Judy I. Lin > Quotes

“Grief has a taste, bitter and lingering, but so soft it sometimes disguises itself as sweetness.”
― Judy I. Lin, A Magic Steeped in Poison

“There is a difference between living the suffering and reading about it.”
― Judy I. Lin, A Magic Steeped in Poison

“How can I give another part of myself to someone else, when I already have so little to give?”
― Judy I. Lin, A Magic Steeped in Poison

“The magic is not in the ceremony of pouring the tea or the sharing of the cup. It is in the connection, the brief joining of souls. The tea leaves are a channel, the ingredients the signposts.”
― Judy I. Lin, A Magic Steeped in Poison

“I'll rescue you ten times over if I will be kissed like that every time”
― Judy I. Lin, A Magic Steeped in Poison

“Human hands make mistakes, Ning, but they are the hands the gods gave us. We use them to make amends, to do good things.”
― Judy I. Lin, A Magic Steeped in Poison

“We all believe we are the center of the universe, but we forget we are merely specks among the stars. Moving through the streams of possible futures, sometimes colliding.”
― Judy I. Lin, A Venom Dark and Sweet

“But the distance between us is too far, as vast as the divide between brothers who fought for a throne, or gods who tore apart a continent.”
― Judy I. Lin, A Magic Steeped in Poison

“When you’re told since you came out of the womb that you can do anything, why would you ever hesitate? If you were told at birth that the world is supposed to bow down to you, you would think it natural that you are destined to climb”
― Judy I. Lin, A Magic Steeped in Poison

“If you can feel someone else’s suffering, how can you look away?”
― Judy I. Lin, A Magic Steeped in Poison

“She is my family, and they tried to hurt me through her. I’ve tried to send her away for her own protection, and she crossed the entire empire to save me. I will never leave her again.”
― Judy I. Lin, A Magic Steeped in Poison

“Everyone is able to see the stars; it’s the interpretation that is the dangerous part.”
― Judy I. Lin, A Magic Steeped in Poison

“Never forget, she told us. The world began with a dream. Our lives are the same. Keep dreaming, my daughters. The world is greater than you know.”
― Judy I. Lin, A Venom Dark and Sweet

“The tongue needs a little sweetness, she'd say. It teaches the heart how to love.”
― Judy I. Lin, A Magic Steeped in Poison

“The nice thing about growing old is you realize everything circles back on itself'....'Things change, but they circle back, too. The stars continue along their course, the cowherd is always reunited with the maiden. It's comforting in a way. Makes it feel less lonely.”
― Judy I. Lin, A Magic Steeped in Poison

“《I blinked and the moment was gone. I dreamed of a thousand lifetimes, and it would not be enough.》”
― Judy I. Lin, Song of the Six Realms

“The bond of family is a kind of magic all its own.”
― Judy I. Lin, A Venom Dark and Sweet

“I should have told you about every dream,” I whispered to him. “Every wild and impossible dream I wanted to share with you.”
― Judy I. Lin, Song of the Six Realms

“A peculiar expression crosses his face. “Ning,” he sighs, and a shiver runs through me. “You … you have power. More than you know. More power than those foolish nobles in their grand residences, protected from the hardships of the world. You know what it’s like out there, living each day wondering if you will survive the next. You have hungered.”
― Judy I. Lin, A Magic Steeped in Poison

“I was ignorant and hopeful instead of anxious and afraid.”
― Judy I. Lin, A Magic Steeped in Poison

“Anger is good. Anger is safe. I choke down my confusion, until it remains only as a tremor in my leg, tapping a frantic beat on the ground.”
― Judy I. Lin, A Magic Steeped in Poison

“There are those who refuse to see things even when the truth is right before them. Sometimes it is better to work around them than to try to convince them of a truth they cannot comprehend.”
― Judy I. Lin, A Venom Dark and Sweet

“Magic does not belong to Shénnóng. It is not unique to one god or the other. Those are human terms, human rules. All magic is the same. It is only the vessel that shapes it.”
― Judy I. Lin, A Venom Dark and Sweet

“I was no longer a girl orphaned, a woman lost. I was the song, spiraling upward. A water spirit, dancing in the light.”
― Judy I. Lin, Song of the Six Realms

“But as I’ve learned, pretty faces cannot always be trusted, and the pain is his own fault entirely.”
― Judy I. Lin, A Magic Steeped in Poison

“And that is what this brew is about. The taste of being human. Of making mistakes. Of being young again. The reminder that sometimes we are the laborer and sometimes we are the one at rest.”
― Judy I. Lin, A Magic Steeped in Poison

“Shu's face is the last thing I remember as the darkness sweeps me away.”
― Judy I. Lin, A Magic Steeped in Poison

“If I were only a Mortal girl, and he my Mortal lover, where would we go?”
― Judy I. Lin, Song of the Six Realms

“To be human is to be vulnerable. To be human is to have more power than the gods will ever wield”
― Judy I. Lin, A Venom Dark and Sweet

“Only you … only you…,” he wheezes. “Only you would call the god of nightmares … a scheming rat.”
― Judy I. Lin, A Venom Dark and Sweet