Erin Bow > Quotes

“No writing is wasted. Did you know that sourdough from San Francisco is leavened partly by a bacteria called lactobacillus sanfrancisensis? It is native to the soil there, and does not do well elsewhere. But any kitchen can become an ecosystem. If you bake a lot, your kitchen will become a happy home to wild yeasts, and all your bread will taste better. Even a failed loaf is not wasted. Likewise, cheese makers wash the dairy floor with whey. Tomato gardeners compost with rotten tomatoes. No writing is wasted: the words you can't put in your book can wash the floor, live in the soil, lurk around in the air. They will make the next words better.”
― Erin Bow

“Hope will break the heart better than any sorrow.”
― Erin Bow, Plain Kate

“At night the fog was thick and full of light, and sometimes voices.”
― Erin Bow, Plain Kate

“I have business to conduct in the language of fur and claw.”
― Erin Bow, Plain Kate

“Let me tell you something that I learned from my youth, from a sage called the Road Runner. You can walk off a cliff and the air will hold you. Only, don't look down.”
― Erin Bow, The Scorpion Rules

“Taggle was absorbed in the meat pie. ‘It’s covered in BREAD,’ he huffed. ‘What fool has covered MEAT with BREAD?”
― Erin Bow, Plain Kate

“Fantasy elevates ordinary and eternal problems of young people into stories via the language of myth. It turns “No one really knows me” into “I’ve got a secret identity.” It turns “I don’t understand why other people act the way they do” into “I’m trapped in a faerie realm.” It turns “my high school must have been built over the mouth of hell” into “my high school must have been built over the mouth of hell.”

There are certain things in life that are glorious, and they are glorious for everyone. There are more that are hard, and they are hard for everyone. We like to see these things retold, but with dragons.”
― Erin Bow

“It's true that when you read YA you rarely have to read about middle-aged men having affairs. Personally I consider that a plus.”
― Erin Bow

“Often she dreamt she had two wings, and one was frightened, and one was happy.”
― Erin Bow, Plain Kate

“Did you know, the man who invented the atomic bomb once said that keeping peace through deterrence was like keeping two scorpions in one bottle? You can picture that, right? They know they can't sting without getting stung. They can't kill without getting killed. And you'd think that would stop them." He gave the book another boot, and it flipped closed with a snick. "But it doesn't." He looked up and his eyes were the color of Cherenkov radiation, the color of an orbital weapon. "You've got a bit of nerve, little scorpion. All I did was invent the bottle.”
― Erin Bow, The Scorpion Rules

“They're gone. I let them chase me. I led them like a sunbeam and vanished like a shadow.”
― Erin Bow, Plain Kate

“And then because hope will break the heart better than any sorrow, she started to cry.”
― Erin Bow, Plain Kate

“Her father sat her down and spoke to her with great seriousness. "You are not a witch, Katerina. There is magic in the world, and some of it is wholesome, and some of it is not, but it is a thing that is in the blood, and it is not in yours.
"The foolish will always treat you badly, because they think you are not beautiful," he said, and she knew this was true. Plain Kate. She was a plain as a stick and thin as a stick and flat as a stick. Her nose was too long and her brows too strong. Her father kissed her twice, once above each brow. "We cannot help what fools think. But understand, it is your skill with a blade that draws this talk. If you want to give up your carving, you have my blessing."
"I will never give it up," she answered.”
― Erin Bow, Plain Kate

“Be brave. Things will find their shape.”
― Erin Bow, Plain Kate

“No, blowing up cities doesn't work, not in the long term. You've got to find something that the people in charge aren't willing to give up. A price they aren't willing to pay.

Which leads us to Talis's first rule for stopping wars: make it personal.”
― Erin Bow, The Scorpion Rules

“I am not sure I can."
"Become sure," said the cat, his eyes flashing green in the firelight. "Once you leap on a boar's back, you can't sheath your claws.”
― Erin Bow, Plain Kate

“Perhaps it was time to stop choosing small places.”
― Erin Bow, Plain Kate

“Well. I am not afraid. But to protect you, Katerina, I will be discreet." Plain Kate considered a cat's idea of discretion, and was frightened.”
― Erin Bow, Plain Kate

“Plain Kate, Kate the Carver
No one's friend and no one's daughter
Little Kate might meet her fate
Whittling sticks till it's too late”
― Erin Bow, Plain Kate

“Your shadow is bought and paid for, and your death will not remit that payment. You can go shadowless into the shadowless world, and your death will only be one last dark thing on my long dark road. It will hurt me but I do not care. It is all but over.”
― Erin Bow, Plain Kate

“The night was white-blind with fog, and Kate staggered over every stone and stumbled in every puddle, but she pushed on as fast as she could.”
― Erin Bow, Plain Kate

“What you've survived might have shaped you, but it doesn't define you. You are a whole human being, and you are valuable. You are covered in stars”
― Erin Bow, Simon Sort of Says

“I'm not a cruel man. I mean, technically I'm not a man at all.”
― Erin Bow, The Scorpion Rules

“Taggle looked up at her, his amber eyes as deep as the loneliness Kate had felt before he became her friend.
"The traditional thing," he said slowly, "involves the river and a sack.”
― Erin Bow, Plain Kate

“Go fast, Plain Kate, and travel light
Learn to walk the shadowy night
Without a shadow, flee from light
Become a shadow, truly”
― Erin Bow, Plain Kate

“You made tools of us. Have you never considered: the thing of a tool is that anyone may use it.”
― Erin Bow, The Scorpion Rules

“There was a space inside me, cupped and still. It was small as cupped hands; it was large as the sky. It was untouched and it was touch itself. It was empty and it was full. I held love there, like a treasure. I held my own name.”
― Erin Bow, The Scorpion Rules

“What is love but a pain we choose?”
― Erin Bow, The Swan Riders

“They hurried when they could, and dozed when they had to, hiding in tangles of bloodtwig and heartsease at the edge of the road.”
― Erin Bow, Plain Kate

“The root of holiness, it turns out, is to do things deliberately.”
― Erin Bow, The Scorpion Rules