. What everyone forgets is that, at one point in the story, every villain thinks they are the hero. History happens in the edit.”
― A.J. Hackwith, The God of Lost Words

“It is a story’s natural ambition to wake up and start telling itself to the world.”
― A.J. Hackwith, The Library of the Unwritten

“He said something about... ah, you know who," Leto said. "
"Lucifer's our ruler, not a dark wizard, Leto. You can say his name," Claire muttered.”
― A.J. Hackwith, The Library of the Unwritten

“Stories are, at the most basic level, how we make sense of the world.”
― A.J. Hackwith, The Library of the Unwritten

“Books are knowledge weaponized. And what weapons you cannot steal, you must burn. Librarian Gregor Henry, 1986 CE”
― A.J. Hackwith, The Library of the Unwritten

“To be a librarian is to be in rebellion against time, against the world.”
― A.J. Hackwith, The Archive of the Forgotten

“Maybe a library isn’t defined by what it holds. Maybe it is defined by what it does.”
― A.J. Hackwith, The God of Lost Words

“Every book carried a scar, a splinter of psyche, that was essential to its need to exist.”
― A.J. Hackwith, The Archive of the Forgotten

“You can care and still cause harm. Feeling, caring, for someone else is the worst kind of weapon, in my experience. It allows you to do things you never through you could do and things you never thought you would do. All for the love of someone else.”
― A.J. Hackwith, The Library of the Unwritten

“Listen. That's the part of the librarian's job that everyone forgets. Listen. Listen to your books, listen to your patrons. Listen to your enemies, even; when they're maddest is when you know you're doing something right. A librarian's job is to listen. A library's job is to be a place where the hopeless can feel seen and heard too.”
― A.J. Hackwith, The God of Lost Words

“War has always followed libraries, my apprentice. History has made no effort to hide that truth from us. Look at Rome; look at the Crusades. Vanquishing an enemy and taking his books was just as strategic as taking his cannons. Books are knowledge weaponized. And what weapons you cannot steal, you must burn.”
― A.J. Hackwith, The Library of the Unwritten

“Creatures of Hell, on general principle, took to following orders as well as one might expect. Which is to say, not at all and with liberal interpretation.”
― A.J. Hackwith, The Library of the Unwritten

“Two different beasts: deception and secrets. Deceptions are when you lie to others; secrets are when you lie to yourself.”
― A.J. Hackwith, The Library of the Unwritten

“A library is people. Just as much as it is books and archives. You want to know the heart of a library, don’t look at its most famous books; look at the people it serves. Who it comforts, who it protects. The heart of a library may be its books, but its soul is its people. Humans and stories, impossible to separate the two.”
― A.J. Hackwith, The God of Lost Words

“It’s easy to be brave on a leash.”
― A.J. Hackwith, The Library of the Unwritten

“Humans love to make things complicated. Look at belief. They build whole morality and judgment systems on it—who believes what, believes in the right way, believes strongly enough. It’s so unnecessary. Belief, when you get right down to it, is just a powerful story. Tell a story well, and the reader doesn’t just want it to be true—they know it is. Get enough souls to believe in a story, and you can change the world. Or make one.”
― A.J. Hackwith, The God of Lost Words