Lisa Maxwell > Quotes

“But then, liars do make the best magicians, and he happened to be exceptional.”
― Lisa Maxwell, The Last Magician

“Don’t start telling yourself stories about me, Esta. I’m not some knight in shining armor. I don’t have some hidden heart of gold. I’m a bastard, in every sense of the word.”
“Who said I want you to be anything but what you are? I like your angles and your edges,” she told him, hoping he could hear the truth in her words. “I have plenty of my own, you know.”
― Lisa Maxwell, The Last Magician

“But then, people usually do miss what's right in front of them.”
― Lisa Maxwell, The Last Magician

“The only rule that counted was to not get caught.”
― Lisa Maxwell, The Last Magician

“Regret was for people who dragged their past along with them everywhere”
― Lisa Maxwell, The Last Magician

“Are you trying to blackmail me?” she asked.
“Not trying, no. Not yet, at least.” He smiled pleasantly, because he had the sense it would irritate her even more. “But give me time, and I might find something I want from you.”
She let out a derisive laugh. “In your dreams.”
He winked. “Every night, sweetheart.”
― Lisa Maxwell, The Last Magician

“She didn't have time to swoon over some boy, no matter how pretty he was.”
― Lisa Maxwell, The Last Magician

“They were sitting on opposite sides of the board, playing each other in hopes of gaining the same prize.”
― Lisa Maxwell, The Last Magician

“They weren’t so different, the two of them. They’d both been abandoned by their parents, but at least she’d had the Professor. He’d seen something in her worth saving, but Harte never had that. She still might not trust him, but she understood him. The drive that made him who he was, the determination to prove himself—the bone-deep need to belong somewhere—those were all things she knew very well. She understood the hurt, too. The fear that there was something intrinsically wrong with you to make the people who were supposed to love you leave. The way that fear either hardened you or destroyed you. It had turned into a sort of armor for her, another weapon in her arsenal, and she suspected the same was true of Harte.”
― Lisa Maxwell, The Last Magician

“Standing to leave, he looked at her one last time, hating her and loving her just the same. She was yet another thing tying him to the city, his duty to her like a straitjacket holding him against his will. A locked box he couldn’t find a way out of.”
― Lisa Maxwell, The Last Magician

“She kept him on his toes every time they met, so it was only fair he got to do the same. Never mind how much he was growing to like their games.”
― Lisa Maxwell, The Last Magician

“True power was the ability to bend others to your will while they thought the bending was their own idea.”
― Lisa Maxwell, The Devil's Thief

“Hers might never be calm or easy paintings, but those canvases are the way she keeps herself centered. She needs to create, or she will lose herself bit by bit to her fears and delusions.”
― Lisa Maxwell, Unhooked

“Change you feathers often enough, and the mark won't recognize the bird.”
― Lisa Maxwell, The Last Magician

“Were I you, I'd not put my trust in stories. They tend to pass off lies as the truth and hide the truth in their lies.”
― Lisa Maxwell, Unhooked

“He just had to keep his heart locked up and his head on straight”
― Lisa Maxwell, The Last Magician

“He wished . . . He didn’t know what he wished. That he hadn’t seen the intentions behind those honey-colored eyes of hers? That he hadn’t predicted her duplicity so easily? Or maybe, stupid as he was, he wished that he could stop himself from the inevitability of hurting her? But wishes were for children, and he’d grown up a long time ago. Only one of them could win this game, and it had to be him.”
― Lisa Maxwell, The Last Magician

“They didn’t realize that peasants start every revolution, and when the peasants rise up, royal heads are the first to roll.”
― Lisa Maxwell, The Devil's Thief

“Steal me the night, girl.”
Esta couldn’t help but smile. Steal me the night, like it was an impossible task. Like she hadn’t been born to do exactly that. ”
― Lisa Maxwell, The Last Magician

“My life was has been a series of poorly timed moves for as long as I can remember. But something about this place has me pausing.”
― Lisa Maxwell, Unhooked

“He'd go to the theater. People there might eat knives, dance with bears, and shimmy across the stage half-naked, but at least they didn't make him feel insane.”
― Lisa Maxwell, The Last Magician

“His mouth turns down thoughtfully.”
― Lisa Maxwell, Unhooked

“Aye. The Dark Ones came flying”
― Lisa Maxwell, Unhooked

“You imagine yourself the hero of some grand drama, but you are not even the fool.”
― Lisa Maxwell, The Devil's Thief

“The captain glares down at me, his lip curled in irritation at my insolence, and something dark, something cold and dangerous, moves behind his eyes. In that moment, I do not doubt him. In that moment, I believe wholeheartedly he is who he claims to be.”
― Lisa Maxwell, Unhooked

“Aye, they do. Let me be the first to welcome you to Neverland”
― Lisa Maxwell, Unhooked

“Order, the Bowery, the city itself. It was all the same to Harte. Each one was holding him down, holding him back. He’d throw them off one by one, until he was free, or he’d die trying.”
― Lisa Maxwell, The Last Magician

“Welcome to Neverland, Gwendolyn”
― Lisa Maxwell, Unhooked

“The boy who chose to play the villain in order to battle a monster who calls himself a hero”
― Lisa Maxwell, Unhooked

“Regret was for people who dragged their past along with them everywhere,”
― Lisa Maxwell, The Last Magician