Ciera Dyll > Ciera's Quotes

“Books may well be the only true magic.”
― Alice Hoffman

“Sometimes the right thing feels all wrong until it is over and done with.”
― Alice Hoffman, Practical Magic

“There are some things, after all, that Sally Owens knows for certain: Always throw spilled salt over your left shoulder. Keep rosemary by your garden gate. Add pepper to your mashed potatoes. Plant roses and lavender, for luck. Fall in love whenever you can.”
― Alice Hoffman, Practical Magic

“I took a bite of cookie and chewed. “Hmmm,” I said, trying not to spit crumbs. “Clear vanilla notes, too-sweet chocolate chips, distinct flavor of brown sugar. A decent cookie, not spectacular. Still, a good-hearted cookie, not pretentious.” I turned to Fang. “What say you?”
“It’s fine.”
Some people just don’t have what it takes to appreciate a cookie.”
― James Patterson, The Angel Experiment

“So there you have it, the extent of my charms: brown hair and eyes like unbarfed chocolate. I'm a lucky girl." -Max”
― James Patterson, Max

“Dear Max -

You looked so beautiful today. I'm going to remember what you looked like forever.

...

And I hope you remember me the same way - clean, ha-ha. I'm glad our last time together was happy.

But I'm leaving tonight, leaving the flock, and this time it's for good. I don't know if I'll ever see any of you again. The thing is, Max, that everyone is a little bit right. Added up all together, it makes this one big right.

Dylan's a little bit right about how my being here might be putting the rest of you in danger. The threat might have been just about Dr. Hans, but we don't know that for sure. Angel is a little bit right about how splitting up the flock will help all of us survive. And the rest of the flock is a little bit right about how when you and I are together, we're focused on each other - we can't help it.

The thing is, Maximum, I love you. I can't help but be focused on you when we're together. If you're in the room, I want to be next to you. If you're gone, I think about you. You're the one who I want to talk to. In a fight, I want you at my back. When we're together, the sun is shining. When we're apart, everything is in shades of gray.

I hope you'll forgive me someday for turning our worlds into shades of gray - at least for a while.

...

You're not at your best when you're focused on me. I mean, you're at your best Maxness, but not your best leaderness. I mostly need Maxness. The flock mostly needs leaderness. And Angel, if you're listening to this, it ain't you, sweetie. Not yet.

...

At least for a couple more years, the flock needs a leader to survive, no matter how capable everyone thinks he or she is. The truth is that they do need a leader, and the truth is that you are the best leader. It's one of the things I love about you.

But the more I thought about it, the more sure I got that this is the right thing to do. Maybe not for you, or for me, but for all of us together, our flock.

Please don't try to find me. This is the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, besides wearing that suit today, and seeing you again will only make it harder. You'd ask me to come back, and I would, because I can't say no to you. But all the same problems would still be there, and I'd end up leaving again, and then we'd have to go through this all over again.

Please make us only go through this once.

...

I love you. I love your smile, your snarl, your grin, your face when you're sleeping. I love your hair streaming out behind you as we fly, with the sunlight making it shine, if it doesn't have too much mud or blood in it. I love seeing your wings spreading out, white and brown and tan and speckled, and the tiny, downy feathers right at the top of your shoulders. I love your eyes, whether they're cold or calculating or suspicious or laughing or warm, like when you look at me.

...

You're the best warrior I know, the best leader. You're the most comforting mom we've ever had. You're the biggest goofball, the worst driver, and a truly lousy cook. You've kept us safe and provided for us, in good times and bad. You're my best friend, my first and only love, and the most beautiful girl I've ever seen, with wings or without.

...

Tell you what, sweetie: If in twenty years we haven't expired yet, and the world is still more or less in one piece, I'll meet you at the top of that cliff where we first met the hawks and learned to fly with them. You know the one. Twenty years from today, if I'm alive, I'll be there, waiting for you. You can bet on it.

Good-bye, my love.

Fang

P.S. Tell everyone I sure will miss them”
― James Patterson

“Mary was under water. She’d been under water for a long time. Rhiannon was there. No, it was just her severed head talking. The murdered girl’s hair billowed out from under the torc.”
― Susan Rowland, The Sacred Well Murders

“Anna did say the wife of Lir had left her?” whispered Mary.
“Yes,” said Caroline. “She said, ‘for now.”
― Susan Rowland, The Sacred Well Murders

“Janet showed her teeth. “Time to get real, Sarah. No more human sacrifices, got it?”
― Susan Rowland, The Sacred Well Murders

“Don’t we know any. . .er. . .cheap lawyers?”
― Susan Rowland, The Sacred Well Murders

“Trust the body of your enemy. The body does not lie. Most people,” she’d looked directly at Mary, “most people do not know how to make the body lie.”
― Susan Rowland, The Sacred Well Murders

“Sure didn’t expect to see that kind of assault, here in Oxford,” said another. “Seems like such a quiet town.”
― Susan Rowland, The Sacred Well Murders

“What about that old coot?” Janet looked suspicious. Mr. Jeffreys was from the world of officialdom she despised.”
― Susan Rowland, The Sacred Well Murders

“This must be what dying is like. She tried wiggling a bony finger to attract Rhiannon. She wanted to ask her: is this what it was like?”
― Susan Rowland, The Sacred Well Murders

“She was oozing backwards into the tree. Her bones were going to mate with the grain of the wood. I am becoming part of the forest.”
― Susan Rowland, The Sacred Well Murders

