Stefan Bachmann > Quotes

“Arthur Jelliby was a very nice young man, which was perhaps the reason why he had never made much of a politician.”
― Stefan Bachmann, The Peculiar

“It was called the Smiling War because it left so many skulls, white and grinning, in the fields.”
― Stefan Bachmann, The Peculiar

“Once people see you cry, it's like they own part of you. It's like you ripped a hole in yourself, and they saw through whatever armor you had on, got a good long view of all the screaming alien goop underneath.”
― Stefan Bachmann, A Drop of Night

“Stop it, Misha. Stop being so frightened of everything. But she couldn't stop. She carried fear with her like a little animal, curled in the nook behind her heart, and it whispered to her. You are weak, you are frightened, and you will never dare do anything at all.”
― Stefan Bachmann, Slasher Girls & Monster Boys

“It was a fine day by London's standards. Which meant it was a day slightly less likely to suffocate you and poison your lungs.”
― Stefan Bachmann, The Peculiar

“A philosopher,' said Mrs. Cantanker, stalking across the study, black heels clicking, ruby silks whispering around her ankles, 'is one who attempts to capture the truths of the universe so precisely that they become too confusing to understand. A novelist is one who attempts to capture the truths of the universe in such a roundabout way that they become obvious to anyone who reads them.”
― Stefan Bachmann, Cinders & Sparrows

“The faery lady looked at Hettie curiously from beneath her wig. "You know..." she said, very softly. "All I wanted was that you would be my friend. That isn't very much to ask, is it? Doesn't everyone in the Smoke Lands have a friend? Doesn't everyone have someone?" She smiled pitifully and looked away. "I wanted a little person who would be mine, because no one else is. Life is so lonely when one lives as long as we do, in such a horrible, horrible house. But you never wanted to be my friend. You never, ever did.”
― Stefan Bachmann, The Whatnot

“What is this liking? If you liked everything that happened to you, you would be quite the most feeble person. A thousand things will happen to you, and some of it will be good and some of it will be bad and some of it will be utterly dreadful, but they all . . ." The faery butler paused. "They all lead somewhere.”
― Stefan Bachmann, The Whatnot

“I can't even fathom myself from twenty-four hours ago. I was so busy following my rotten little heart, Disney princess-style. I did end up in a palace, so that's cool.”
― Stefan Bachmann, A Drop of Night

“A word could cause a riot, ink could spell a man’s death, and the Sidhe knew those weapons like the backs of their hands. Oh yes, they knew.”
― Stefan Bachmann, The Peculiar

“There's this special talent that humans have that they can be unhappy no matter where they are. But humans have another special talent: We can be happy almost anywhere, too. We can be happy because we're not alone.”
― Stefan Bachmann, A Drop of Night

“He wanted a faery. More than anything else in the world. He had already imagined exactly how it should happen. He would set up the invitation, and the next day there would be a petal-winged pisky clinging to the top of his bedpost. It would have a foolish grin on its face, and large ears, and it wouldn’t notice at all that Bartholomew was small and ugly and different from everyone else.
But no. Mother had to ruin everything.”
― Stefan Bachmann, The Peculiar

“Her voice was loud and cheerful, the way it was when nothing was well and she was determined not to show it.”
― Stefan Bachmann, The Peculiar

“Don’t get yourself noticed and you won’t get yourself hanged.”
― Stefan Bachmann, The Peculiar

“Feathers fell from the sky. Like black snow, they drifted onto an old city called Bath.”
― Stefan Bachmann, The Peculiar

“I look up at the painting. It's not even that interesting. Definitely doesn't grab me and shake my brain around like the meadow scene did.”
― Stefan Bachmann, A Drop of Night

“Don't get yourself noticed and you won't get yourself hanged.”
― Stefan Bachmann, The Peculiar

“It was easy to begin things, easy to end them too, but to make everything in between make sense . . . that was the challenge.”
― Stefan Bachmann, Cinders & Sparrows

“She was too thin, her face all sharp bones and pale skin, tinged blue from lack of sunlight. Ugly, like him. Her eyes were huge and round, black puddles collecting in the hollows of her skull. The tips of her ears were pointed. In a pinch Bartholomew might still pass as a human child, but not Hettie. There was no mistaking the faery blood in her veins. For where Bartholomew had a mess of chestnut hair growing out of his scalp, Hettie had the smooth, bare branches of a young tree.”
― Stefan Bachmann, The Peculiar

“I liked him at once. I always felt I could trust worried, anxious people more than brash ones. Those who strode through life too bravely always struck me as either foolishly unaware of the world's terrors, or else frighteningly powerful and immune to them, neither of which I found endearing.”
― Stefan Bachmann, Cinders & Sparrows

“The Buddelbinsters, he’d heard them called. Once they’d had seven changeling children, and Bartholomew had seen them playing in the windows and the doorways. But other people had seen them, too, and one night a crowd had come and dragged the children away. Now there was only one, a frail-looking boy with thistle-hair.”
― Stefan Bachmann, The Peculiar

“Daughter, even if you cannot see the truth of things, even if you are frightened and discouraged, know this: some things just are. You don't have to be sure of them. They don't ask your opinion.”
― Stefan Bachmann, Cinders & Sparrows

“The staircase was a mass of rotting wood, carved with such cruel-looking mermaids that Mr. Jelliby was afraid to put his hand on the banister.”
― Stefan Bachmann, The Peculiar

“perfectly ordinary things turned eerie and strange.”
― Stefan Bachmann, The Cabinet of Curiosities: 36 Tales Brief & Sinister

“Pikey Thomas dreamed of plums and caramel apples the night the faery-with-the-peeling-face stole his right eye.”
― Stefan Bachmann, The Whatnot

“He had an image in his mind of a gaggle of long-necked geese, all done up in petticoats and crinolines, sitting around a stuffy parlor and talking about him.”
― Stefan Bachmann, The Peculiar

“…it struck Mr. Jelliby that a wide-eyed faery was not a surprised faery. It was an angry, angry faery.”
― Stefan Bachmann, The Peculiar

“Of course it's not unreasonable," said Minnifer. "But it is very stupid.”
― Stefan Bachmann, Cinders & Sparrows

“But you will not spare a drop of pity because I am rich? We have death in our gilded courts, too. We have disease and cruelty, and not a breath of air or freedom. You cannot say our lives are easy, any more than I can say yours is. They are lives, and so they are HORRID!”
― Stefan Bachmann, A Drop of Night

“Don’t get yourself noticed and you won’t get yourself hanged. It was perhaps the most important rule for changelings. It was a good rule.”
― Stefan Bachmann, The Peculiar