Sam > Sam's Quotes

“If you say a word, it leaps out and becomes the truth. I love you. I believe it. I believe I am loveable. How can something as fragile as a word build a whole world?”
― Franny Billingsley, Chime

“There are no preconditions for jealousy. You don't have to be right, you don't have to be reasonable.”
― Franny Billingsley, Chime

“It's one thing to keep secrets. It's quite another to lie.”
― Franny Billingsley, Chime

“Soon the Boggy Mun would open up shop. I wore no cloak and had no pockets. I carried my knife and salt in a basket. Little Red Riding Hood, skipping off into the woods. And whom will she meet?

Why, her own self, of course: the wolf.”
― Franny Billingsley, Chime

“Guess what it is that turns plants to coal.
Pressure.
Guess what it is that turns limestone to marble.
Pressure.
Guess what it is that turns Briony's heart to stone.
Pressure.
Pressure is uncomfortable, but so are the gallows. Keep your secrets, wolfgirl. Dance your fists with Eldric's, snatch lightning from the gods. Howl at the moon, at the blood-red moon. Let your mouth be a cavern of stars.”
― Franny Billingsley, Chime

“I can.”

He rent his dark tresses,
Resulting in messes,
Thus prompting his L.I. to flee till,
she reached the end of the world and jumped off.

Perhaps I have untapped potential.”
― Franny Billingsley, Chime

“I might be a wicked girl who'd think nothing of eating a baby for breakfast, but I'd never allow myself to get expelled. It's far too public.”
― Franny Billingsley, Chime

“If there were such a thing as a vampire-puppy-dog, it would be Cecil. Big pleading eyes, asking for an ear-scratch and a nice warm bowl of blood.”
― Franny Billingsley, Chime

“Briony scared?” said Eldric. “I’ve never seen anyone less scared in my life. She has nerves of iron.”
― Franny Billingsley, Chime

“Pressure is uncomfortable, but so are the gallows. Keep your secrets, wolfgirl. Dance your fists with Eldric’s, snatch lightning from the gods. Howl at the moon, at the blood-red moon. Let your mouth be a cavern of stars.”
― Franny Billingsley, Chime

“Eldric turned away from the mirror, holding out his hand. In the cup of his hand lay his fidget of paper clips. But the fidget had blossomed into a crown. An allover-filigree crown, with a twisty spire marking the front.
I stared at it for some moments. "It's for you," said Eldric. "If you want it."
"I'm seventeen," I said. "I haven't played at princess for years."
"Does that matter ?" Eldric set it on my head. It was almost weightless, a true crown for the steam age.
In a proper story, antagonistic sparks would fly between Eldric and me, sparks that would sweeten the inevitable kiss on page 324. But life doesn't work that way. I didn't hate Eldric, which, for me, is about as good as things get.”
― Franny Billingsley, Chime

“The problem I have telling my secret', said Eldric, 'is that it's a secret.”
― Franny Billingsley, Chime

“I don't mean to be ungrateful but if someone's out there answering prayers, mine's not at the top of the list”
― Franny Billingsley, Chime

“Secrets press inside a person. They press the way water presses at a dam. The secrets and the water, they both want to get out.”
― Franny Billingsley, Chime

“Father sighed. “Please spare me these arguments of yours.”

“Whose arguments should I use?”
― Franny Billingsley, Chime

“A person might get angry when the girl he loves says she'll never marry.”
― Franny Billingsley, Chime

“I turned my peeled-apple face to him. I'd make myself look at him. I owed him that. His touch lingered on my neck as though he'd left a handprint of melted light.”
― Franny Billingsley, Chime

“When we were small, Rose and I used to play a game called connect the dots. I loved it. I loved drawing a line from dot number 1 to dot number 2 and so on. Most of all, I loved the moment when the chaotic sprinkle of dots resolved itself into a picture.

That's what stories do. They connect the random dots of life into a picture. But it's all an illusion. Just try to connect the dots of life. You'll end up with a lunatic scribble.”
― Franny Billingsley, Chime

“You could write your way into happiness. It might not be the happiness you'd experience if Eldric pushed Leanne from a cliff, but there's a firefly glimmer in writing something that would please Rose.”
― Franny Billingsley, Chime

“You could at least complain,” I say. “I adore complaining. It calms the nerves.”
― Franny Billingsley, Chime

“I hated myself, but I also loved myself in a hateful way.”
― Franny Billingsley, Chime

“My fist flew forward.
"Nicely done!" said Eldric, although it had glanced off of his palm like a pebble.
"Why aren't you begging for mercy?"
"I make a point never to do so," said Eldric. It puts one at a disadvantage.”
― Franny Billingsley, Chime

“Poor Cecil. It’s hard to be a devil of a fellow in these modern times. No stagecoaches to hold up. No princesses to rescue. Just Petey Todd to escort, while the easy, expert fellow walks the pretty girl home.”
― Franny Billingsley, Chime

“Even a witch wants sympathy.”
― Franny Billingsley, Chime

“How many bones did he set?" I cared about it much less than they did. It's my Florence Nightingale calm, I suppose.
There was a pause.
"Twenty-seven," said Father.
There was a question mark in that pause. "How many bones are in the hand?"
Another pause.
"Twenty-seven," said Eldric.”
― Franny Billingsley, Chime

“I was asking about lust, wasnʼt I? I was fairly certain of it. But isnʼt love supposed
to come before lust? It does in the dictionary.”
― Franny Billingsley, Chime

“Death had no lips, but it was smiling”
― Franny Billingsley, Chime

“That girl was gone; wolfgirl had returned. Wolfgirl, who was leaf dance and moon claw and tooth gleam. When Jupiter sizzled the air with lightning bolts, she caught them on the fly.
"Nice throw, Jupiter!"
"Nice catch, wolfgirl!"
Her mouth was a cavern of stars.”
― Franny Billingsley, Chime

“I have a theory about how she might have managed to pull off such a feat. It comes in the form of an equation: Love + Fear = Herculean Strength. It’s how mothers come to fling runaway motorcars from their children.”
― Franny Billingsley, Chime

“Excellent fistibus," said Eldric, but he wasn't done with my hand. He inspected my left palm, the pucker of scars.
"There's no fortune to be read in that palm," I said, but of course he wanted to know about it; of course he'd been dying to ask since we first met. "Do you want the version of the story in which I'm a hero, or do you want the true version?"
"Both," said Eldric.
"Greedy!" I said.”
― Franny Billingsley