“Tri-City students are encouraged to go to college wherever the Lord leads them, but you can tell that most of the teachers and the administration hope that the Lord leads you to Bob Jones.”
― Aaron Hartzler, Rapture Practice: A True Story About Growing Up Gay in an Evangelical Family

“We were in Pittsburgh at the end of September. The Pirates had already clinched the division, and the great Roberto Clemente was looking for his 3,000th career hit. I wasn’t in the lineup again. Clemente wasn’t a power hitter like Mays or Aaron, but he had won four batting titles, was a perennial All-Star, and even at the age of 37 was hitting well over .300. Roberto lined a sharp double down the left-field line in the fourth inning, and we saw history being made again. He joined Willie and Hank and a handful of others to reach that milestone. I remember thinking at the time how difficult it must be to get all of those hits, and for Willie and Hank to get all those home runs. I’d only reached about 900 hits with more than 2,000 to go if I ever was to hit that mark. That put it into perspective for me, that I really was watching one of the greats of the game. It was a dark day for baseball on the last day of 1972 when Roberto’s plane went down while delivering supplies to Nicaragua. He was only 38. I heard about the plane crash the next day, and it was like losing a brother. It was a great loss for the game of baseball and humanity—especially knowing how his fellow Puerto Ricans felt about him. He was a treasure, and he did it the way nobody else could. Some say he did everything wrong at the plate but he had great results behind it. You wouldn’t teach hitting the way he hit, but it was right for him. What he did was in him like it was in with me. He was a man of stature, and it was his calling. Some people are called to preach, some people are called to teach, and some people are called to serve. He was called to serve, and he served his entire island. I believe everything is predestined, and we just have to act out what’s already on the wall of your life. He’d probably always been aware of the need to do something more for others than for himself. He looked around and saw a need and acted on it. I’m certain he looked at who he was and what he accomplished and how he could take being famous into being a blessing for others. I’ve said this many times before, that those who depend on you are seeking a hand up and not a handout. I didn’t think about it then, but I think about it now, how good the Almighty was to wait to call Roberto home after he got his 3,000th hit—a milestone hit that put him next to the greats of the game.”
― Cleon Jones, Coming Home: My Amazin' Life with the New York Mets

“Another wish, a secret one, flutters by, and it has Aaron’s name on it. I watch it for a moment, fluttering, floating, and then I grab it tight and crush it before anyone else can see it. I can feel the remnants of the mothy wish wings on my skin.”
― Katherine Webber, Wing Jones

“«No puedo amar a un monstruo».
Aún lo ama. Una parte de esa mujer aún ama a Aaron Jones, lo sé, puedo verlo en sus ojos. Y la entiendo, sé lo que es amar a un monstruo.”
― Mar Petryk, El pecador de Oxford

“If you didn't pay attention to the buoys and markers, you'd hit something.  Not enough people paid attention.  Our marinas were swamped with repairs.”
― Albert Waitt, The Ruins of Woodman's Village

“Murder, gambling, and beating up women doesn't illicit my sympathy, no matter what kind of language you dress it in.”
― Albert Waitt, The Ruins of Woodman's Village

“Laurel had one thousand year-round residents and our share of bar fights, car accidents, marital disputes, and an occasional breaking and entering.  What we didn't have were missing teenage girls.”
― Albert Waitt, The Ruins of Woodman's Village

“You think you're as tough as you used to be?"
"Probably not, Blink," I said.  "But in theory, I'm a hell of a lot smarter.”
― Albert Waitt, The Ruins of Woodman's Village

“I didn't know whether it was the events of the night or the coffee that had made me jittery.  I reached into the cabinet over the sink and pulled down the bottle of Jack Daniels.”
― Albert Waitt, The Ruins of Woodman's Village

“....Charles laughingly observed,'Gospel and the blues are really, if you break it down, almost the same thing. It's just a question of whether you're talkin' about a woman or God.”
― Craig Werner, Higher Ground: Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Curtis Mayfield, and the Rise and Fall of American Soul

“It is one thing to pray, but another thing to watch how God answers - and He does so effortlessly.”
― Gregory S. Works, Triumph: Life on the Other Side of Trials, Transplants, Transition and Transformation

“I’m a soldier,’ Nathan said. ‘We’re all soldiers, now. Soldiers don’t leave people behind.”
― Barry Kirwan, When the children come

“The war is over. Black people got rights now, just like us white folk. Besides…” he tapped his chest. “It’s what in here that counts.”
― Donald Montano, Drink Deep from the Well of Good Intentions

“You realize, of course, the Omegans nearly lost this Earth. They
had everything yet let it disintegrate through their rampant carelessness.
Two hundred years past they possessed the rudimentary beginnings
of the NET to bring them together. They called it the Internet.
Yet they treated it like a toy, tribalized themselves, and thus nearly lost
the planet.
“Nationalist wars, self serving ideologies, competing religions . . .
more significant, though not to the Omegans, was climate change
itself, which mattered more than any petty dogma, but they ignored
it until too late. It has ultimately determined our lives, managed now
by the CORPORATE, using the only possible tools to survive. There
were billions of Humans then. There is now but a fraction of that:
some 300 million we know in the MEGS and, of course, the uncounted
MASSes.”
― Brian Van Norman, Against the Machine: Evolution

“Yet, all armor—from a lobster’s shell to a Navy SEAL’s
flak jacket—ultimately reveals the same truth. All armor highlights
vulnerability. It trumpets the fact that below that hard exterior lies
an interior that is soft, fragile, and in need of protection.”
― J.K. Franko, Eye for Eye