Nadine Brandes > Quotes

“Why won't you die?"
"because I have a story I was meant to live. And not even you can unwrite it.”
― Nadine Brandes, Romanov

“Ribbons! Long ones, short ones, ones for every mood." He does a little dance to the singsong rhythm. "Thin ones, thick ones, and ones to tie your shoes!”
― Nadine Brandes, A Time to Die

“They had something worth dying for. Ah, but you have something they don't.
And what's that?
Something worth living for.”
― Nadine Brandes, Fawkes

“You shouldn’t be placing hope in our lives, Parvin. That’s my point. I don’t know the answers of the future, but your confidence and hope need to be in God.”
― Nadine Brandes, A Time to Die

“The bond of our hearts spans miles, memory, and time.”
― Nadine Brandes, Romanov

“Take a breath, Thomas. There has always been fear. There will always be fear. It's up to us to stand tall, even when the fear demands we bow to it.”
― Nadine Brandes, Fawkes

“Have you no honor to stand for your beliefs?” “Standing for my beliefs isn’t always the same as standing for truth.”
― Nadine Brandes, Fawkes

“But rest assured I'll win. Because I'm going to kill you...
... with kindness.
And it's going to feel really weird for both of us.”
― Nadine Brandes, A Time to Rise

“She was fire and life.

She was awe and starlight.”
― Nadine Brandes, Fawkes

“Don't strive to belong, Parvin. Your effort is much better placed elsewhere.”
― Nadine Brandes, A Time to Speak

“It is if you separate the two- old life and new life. But once you learn that it's all one life and each day is a new page, it gets a bit easier to let your story take an unexpected path.”
― Nadine Brandes, Romanov

“But perhaps bravery meant entering into a storm you already knew would destroy you.”
― Nadine Brandes, Fawkes

“This isn't how it should be, God.

Thousands of graves marking thousands of lives--so much focus on death. Did the gravediggers spend their lives just serving the dead? How many Numbers ticked away for the sake of carving headstones no one would read?

As I stare at this scene, I decide I don't want a headstone when I die. I don't even want to be buried. I want to disappear--save that chunk of earth for people to live on. This land I stand on is worthless now. No one can build a house here. No one can plant gardens or start a new village. Is that what the people buried beneath me would have wanted?

Earth wasn't intended to hold only dead bodies.

I stand. God, I need to live.”
― Nadine Brandes, A Time to Die

“Let no one call you tame.”
― Nadine Brandes, Romanov

“Maybe that's what God means every time He tells us to rise up. To rise above the small things, the small struggles that chip away our identity and leave us lost.”
― Nadine Brandes, A Time to Rise

“You can't judge an entire group of people by the actions of a few.”
― Nadine Brandes, Fawkes

“And hope never abandoned us - only we could abandon it.”
― Nadine Brandes, Romanov

“it's always time to live.”
― Nadine Brandes, A Time to Rise

“How many of us acted and spoke out and fought for beliefs that we held because our environment told us to? As much as I wanted to blame my England, I knew the blame sat with me. I hadn't trained myself to discern. To examine. To seek the source.”
― Nadine Brandes, Fawkes

“But there was still light - we were just learning how to find it.”
― Nadine Brandes, Romanov

“Peace, quiet, and safety are all well. But community and relationships are what truly fill a person's life.”
― Nadine Brandes, Romanov

“...your past matters. It's the ink of your story. But it doesn't write your future.”
― Nadine Brandes, Wishtress

“We need to fight for truth. Your beliefs can be misguided.”
― Nadine Brandes, Fawkes

“No amount of age, pride, or maturity could stop me from loving my papa with the heart of a little girl.”
― Nadine Brandes, Romanov

“But she does it anyway, and I sit beside her...because strength is a choice.”
― Nadine Brandes, A Time to Speak

“I squeezed his hand, so tight it likely pained him. But sometimes comfort needed to sting more than the sorrow for it to break into the grief.”
― Nadine Brandes, Romanov

“My blood is my crime.”
― Nadine Brandes, Romanov

“But a man can be both soft and strong, maintaining a hope for the world.”
― Nadine Brandes, Fawkes

“Romanov.
For that name alone, bound to my blood like a Bolshevik is bound to the Russian Revolution, I am destined to die.
Because not even royal blood can stop bullets.”
― Nadine Brandes, Romanov

“A whisper loud enough to rise above the world's roar. That is my God. Working through us flawed, impulsive humans.”
― Nadine Brandes, A Time to Rise