Liz Kessler > Quotes

“If you looked round the rooms, you wouldn't think there was anything missing. But it's like one of those Spot the difference cartoons in a puzzle book. The changes are so subtle, yet glaringly obvious once you've seen them. A photo missing here, a cup there. A heart a bit more broken than it was before.”
― Liz Kessler, Read Me Like a Book

“The tail of Emily Windsnap"everyone has a secret . mines alittle different. i figured out i am a mermaid.”
― Liz Kessler, The Tail of Emily Windsnap

“The woods were deserted that day.
The stones stood still and silent, as though they were waiting for something. At the center of them all, a jagged piece of amber glowed in the growing darkness. Lights fizzed softly around it, turning pink, orange, purple, blue.
No one saw it. No one ever did. Why would they? No one knoew about its magic, not anymore. They had forgotten all about such magic a long, long time ago. About the same time they stopped believing in faries.
How foolish.”
― Liz Kessler, Philippa Fisher and the Fairy's Promise

“I try to imagine keeping something like that a secret for my whole life. It would be like always wearing a mask over your face, which everyone believed was the real you. You would be the only person who knew it wasn't--and who knew that you could never take it off.”
― Liz Kessler, A Year Without Autumn

“It's all very well going round with two fingers stuck up at the world, but what happens when the world turns round and sticks them back up at you?
The world's a lot bigger than I am.”
― Liz Kessler, Read Me Like a Book

“Then she leans forward, and before I have time to say or think another word, she's kissing me. And I'm kissing her, too.
It starts almost in slow motion. Her lips, soft on mine, light little kisses, tiptoeing. Then she opens her mouth slightly, kissing me with more force. I keep thinking about how perfectly our mouths fit together. Her lips are so gentle, her tongue drawing me in. I'm losing myself in her.”
― Liz Kessler, Read Me Like a Book

“Question everything. Attempt the impossible. Be brave.”
― Liz Kessler, A Year Without Autumn

“Maybe superficial is exactly what I want right now. If you don't talk about anything that matters, no one can say anything that'll hurt you--and you don't have to talk about the things that are eating away at you from the inside.”
― Liz Kessler, A Year Without Autumn

“But there would be no confrontation the next day. And for Tommy Williams, there would be no school, either. Because the moment he walked through the gap in the stones to leave the circle, something quiet unexpected happened.
Tommy, holding tightly on to his rock, took the step that divided the inside of the circle from the outside - and disappeared.

The woods suddenly felt colder than usual. The darkness hung more heavily.
The amber was gone - and now nothing would ever be the same.”
― Liz Kessler, Philippa Fisher and the Fairy's Promise

“It's official, then. Everyone knew I was gay before I did.”
― Liz Kessler, Read Me Like a Book

“Being someone's best friend doesn't always mean telling them every tiny thing about yourself, you know. Sometimes it means having enough trust to let them have their secrets and still be there for them.”
― Liz Kessler, Emily Windsnap and the Siren's Secret

“Perhaps nothing is as simple as it looks. Perhaps everything has another layer, a hidden room that only reveals itself when you accidentally stumble across the secret door.
Or perhaps I'm talking bollocks and it's time to go to bed.”
― Liz Kessler, Read Me Like a Book

“Love doesn't discriminate and nor should the law. Not in this country, not in this world, not in this lifetime.”
― Liz Kessler, Read Me Like a Book

“For a second, I see into the future: she's old and grey, she has senile dementia and can't remember my name. The thought pretty much breaks my heart in two.”
― Liz Kessler, Read Me Like a Book

“And then you do all you can to make sure it never happens again - to anyone. And where you see injustice, you say so, and you encourage others to do the same.”
― Liz Kessler, When the World Was Ours

“Well, the old Autumn didn't know anything about reality. The old Autumn was quite happy living in a childish make-believe world where bad things didn't happen and where you could make up whatever silly story you liked and tell yourself it was true.”
― Liz Kessler, A Year Without Autumn

“You can’t make people stop loving each other just because a law says it’s wrong,” I said.”
― Liz Kessler, The Tail of Emily Windsnap

“through, but my shoulders were too big to follow. This wasn’t going to work. Unless I swam through on my side. . . . I tried again, coming at the bars sideways. But it was no good. I couldn’t squeeze my face through the gap. I never realized my nose stuck out that much! I held on to the bars, flicking my tail as I thought. Then it hit me. How could I have been so stupid? I turned to face them. Just like before, I edged my head through the bars, as slowly and carefully as I could. All I needed to do now was flip onto my side and pull the rest of my body through. But what if I got stuck — my head on one side, my body on the other, caught forever with my neck in these railings? Before I had time to talk myself out of it, I swiveled my body onto its side.”
― Liz Kessler, The Tail of Emily Windsnap

“Being someone's best friend doesn't always mean telling them every tiny thing about yourself, you know. Sometimes it means having enough trust to let them have their secrets and still be there for them." -Morvena”
― Liz Kessler, Emily Windsnap and the Siren's Secret

“I'd had enough surprises in the last few months to know that you don't always find the answers you're looking for without finding about fifty unwanted ones first.”
― Liz Kessler, Emily Windsnap and the Siren's Secret

“But remember, it’s just between you and me!”
― Liz Kessler, The Tail of Emily Windsnap

“All that time I thought she was my future, I was wrong. She wasn't my future at all. She was the door to my future. But I'm through that door now, and ready to close it behind me.”
― Liz Kessler

“Brightport looked so small: a cluster of low buildings, all huddled around a tiny horseshoe-shaped bay, a lighthouse at one”
― Liz Kessler, The Tail of Emily Windsnap

“The worst part was the fear - looking down at the rushing water that seemed miles away. But once you were on that branch, there was no going back.”
― Liz Kessler, Read Me Like a Book

“Who Wants to Be a Millionaire just started. She won’t even notice I’ve gone!” He stuck his head around the door anyway. “Just heading out with Emily, Mom.” “No, it’s B, you idiot!” she shouted at the television.”
― Liz Kessler, Emily Windsnap and the Siren's Secret

“From Joe Gardener's Notebook
"You are taste and smell and feeling of pen on paper, you are perfect- Do you know how perfect you are? .. I am nothing but a pair of eyes, waiting to be looked into”
― Liz Kessler, Haunt Me

“They're friendship pebbles. They mean that we're best friends-if you want to be.”
― Liz Kessler, The Tail of Emily Windsnap

“Where did he go?” “That’s just it. No one ever heard from him again. The strain was obviously too much for him,” he said sarcastically. “What strain?” “Fatherhood. Good-for-nothing slacker. Never willing to grow up and take responsibility.” Mr. Beeston looked away. “What he did — it was despicable,” he said, his voice becoming raspy. “I will never forgive him.” He got up from the bench, his face hard and set. “Never,” he repeated. Something about the way he said it made me hope I’d never get on his wrong side. I followed him as we carried on along the boardwalk. “Didn’t anybody try to find him?” “Find him?” Mr. Beeston looked at me,”
― Liz Kessler, The Tail of Emily Windsnap

“photographic”
― Liz Kessler, The Tail of Emily Windsnap

“our hearts, we’d left each other many years earlier.” I thought of my own childhood up until last year. Growing up without my dad hadn’t been easy. But I’d never for a second doubted Mom’s love for me. I couldn’t imagine what it would have been like without that. For the first time ever, I really, truly felt sorry for Mr. Beeston. “Why do you want to see her now, then?” I asked. Mr. Beeston shook himself. He cleared his throat and seemed to drag himself back into the present. “I take my work seriously. You know”
― Liz Kessler, The Tail of Emily Windsnap