Kathryn Lasky > Quotes

“I am ashamed of anyone who has eyes and still can't see.”
― Kathryn Lasky, The Journey

“Legends were not only for the desperate. Legends were for the brave. (Soren)”
― Kathryn Lasky, The Capture

“They did not hear Grimble, as he lay dying, chant in the true voice of the Boreal Owl, in tones like chimes in the night, an ancient owl prayer, “I have redeemed myself by giving belief to the wings of the young. Blessed are those who believe, for indeed they shall fly."”
― Kathryn Lasky, The Capture

“A legend, Kludd, is a story that you begin to feel in your gizzard and then over time it becomes true in your heart. And perhaps makes you become a better owl.”
― Kathryn Lasky, The Capture

“Dreams weigh nothing. - Marie Antoinette”
― Kathryn Lasky, Marie Antoinette: Princess of Versailles, Austria, France, 1769

“Flutter like a hummingbird,
Dive like an eagle,
Ain't no bird that's my equal.
- Twilight”
― Kathryn Lasky, The Capture

“You ugly rat-faced birds.
You call yourself a bird?
You call yourself an owl?
You ain't no decent kind of fowl!
They call you Jatt?
They call you Jutt?
I'm gonna toss you in a rut!
Then I'm gonna punch you in the gut!
Then your gonna wind up on your butt!
Think you're all gizzard!
I seen better lizards.
One-Two-Three-Four,
You're goin' down, won't ask for more.
Five-Six-Seven-Eight,
You ain't better than fish bait...
Nine-Ten-Eleven-Twelve,
I'm gonna send you straight to hell.
-Twilight”
― Kathryn Lasky, The Capture

“It has been a week since Ami died and this morning I woke suddenly hours before dawn, indeed the same hour as when my mother died. It was not a dream that woke me, but a thought. And with that thought I could swear I heard Ami's voice.
But I am not frightened. I am joyous. Joyous with realization. For I cannot help but think what a lucky person I am. Imagine that in all the eons of time, in all the possible universes of which Dara speaks, of all the stars in the heavens, Ami and I came together for one brief and shining sliver of time.

I stop. I think.

Supposing in the grand infinity of this universe two particles of life, Ami and me, swirl endlessly like grains of sand in the oceans of the world -- how much of a chance is there for these two particles, these two grains of sand, to collide, to rest briefly together... at the same moment in time?
That is what happened with Ami and me... this miracle of chance.”
― Kathryn Lasky

“Blood hardly defines one's character. We are made by our actions, not our blood. - Soren”
― Kathryn Lasky, The Golden Tree

“Otulissa swelled up to twice her normal size. 'Well, SPRINK ON YOUR SPRONK!”
― Kathryn Lasky, The Siege

“I am ashamed of anyone who has eyes and still cannot see. (Mrs. Plithiver)”
― Kathryn Lasky, The Journey

“Very possible! Possible, indeed. Maybe even probable, which, as you know if you study your arithmetic,can happen more often than possible. In other words, probable is more possible than possible. - Bubo”
― Kathryn Lasky, The Rescue

“One creature's truth is another's lie. (Scroom of Strix Struma)”
― Kathryn Lasky, The Outcast

“We are the owls of the weather chaw.
We take it blistering,
We take it all.
Roiling boiling gusts,
We're the owls with the guts.
For blizzards our gizzards
Dr tremble with joy.
An ice storm, a gale, how we love blinding hail.
We fly forward and backward,
Upside down and flat.
Do we flinch? Do we wail?
Do we skitter or scutter?
No, we yarp one more pellet
And fly straight for the gutter!
Do we screech? Do we scream?
Do we gurgle? Take pause?
Not on your life!
For we are the best
Of the best of the chaws!”
― Kathryn Lasky, The Journey

“Night is done, gone the moon, gone the stars
From the skies.
Fades the black of night
Comes the morn with rosy light.
Fold your wings, go to sleep,
Rest your gizzards, Safe you'll be for the day.
Glaux is nigh.
Far away is first black,
But it shall seep back
Over field
Over flower
In the twilight hour.
We are home in our tree.
We are owls, we are free.
As we go, this we know
Glaux is nigh.”
― Kathryn Lasky, The Journey

