Kate Milford > Quotes

“Nobody said it had to be a story with an ending all neatly tied up like some ridiculous fairy tale. This story's true, and true stories don't have endings, because things just keep going.”
― Kate Milford, Greenglass House

“Everybody feels better when there's cake”
― Kate Milford, Greenglass House

“When there's evil standing in your way, you got to get around it however you can, Natalie. You got to look it in the eye, let it know you see it and that it can't creep up on you. What's dangerous is pretending it isn't there at all and letting it get closer and closer while you're looking someplace else, until suddenly evil's walking alongside you like you were two friends out for a stroll on Sunday. So you look it in the face. You tell it with your eyes that you know what it is, that it don't have you fooled. You tell it you know what GOOD looks like.”
― Kate Milford, The Boneshaker

“Always check for traps, left is always right unless there's a middle, always put your healer in the best armor and wear your magic rings on your toes instead of your fingers...What else?...Always have rope.”
― Kate Milford, Greenglass House

“Places, like people, are complex, and loving them isn't simple.”
― Kate Milford, Shadowhunters and Downworlders: A Mortal Instruments Reader

“... The thing about attics and basements was, everything in there had once been a treasure to someone.”
― Kate Milford, Greenglass House

“Troube comes when a person starts asking for money; it never does what they think it will do. And then there's the problem of destiny. Things never turn out well when you try to outwit destiny. Only fools do that.”
― Kate Milford, Greenglass House

“Every city, every town, hides beneath a certain amount of glamour that- either intentionally or not- can misdirect the eye or hide something worth finding. Learning to see through those glamours is part of the process of calling any place home.”
― Kate Milford, Shadowhunters and Downworlders: A Mortal Instruments Reader

“It is not merely our adversaries we must investigate...We must always work to know ourselves better, too.”
― Kate Milford, Greenglass House

“Most things cost something you can give up, but they aren’t worth anything – not really, not in the end. But some things . . . some have to be given free, because if you had to put a price on them, their true value would be too great for any one person to afford.”
― Kate Milford, The Boneshaker

“Even places you know well can take on a touch of the unknown when you arrive there from a different direction.”
― Kate Milford, Shadowhunters and Downworlders: A Mortal Instruments Reader

“any book in the world - if there was only one way to read and understand it, what would be the point of reading that book?”
― Kate Milford, The Broken Lands

“The beauty of fantasy is that it allows the protagonist to pass through fear to come to know this different reality and to find a place in it.”
― Kate Milford, Shadowhunters and Downworlders: A Mortal Instruments Reader

“She was thirteen, the daughter of a bicycle mechanic, and she couldn't ride this bicycle. It fought her; it threw her; it hated her.”
― Kate Milford, The Boneshaker

“Everyone know—or at least, was probably told as a child—that you can make a wish on a shooting star. Not everyone knows that the only way to be sure it will come ture is to speak it aloud before the star disappears, and this is a nearly imposssible fet to manage.”
― Kate Milford, Greenglass House

“It is the magic of that-which-remains, of that-which-is-alone. It is, in many ways, the magic of desperation, but it is never the magic of chance. When one remains, it is the one that was meant to remain. It is the one that is special; it is precious because it is unique; it is powerful because that is how it survived. There is one bone in a cat that may call me, but it must be separated from the others to do its work. It has potential when it is connected to the rest, but when it is sundered away, its potential becomes power.”
― Kate Milford, Greenglass House

“Never overlook folklore if you want to really know about the place it came from.”
― Kate Milford, Greenglass House

“The world is not simple. The world is not one place. It's the sum of an impossible number of incomprehensible things, and if you start out on any road in the world and follow it for any distance at all, sooner or later you enter into a strange country.”
― Kate Milford, The Broken Lands

“Well . . . well, yes, I suppose it’s very old. Perhaps someone just assumed that since it was an antique, it must be worth something.”
― Kate Milford, Greenglass House

“A crossroads can be something special, a compass with arms reaching to places you might never find the way to again; places that might exist, or might have existed once, or might exist someday, depending on whether or not you decide to look for them.”
― Kate Milford, The Boneshaker

“I've never understood all this stock people put into destiny anyhow. Only fools rely on destiny. ... Plus, if destiny exists, it doesn't seem it would be very functional if you could thwart it with a single wish.”
― Kate Milford, Greenglass House

“But if home suddenly becomes not like home, what then?”
― Kate Milford, Shadowhunters and Downworlders: A Mortal Instruments Reader

“Sirin pointed to the hat. “Helm of Revelations,” she said, deadpan. “Eyes of True and Aching Clarity,” she added, indicating the glasses. “Now you’re just making stuff up,” Negret protested. “Obviously, though it’s interesting that it was magic glasses that clued you in rather than the invisibility cloak.” She grinned. “It’s fun. Look.” She took a pair of brown leather gloves from the pocket of her pants. “For you. Wildthorn’s Crackerjack Gauntlets, for Pickers of Locks and Creepers Through Windows Needing Nimble and Foxy Fingers.” She eyed the roof overhead, creaking under the weight of winter. “Also guaranteed to be useful when it’s cold.”
― Kate Milford, Greenglass House

“There is the world you know, the world you have always known; and then you blink, and there is a place you never had any inkling of, and it spreads out across your eyescape. And then, most shockingly of all: there is the realization that these two places are one and the same. It turns out you never really knew the world around you at all. This is often the moment at which adventure begins.”
― Kate Milford, Shadowhunters and Downworlders: A Mortal Instruments Reader

“Cities have the capability to at any moment shift out of the familiar, even if you've lived in one all your life.”
― Kate Milford, Shadowhunters and Downworlders: A Mortal Instruments Reader

“In a city, with all of its enclaves and boundaries, both real and imagined, it is impossible not to feel the presence of those who are not like you and impossible not to feel like an outsider.”
― Kate Milford, Shadowhunters and Downworlders: A Mortal Instruments Reader

“And this is the world you saved. Did you expect it to be different, suddenly? Did you expect it to be grateful?”
― Kate Milford

“You have to look at a thing long enough for it to really show itself to you...”
― Kate Milford, Shadowhunters and Downworlders: A Mortal Instruments Reader

“In a tabletop game? Chance and probability. The higher your ability score, the better your chances. You roll a die to see if you succeed. For you, here and now?” She grinned. “Believe you can do it and try hard.”
― Kate Milford, Greenglass House

“Found it,” Mr. Pine said, waving a plastic bottle of colorless liquid and a box of matches. “It was on the liquor shelf, ’cause that’s both logical and safe. Your mother, sometimes . . .”
― Kate Milford, Greenglass House