Brenna Yovanoff > Quotes

“The treachery of demons is nothing compared to the betrayal of an angel.”
― Brenna Yovanoff, The Space Between

“I wanted to tell her that I loved her, and not in the complicated way I loved our parents, but in a simple way I never had to think about. I loved her like breathing.”
― Brenna Yovanoff, The Replacement

“My father gave me a ruined boy to compensate for the fact that he does not love me.

The boy is fragile, broken—broke himself—broke everything.

I asked him why he did it. He said because the world was unlivable. He said it was unlovable, but I think he meant himself. I think he meant that loneliness is sometimes painful.

I curl against him, tuck my head beneath his chin and listen to his heart. It says stay and wait. It says regret. He knows what it is to want love, a love so fierce you grow roots. I hear his heart say please.

He went looking for angels and found me instead, girl of the sorrows, sad but not sorry. I waited for a sign, a star to fall. He reached for a knife and drew branches.”
― Brenna Yovanoff

“Do you really want to know where we come from?" she said. "In every century, in every country, they'll call us something different. They'll say we're ghosts, angels, demons, elemental spirits, and giving us a name doesn't help anybody. When did a name change what someone is?”
― Brenna Yovanoff, The Replacement

“‎The simple truth is that you can understand a town. You can know and love and hate it. You can blame it, resent it, and nothing changes. In the end, you're just another part of it.”
― Brenna Yovanoff

“You asked about love. I don't know about love, Daphne. I just know I don't want anything but you. I don't want to anywhere but with you.”
― Brenna Yovanoff, The Space Between

“Once, my mother told a whole host of angels that she’d rather die than go back to a man she didn’t love.”
― Brenna Yovanoff, The Space Between

“Intention is one of the most powerful forces there is. What you mean when you do a thing will always determine the outcome. The law creates the world.”
― Brenna Yovanoff, The Replacement

“Sometimes this was just the way the game ended. Sometimes you did your best, and it all went straight to hell anyway.”
― Brenna Yovanoff, The Replacement

“He is broken in three ways, sometimes four. I count them.

-He believes himself to be human, but is not actually. At least not anymore. This is similar to the way he believes himself to be alive.
-He has a grim affinity for drugs. This comes with no caveat and no parentheses. This is just a fact of life.
-He is doggedly unhappy and once decided to kill himself. Sadly, he has not really stopped.
-On certain occasions when these first three things have ceased to be bad enough, he loves me. The other sins are commonplace, forgivable under a big enough umbrella. This fourth is irrevocable. Unconscionable. In a word, it is utterly damning.”
― Brenna Yovanoff

“The Cutter leaned toward me, resting his forehead against mine. 'Fool me once,' he whispered, 'shame on you.' He pressed the bridge of his nose against mine, his breath burning the back of my throat. His voice was rough and furious. 'Fool me twice, and I will cut out your fucking throat.”
― Brenna Yovanoff, The Replacement

“The simple truth is that you can understand the way you are. You can know and love and hate it. You can blame it, resent it, and nothing changes. In the end, you're just a part of it.”
― Brenna Yovanoff, The Replacement

“Love is when you care more about something else than you do about yourself.”
― Brenna Yovanoff, The Space Between

“Tender," she said again. "Tender is kind and gentle. It's also sore, like the skin around an injury.”
― Brenna Yovanoff, The Space Between

“I wanted it in the way you sometimes want to jump into very cold water, even though you know it won't feel good. I wanted to go numb. To see what it felt like to be someone else.”
― Brenna Yovanoff, The Replacement

“In his youth, he was electrified. The stars were moving in his bloodstream. He would not have been cowed by the customs of an earthly monarch. When he loved, it was with a heat and a desperation that he carried like a sword. He loved in the way that Greeks burned cities.”
― Brenna Yovanoff

“All my life, I've understood the nature of where I come from, but I never thought it might be wicked until now.”
― Brenna Yovanoff, The Space Between

“Let me tell you a little bit about demons. They love pain and other people’s misery. They lie when it suits them and don’t see anything wrong with it. They corrupt and kill and destroy, all without conscience. You just don’t have the capacity for something as honorable as loving another person.”
― Brenna Yovanoff, The Space Between

“You can't keep acting like this," Lillian says, and for the first time in months, it's like she's actually trying to be nice. "Tragedy isn't this evil thing that came from outer space. It's just there, you know. Along with everything else.”
― Brenna Yovanoff, Paper Valentine

“All great acts are ruled by intention. What you mean is what you get.”
― Brenna Yovanoff, The Replacement

“Goodbye," she said.
When I didn't say it back, she rested her hand on the top of my head. The weight was strange and gentle. "I love you," she said. "And when I tell you goodbye, I don't mean forever or for long. Just that I'm going home now, and so are you.”
― Brenna Yovanoff, The Replacement

“I've never been impulsive. It's always been in my nature to consider things carefully and then decide upon the best solution. Except, sometimes the circumstances change. Sometimes things get so complicated and so bad that your nature just doesn't matter anymore.”
― Brenna Yovanoff, The Space Between

“People do that sometimes. Change.”
― Brenna Yovanoff, Paper Valentine

“My father's answer was revenge-has always been revenge-and the outcome was just, but not better. Nothing is fixed.”
― Brenna Yovanoff, The Space Between

“I'm not normal, Tate."

"I know." Her hand was working its way under my shirt, then touching my skin, sliding over my chest and stomach. "Does this feel good?"

I closed my eyes and nodded.

"You're normal enough.”
― Brenna Yovanoff, The Replacement

“He knew how useless words could be. How even when you wanted more than anything just to hear someone say they understood, it didn’t make you feel better. Not really.”
― Brenna Yovanoff, The Space Between

“They?" he said, sounding apprehensive.
"Me. They're like me."
"Don't be a jackass," Roswell said, but not meanly. "No one's like you.”
― Brenna Yovanoff, The Replacement

“When did a name ever change what someone is?”
― Brenna Yovanoff, The Replacement

“The fact is, the contest has always been invulnerability, and even when you win, you still lose.”
― Brenna Yovanoff, Paper Valentine

“Kissing him is like the wildest, most thrilling thing that has ever happened to me. It's like diving into the deep end over and over. He touches the curve of my lip with his tongue, just once, so softly, and I think the whole world is ending, the sudden warmth of his mouth jolting through me like a shock. I hold on like I'm falling off the top of a tall cliff or I'm lost at sea, like he's the only thing solid in the whole tilting world.”
― Brenna Yovanoff, Paper Valentine