“Everything here at St. Aggie's is upside down and inside out. It's our job not to get moon blinked and to stand right side up in an upside down world. If we don't do that we'll never be able to escape. We'll never be able to think. And thinking is the only way we'll be able to plan an escape."
-Gylfie”
― Kathryn Lasky, The Capture

“Cycling, cycling forever
bear, wolf, caribou.
When had it all started, where will it end?
We are all part of one, from such simple beginnings and yet all so different.
Yet one.
One and again.”
― Kathryn Lasky, Lone Wolf

“What gives a wriggle
And makes you giggle
When you eat'em?
Whose weensy little feet
Make my heart really beat?
Why, it's those little creepy crawlies
That make me feel so jolly.

For the darling centipede
My favorite buggy feed
I always want some more.
That's the insect I adore
More than beetles, more than crickets,
Which at times gives me the hiccups.
I crave only to feed
On a juicy centipede
And I shall be happy forevermore."
-Soren”
― Kathryn Lasky, The Capture

“Courage... is fear holding on just a bit longer.”
― Kathryn Lasky, Watch Wolf

“What is a fleecy as a cloud,
As majestic and shimmering as the breaking dawn,
As gorgeous as the sun the sun is strong?
Why, it's ME!
Twilight, the Great Gray,
Tiger of the sky ---
Light of the Night, Most beautiful,
An avian delight.
I beam ---
I gleam ---
I'm a livin' flying dream.
Watch me roll off this cloud and pop on back.
This is flying.
I ain't no hack.”
― Kathryn Lasky, The Journey

“A spark can become a flame, a flame a fire.”
― Kathryn Lasky, Lone Wolf

“You must not think of time as a quantity, a period, a measure. Look at the sky," Gwynneth said. "The moon has now slipped away to another night, into another world. It was not the time it was here that you remember, Faolan, but rather the luminescence of the air, the blue shadows cast by the trees in its light. It was not the length of the time but the quality of the moon's light that you felt and remember." Gwynneth paused. "It is the value, the quality that lives on.”
― Kathryn Lasky, Lone Wolf

“We're going to bash them birds,
Them rat-feathered birds.
Them bad-butt owls ain't never heard
'Bout Gylfie, Soren, Dig, and Twilight
Just let them get to feel my bite
Their li'l ole gizzards gonna turn to pus
And our feathers hardly mussed.
Oh, me. Oh, my. They gonna cry.
One look at Twilight,
They know they're gonna die.
I see fear in their eyes
And that ain't all.
They know that Twilight's got the gall.
Gizzard with gall that makes him great
And every bad owl gonna turn to bait.”
― Kathryn Lasky, The Journey

“Why, if one were Queen, would one ever want to marry? If one is ruler, is it not better to both King and Queen? That is exactly what a woman can do if she remains without a mate.”
― Kathryn Lasky

“Give me a hot coal glowing bright red,
Give me an ember sizzling with heat,
These are the jewels made from my beak.
We fly between the flames and never get singed
We plunge through the smoke and never cringe.
The secrets of fire, its strange winds, its rages,
We know it all as it rampages
Through forests, through canyons,
Up hillsides and down.
We track it.
We'll find it.
Take coals by the pound.
We'll yarp in the heart of the hottest flame
Then bring back its coals an make them tame.
For we are the colliers brave and beyond all
We are the owls of the colliering chaw!”
― Kathryn Lasky, The Journey

“What are emotions exactly?' Lutta asked. 'Silly feelings that get in the way of actions.”
― Kathryn Lasky, To Be a King

“Words, as you well know, can be powerful. - Digger”
― Kathryn Lasky, The Golden Tree

“Hush little owl,
You're with Twi.
I got the moves to get you by.
Big bad crows.
St. Aggie's scamps
Ain't got nothin to show the champ.
I'll pop a spiral
With a twist,
Do a three-sixty
And scatter mist----”
― Kathryn Lasky, The Journey

“And if you can't imagine, nothing will ever happen.”
― Kathryn Lasky, The River of Wind

“Far away if first black,
But it shall be back
Over field
Over flower
In the twilight hour.
We are home in our tree.
We are owls, we are free.
As we go, this we know
Glaux is nigh.”
― Kathryn Lasky, The Journey