Sangu Mandanna > Quotes

“Niceness is all about what we do when other people are looking. Kindness, on the other hand, runs deep. Kindness is what happens when no one’s looking.”
― Sangu Mandanna, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

“It’s not always enough to go looking for the place we belong. Sometimes we need to make that place.”
― Sangu Mandanna, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

“It’s a leap of faith to love people and let yourself be loved. It’s closing your eyes, stepping off a ledge into nothing, and trusting that you’ll fly rather than fall. I can’t step off the ledge for you. It’s something only you can do.”
― Sangu Mandanna, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

“I’d rather spend the rest of my life without ever seeing you again,” he says, “than watch them destroy you because of me.”
― Sangu Mandanna, The Lost Girl

“I can’t transform the world, Jamie. The world’s too big and too messy and too stubborn.”
“Who said anything about transforming the world?” He shrugged. “What about just making it a little better? And then a little better? And then a little more, until, one day, maybe long after we’re gone, it has transformed?”
― Sangu Mandanna, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

“If you expect the worse, you're only denying someone a chance to be better”
― Sangu Mandanna, The Lost Girl

“Alone is how—”
“—is how we survive, yes, you’ve said. I can’t say whether that’s true or not, but one thing I do know is that alone is not how we live.”
― Sangu Mandanna, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

“Danger rarely wore a monstrous face and a wielded a pitchfork. No, danger came most often in the form of nice people whose niceness only went so deep, who saved their niceness for people exactly like them, who believed they were more deserving of power and respect than anyone who was a little bit different.”
― Sangu Mandanna, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

“But maybe that's what the dead do. They stay. They linger. Benign and sweet and painful. They don't need us. They echo all by themselves.”
― Sangu Mandanna, The Lost Girl

“Trust is earned."
"It is. But that’s only possible if someone’s willing to give you a chance.”
― Sangu Mandanna, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

“Lillian sounds like she’s more nice than she is kind. Does that make sense? Niceness is good manners, and stopping to give someone directions, and smiling at the overworked cashier at the supermarket. These are all good things, but they have nothing to do with what’s underneath. Niceness is all about what we do when other people are looking. Kindness, on the other hand, runs deep. Kindness is what happens when no one’s looking.”
― Sangu Mandanna, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

“You,” he says, before the door closes all the way. “I often dream of you.”
― Sangu Mandanna, The Lost Girl

“What is this power the dead have over the ones they leave behind? It's strange and beautiful and frightening, this deathless love that human being continue to feel for the ones they've lost.”
― Sangu Mandanna, The Lost Girl

“That was some excellent Mary Poppins shit right there.”
― Sangu Mandanna, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

“Mika looked away. “I’m afraid I’ll never leave a mark on anybody.”
It was quiet for so long that Mika wished she could take the too-reckless, too-honest words back, but then she heard him, rough and uneven and so quiet she almost missed it:
“It’s a little late for that, I’m afraid.”
― Sangu Mandanna, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

“Mika has been so deeply hurt that she has taught herself to run before she can lay down roots, but the thing you have to remember, Jamie, is that when someone leaves, all you can do is leave a window open for them so that one day, if they choose, they can come back.”
― Sangu Mandanna, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

“We’re part of the earth below us and the sky above us. Our veins echo the patterns of rivers and roots. There’s sunlight and moonlight in our bones.”
― Sangu Mandanna, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

“Over the years, Mika had embraced all the things that made her different and had discovered that she liked herself very much. But what was that worth without human connection? How was it possible to live, truly live, without the companionship of other people, without a family formed in any of the thousands of ways families could be formed?”
― Sangu Mandanna, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

“It’s a leap of faith to love people and let yourself be loved.”
― Sangu Mandanna, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

“Your magic knew exactly who you were. That’s why your spell was a shield, not a sword.”
― Sangu Mandanna, A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping

“You’re the only person I know who says the word nice like it’s a bad thing.” “It’s not a bad thing at all, except when it’s all there is. A lot of nice people stop being nice when they don’t get exactly what they want.”
― Sangu Mandanna, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

“But it was more than that. It was peace, the kind Mika was beginning to see she had never known. She hadn’t understood how exhausting and heartbreaking it had been to hide such a big part of herself all these years, to reshape and contort herself into something more acceptable. She hadn’t realised just how heavy her mask had been until she’d discovered what it was to live without it.”
― Sangu Mandanna, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

“We’ve talked about this,” said Jamie mildly. “Murder can’t be your first choice every time you don’t like something.”
― Sangu Mandanna, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

“You exist by the Weavers' grace. Only as long as you are what they expect of you. Do not understand how fragile that is? But if you replace your other, you might be safe. You might make your familiars happy, and then they will always keep you. So if only for my sake, child, hope that happens."

"I don't wish for her to die!"

"Then I will wish it," she replies ruthlessly.”
― Sangu Mandanna, The Lost Girl

“I’d rather spend the rest of my life without ever seeing you again,” he says, “than watch them destroy you because of me.” His hand slips to the back of my neck, skimming over my Mark, and stops in my hair. He leans down and kisses my forehead. I long to reach up, close my fingers over his arm, keep him here. He pulls away but not by much. His mouth lingers on my forehead and then, as if with an effort, he straightens.
“Want him,” he says, his face hidden in shadow, “not me. He’d love you more than I could.”
Then he leaves me alone.”
― Sangu Mandanna, The Lost Girl

“Spend a bit more time with todays and a bit less time with yesterdays and tomorrows.”
― Sangu Mandanna, A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping

“That's how I feel every single day," he say brokenly. "Every day, Eva. Your life is dangling by a thread. And I'm scrabbling to hold on, but it keeps slipping through my fingers.I'm here because I can't stand not to be. It's not some big noble sacrifice. I want to be here. I don't like the world without you. I need you to be alive.”
― Sangu Mandanna, The Lost Girl

“Maybe some kinds of trauma can’t be revisited — and some need to be.”
― Sangu Mandanna, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

“Theirs was a friendship built on the unspoken, shared understanding that you can love the home you’ve made with the whole of your heart and still know the land it’s built on will never claim you.”
― Sangu Mandanna, A Witch's Guide to Magical Innkeeping

“That is because I believe what you put in your body is your business, and that,” she added, raising her teacup to her lips, “includes penises.”
― Sangu Mandanna, The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches