Alex Bledsoe > Quotes

“It was still late summer elsewhere, but here, high in Appalachia, fall was coming; for the last three mornings, she'd been able to see her breath.

The woods, which started twenty feet back from her backdoor like a solid wall, showed only hints of the impending autumn. A few leaves near the treetops had turned, but most were full and green. Visible in the distance, the Widow's Tree towered above the forest. Its leaves were the most stubborn, tenaciously holding on sometimes until spring if the winter was mild. It was a transitional period, when the world changed its cycle and opened a window during which people might also change, if they had the inclination.”
― Alex Bledsoe, Wisp of a Thing

“The pain of your loss will return. Less, but still considerable. I know you've worked hard to release it, but it can still take hold of you. I will help you sing away the fury, but I will not bear it for you.”
― Alex Bledsoe, Wisp of a Thing

“We also have noses that run and feet that smell.Sometimes the universe just doesn't make sense.”
― Alex Bledsoe, To the Batpole: An Essay/Parody on Batman

“I felt that little knot in my belly that meant a mystery was taking its irrevocable hold. Usually this was a good thing, because usually I got paid for it. But here and now I was on vacation, and the last thing I wanted to do was spend it unraveling the truth of the strange prince, his rotund protector, and the girl I’d once saved from a bear. But damn it, I knew that’s exactly what I was going to do.”
― Alex Bledsoe, He Drank, and Saw the Spider

“Yeah, well, I don’t do touchy-feely. I do punchy-bleedy.”
― Alex Bledsoe, Long Black Curl

“Because,” the newcomer said, “once upon a time, he drank, and saw the spider.”
― Alex Bledsoe, He Drank, and Saw the Spider

“Yes,but the news is no different from the drunk in the corner bar:he might have a good story, but that doesn't maen you can trust it.”
― Alex Bledsoe

“We have to face the world like it is before we can make it what it should be.”
― Alex Bledsoe, Chapel of Ease

“Most of my family's so dumb, they sit on the TV and watch the couch.”
― Alex Bledsoe

“Some of us -" She paused as she sought the words. " - don't die unless we want to. The selfish ones never do.”
― Alex Bledsoe, Wisp of a Thing

“Parades ain't for the people on the floats, they're for the ones watching it go by.”
― Alex Bledsoe, The Hum and the Shiver

“Cover it, bury it, hide it away
A secret will always find its own way
No matter how long, no matter how far
When the time is right, it'll always rise
And carry it's truth to all men's eyes.”
― Alex Bledsoe, Chapel of Ease

“In a drawl so low, it seemed to suspend time, the old man said, "When the last leaf falls from the Widow's Tree this year, she'll be done for good. No coming back. No bothering anyone no more. Nobody will find her bones, and before next spring, nobody'll even remember her. She'll just be a wisp of a thing."

Peggy looked toward the tree, now hidden behind a low patch of morning cloud. She breathed out hard through her nose. "That's a terrible thing to do. Even for you, even to her."
"Set in motion a long time ago," he said blithely. "Just took this long to finish up.”
― Alex Bledsoe, Wisp of a Thing

“You have to understand me. There are no half measures here. I am your girl. I will be your woman. But I will never be your victim. If you ever try to turn me into that, I will sing your dying dirge.” Her”
― Alex Bledsoe, Wisp of a Thing

“We also have noses that run and feet that smell. Sometimes the universe just doesn’t make sense.”
― Alex Bledsoe, The Hum and the Shiver

“And sometimes when the story ends
Only the teller's left to make amends.”
― Alex Bledsoe, Chapel of Ease

“Man like that must have a lot of pain inside.” “No, a man like that puts all his pain on the outside where people can see it. Like he’s singing a song for everyone to hear, even though he knows he can’t carry the tune, and dares someone to tell him to shut up.”
― Alex Bledsoe, The Hum and the Shiver

“You know a tarot reading doesn’t really predict the future, it’s—” “‘A meditation tool best used as a way to understand your own subconscious, or that of the person you might do a reading for.’ I know, I did read your book. But please. Seriously.”
― Alex Bledsoe, The Fairies of Sadieville

“I don't want revenge, Mandalay, I want Dwayne to be stopped. If he's not, somebody else will suffer like I am, like my parents and little brother are. And . . . "
"And what?"
"I think I'm the one who's supposed to stop him. It has to be me because I've killed people before. It won't change my song like it would my daddy's, or Aiden's, or Terry Joe's."
"So you remembered what happened to you, then?"
"No. I know what happened, and that's enough. If I remembered what happened, then the next time I tried to do it, it'd get all tangled up with those memories." She recalled the cliff-top conversation with Bliss. "The night wind's been preparing me for this, Mandalay. There's a need out there, and I can fill it. But it'll be on my terms."
"And what're those?"
Bronwyn smiled coldly. "Whatever I say they are."
"And how's that different from how you used to be? The Bronwynator, doing whatever she wants?"
"Maybe the 'how' ain't any different. But the 'why' is. You and the First Daughters wanted me back, didn't you? Now you've got me. And if it means you got the hum you wanted but the shiver's different, well, that's tough.”
― Alex Bledsoe, The Hum and the Shiver

“You look to history to avoid the same mistakes, not repeat the same joys. That's why defeats are clearer than victories, funerals more vivid than weddings.”
― Alex Bledsoe, The Sword-Edged Blonde

“She met my gaze with those big, innocent eyes that could probably convince the devil he needed an extra blanket.”
― Alex Bledsoe, The Sword-Edged Blonde

“Spring came down hard that year. And I do mean hard, like the fist of some drunken pike poker with too much fury and not enough ale, whose wife just left him for some wandering minstrel and whose commanding officer absconded with his pay.”
― Alex Bledsoe, The Sword-Edged Blonde

“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.”
― Alex Bledsoe, The Fairies of Sadieville