Iris > Iris's Quotes

“We are not going to die."

Butters stared up at me, pale, his eyes terrified. "We're not?"

"No. And do you know why?" He shook his head. "Because Thomas is too pretty to die. And because I'm too stubborn to die." I hauled on the shirt even harder. "And most of all because tomorrow is Oktoberfest, Butters, and polka will never die.”
― Jim Butcher, Dead Beat

“The human mind is not a terribly logical or consistent place.”
― Jim Butcher, Turn Coat

“Most of the bad guys in the real world don't know that they are bad guys. You don't get a flashing warning sign that you're about to damn yourself. It sneaks up on you when you aren't looking.”
― Jim Butcher

“Have you ever felt despair? Absolute hopelessness? Have you ever stood in the darkness and known, deep in your heart, in your spirit, that it was never, ever going to get better? That something had been lost, forever, and that it wasn't coming back?”
― Jim Butcher, Storm Front

“Some people will never believe you no matter how hard you explain yourself. Trust me, there's no pleasing people. If they're determined to think the worst of you, they will.”
― Amy Tintera, Listen for the Lie

“I am not responsible for the fake version of me you created in your head.”
― Amy Tintera, Listen for the Lie

“I’ve learned that love is about finding someone who pulls you to them even when reason might tell you otherwise. Someone who pushes you out of your comfort zone, not because of them doing or saying anything, necessarily, but because they make you want to try new things. They make you want to be daring, because maybe something new and scary doesn’t feel quite as scary by their side.”
― Haley Cass, Those Who Wait

“When I’m close to you, you make everything feel the way the world should be. You make everything make sense.”
― Haley Cass, On the Same Page

“[...]for hatred was the fear people let themselves enjoy.”
― John Wiswell, Someone You Can Build a Nest In

“Romance was awful. She couldn't even murder people anymore.”
― John Wiswell, Someone You Can Build a Nest In

“I do not know what you call it. The thing that is not flesh or bone or organs. In the panic, I needed to make sure the greater things were safe... What do you call that thing that I had to save? I had to save it. I had to save us. You are my safety.”
― John Wiswell, Someone You Can Build a Nest In

“This was the same mistake so many humans made: believing someone would leap over trauma when it hurt them badly enough.”
― John Wiswell, Someone You Can Build a Nest In

“Nobody actually helped each other. That's why people had religions, hoping gods would provide help where people refused.”
― John Wiswell, Someone You Can Build a Nest In

“But these words people threw around - humans, monsters, heroes, villains - to Victor it was all just a matter of semantics. Someone could call themselves a hero and still walk around killing dozens. Someone else could be labeled a villain for trying to stop them. Plenty of humans were monstrous, and plenty of monsters knew how to play at being human.”
― V.E. Schwab, Vicious

“Maybe we are broken. But we put ourselves back together. We survived. That’s what makes us so powerful. And as for family—well, blood is always family, but family doesn’t always have to be blood.”
― V.E. Schwab, Vengeful

“That's just what translation is, I think. That's all speaking is. Listening to the other and trying to see past your own biases to glimpse what they're trying to say. Showing yourself to the world, and hoping someone else understands.”
― R.F. Kuang, Babel

“This is how colonialism works. It convinces us that the fallout from resistance is entirely our fault, that the immoral choice is resistance itself rather than the circumstances that demanded it.”
― R.F. Kuang, Babel

“Reading lets us live in someone else’s shoes. Literature builds bridges; it makes our world larger, not smaller.”
― R.F. Kuang, Yellowface

“It occurred to Delilah that this was probably the longest she'd ever really looked at her stepsister. She'd spent years perfecting the art of avoidance, of protection, of never letting Astrid see how much Delilah was hurting. If eyes were the window into the soul, Delilah's had long been shuttered.”
― Ashley Herring Blake, Delilah Green Doesn't Care

“And Delilah had gotten through life by putting herself first, only concentrating herself with what she knew was true, because she’d learned a long time ago that she couldn’t control anyone but herself. She couldn’t change anyone’s mind, couldn’t make someone love her who had no interest in doing so, and couldn’t keep someone from leaving her if that’s what they wanted to do.”
― Ashley Herring Blake, Delilah Green Doesn't Care

“I spent a lot of time,” Iris went on, “convincing myself I wasn’t built to last, wasn’t built for romance, for love. But maybe . . .” Tears bloomed into her eyes. “Maybe I was just built for you.”
― Ashley Herring Blake, Iris Kelly Doesn't Date

“She felt her friends on either side of her, gentle hands on her back, waiting for her. Loving her. Because Iris Kelly was worth loving. And she always had been.”
― Ashley Herring Blake, Iris Kelly Doesn't Date

“Delilah Green didn’t care. Because they’d never once cared about her.”
― Ashley Herring Blake, Delilah Green Doesn't Care

“But, you know, that feeling? When you wake up in the morning and you have somebody to think about? Somewhere for hope to go? It's good. Even when it's bad, it's good.”
― Casey McQuiston, One Last Stop

“Sometimes the point is to be sad, August. Sometimes you just have to feel it because it deserves to be felt.”
― Casey McQuiston, One Last Stop

“You have fallen into the homoerotic queer girl friendship. It’s all cute at first, and then you catch feelings, and it’s impossible to tell if the joke flirting is actual flirting and if the platonic cuddling is romantic cuddling, and next thing you know, three years have gone by, and you’re obsessed with her, and you haven’t done anything about it because you’re too terrified to fuck up the friendship by guessing it wrong, so instead you send each other horny plausible deniability love letters until you’re both dead.”
― Casey McQuiston, One Last Stop

“You know all those times you just don't dare to dream? You tell yourself it'll only end badly. Why hurt yourself for no reason? And after a while you teach yourself to not dream at all?"
"No, I always dream. The bigger, the better.”
― Lee Winter, The Red Files

“She almost wished she was a psychopath, someone who felt nothing about hurting others. Someone incapable of empathy or love. Someone heartless. But her own heart persisted, pumping away to spite her. Her traitorous mind constantly reminded her of what she’d done.”
― Lee Winter, The Fixer

“I need to know. Like I label my van Gloria and name your pigeons and know which flower absolutely belongs in your bedroom and which plant belongs by your desk. I need order and certainty and labels for the things that matter to me most because I deal in so much chaos and randomness. But I survive by knowing the things that should be known.”
― Lee Winter, Chaos Agent

“God knows why.” Amelia couldn’t bring herself to evade the question. “I keep getting caught up with people who aren’t as invested in me as I am in them. The equation is eternally lopsided.”
― Lee Winter, Hotel Queens