Michelle West > Quotes

“You don’t get miracles. You can pray for them. You can wait for them. If you wait, life passes you by. You don’t get miracles. If you’re lucky, you get your life.”
― Michelle West, City of Night

“I am not so fearful of my own status that I must see it slavishly worshiped at every possible moment, Kovakar," the kinlord responded. "It bores me" - Isladar”
― Michelle West, The Broken Crown

“Lies are for those whose truths are not strong enough." --Ariane”
― Michelle West

“But maybe life was like that: it held your death, waiting, and you had no choice but to walk toward it if you wanted a life.”
― Michelle West

“But if she could somehow manage to be strong at the right time, at the right minute, if that was all the grace that was allowed her—that would be enough. Had to be.”
― Michelle West, The Hidden City

“What use mistakes if not to learn from them? What use learning if, in the end, one clung to the old?”
― Michelle West, The Hidden City

“You’ll learn, girl. These aren’t scars. They’re nothing. The scars you carry with you? The ones that never leave? They’re all in here.” She’d tapped her chest. “Regret,” she said softly, “for the things you didn’t do. Or the things you couldn’t do. They haunt you enough, and you see things like this,” and she put her hand to her neck, “and they mean nothing.”
― Michelle West, The Hidden City

“Now,” she countered, “is all we have. All we can be certain we have.”
― Michelle West, The Hidden City

“Judge what you have to judge. Change what you need to change. “If you don’t deserve it now, earn it.”
― Michelle West, The Hidden City

“But that was the way of the Lord; where subterfuge was required, it was crafted with care. He could lie, of course; he had in the past. But his lies were imbued with the force and strength of belief, of believability; they were the truth that his audience desired, and they were glorious lies, larger in all ways than most truths. This lie was no exception.”
― Michelle West, House Name

“The living could never hurt you as profoundly as the dead. And the dead were legion.”
― Michelle West, The Broken Crown

“My Ona Elena once told me something important," Adam said, hesitant now that the force of Levec's anger had deserted him. "Happiness is like a seed." Before Levec could speak, Adam lifted a hand. "She said that anger and hatred and love are like seeds as well. All the things we feel that endure, are."
"And we are?"
"Dirt," Adam replied.
"I might agree with that statement, but I'm certain you intend to go elsewhere with it."
"We are earth. But we are like different types of earth, in different climates. Not all seeds that fall from a tree take root. Not all things that take root survive. We cannot be given happiness. Only the seed of it. We might not recognize the seed," he added. "Because we can't see the tree it might become. We are surrounded by trees, and the seeds in our hands looks nothing like them.
"For some, the earth is damp and fertile, and all seeds take root. But for others, the earth is hard, and water scarce. Elena believed that no man--or woman--starts life as a desert. But without trees, any many or woman can become one." - Adam”
― Michelle West

“As she lifted it, it caught the light and sent it out in a fan of intense colour.
‘Take this,’ Yollana said, and if there was a request in the two words, she hid it well. ‘Take this, and wear it. Travel this village, these lands. Speak to the people who make this your home. Visit your graves, your fields, your hills; find the shade in your forest, the cooling waters in your brook and small river.’ She let it fall; Ashaf gasped until she saw the glittering chain that stopped it from reaching the ground. A necklace or a pendant of some sort.
She reached out an open palm, and Yollana carefully dropped the stone-for it was a stone, a clear one, like a diamond that would beggar even a Tyr-into her hand. At once, it flared with a deep, blue light; the light ran the length of her arm, shrouding it.
Magic.
‘What-what does it do?’ Her voice was, momentarily, a girl’s voice-the girl that she had thought long gone. Dreamer. Seeker of wonder.
‘It is the Lady’s magic,’ Yollana replied, ‘not the Lord’s. It will not protect you; it will not defend you. Where a blade is raised or a spell is thrown, you will find no solace in it.’
Ashaf smiled wryly. ‘I did not ask you what it wasn’t. I asked you what it is.’
‘It is a keeper’ Yollan said. ‘Of memory. Of affection. Of place. Wear it, as I have told you wear it, and it will take some of what you feel and hold it within depths that you cannot even imagine. Wear it, and you will feel exactly the peace or the joy or the quiet-yes, or the sorrow-that you felt when you donned it.’
‘Why?’
‘It is a piece of home,’ Yollana replied gravely. ‘Many of the Voyani women wear them, because the heart-our hearts-so seldom find a home, and when they do, we cannot remain there.”
― Michelle West, The Broken Crown

“If pride is a sin, I am still a creature of sin.”
― Michelle West, The Hidden City

“I need her to lead me to the darkness.”
― Michelle West, Hunter's Death

“It was a long way to the Isle.”
― Michelle West, Hunter's Death

“Rath was not yet tiring. But yet was a precarious word on which to balance survival.”
― Michelle West

“Grieve for us, then, Jewel. Grieve as you must. Only we two are left who will, and only one of us can ever do so openly. Be what I can no longer be, for a little while.”
― Michelle West, City of Night

“By some strange alchemy of the divine, darkness was light: the Lord of the Hells was clothed in it, as if it were raiment or armor, and he shone with it.”
― Michelle West

“The hardest thing to figure out is what will make you happy.”
― Michelle West, The Hidden City

“Perfection was something to be striven for, but not to be attained; it was the flaws that were the blood and flesh of a living person.”
― Michelle West, Hunter's Death

“Fear had a scent of its own, and it affected different people in different ways. Some found it exciting, some arousing, some disturbing, and some disgusting.”
― Michelle West, Hunter's Death

“when you’re young enough to make the vow, it’s always the easiest.”
― Michelle West, Hunter's Oath

“Commander Sivari found them. “You’re popular,” he said, but only after delivering a very correct, very formal bow. “I didn’t think they were going to let me in, and it’s career-limiting to refuse a Commander of the Kings’ Swords entry into any portion of Avantari. ACormaris,” he added, bowing.”
― Michelle West, The Uncrowned King

“For hers, in years to come, but for yours, now.”
― Michelle West, City of Night

“knowledge and memory did not always speak the same language.”
― Michelle West, The Broken Crown

“Trying,” he said at last, “is good. It always is. But failing? Everyone fails, one time or another. It’s how you deal with failure that counts, in the end. It’s the successes that you’re known for—but it’s the failures make you what you are.”
― Michelle West, The Hidden City

“life—he said life was the best material because it changed, and grew, and surprised one.”
― Michelle West, Hunter's Oath

“The den watched her leave in silence.”
― Michelle West, City of Night

“I think that you have the choice: You will let her memory cause you pain, or you will let her memory fade.” “And”
― Michelle West, Sea of Sorrows