Rachel Stephan > Rachel's Quotes

“How absurd it was that in all seven kingdoms, the weakest and most vulnerable of people - girls, women - went unarmed and were taught nothing of fighting, while the strong were trained to the highest reaches of their skill.”
― Kristin Cashore, Graceling

“I know you don't want this, Katsa. But I can't help myself. The moment you came barreling into my life I was lost. I'm afraid to tell you what I wish for, for fear you'll... oh, I don't know, throw me into the fire. Or more likely, refuse me. Or worst of all, despise me," he said, his voice breaking and his eyes dropping from her face. His face dropping into his hands. "I love you," he said. "You're more dear to my heart than I ever knew anyone could be. And I've made you cry; and there I'll stop.”
― Kristin Cashore, Graceling

“Sit, Your High Majestic Lord Princes," she said. She yanked a chair from the table and sat herself down.
"You're in fine temper," Raffin said.
"Your hair is blue," Katsa snapped back.”
― Kristin Cashore, Graceling

“She knew he was angry, but she couldn't stop laughing. "Forgive me, Po. I was only trying to get your attention."

"And I suppose it never occurs to you to start small. If I told you my roof needed rebuilding, you'd start by knocking down the house.”
― Kristin Cashore, Graceling

“She shivered as he left her to go to the fire, and find water and cloths. He leaned into the light, and brightness and shadows moved across his body. He was beautiful. She admired him, and he flashed a grin at her. Almost as beautiful as you are conceited, she thought at him, and he laughed out loud.”
― Kristin Cashore, Graceling

“Lady Katsa, is it?"
"Yes, Lord Prince."
"I've heard you have one eye green as the Middluns grasses, and the other eye blue as the sky."
"Yes, Lord Prince."
"I've heard you can kill a man with the nail of your smallest finger."
She smiled. "Yes, Lord Prince."
"Does it make it easier?"
"I don't understand you."
"To have beautiful eyes. Does it lighten the burden of your Grace, to know you have beautiful eyes?”
― Kristin Cashore, Graceling

“It seems better to me for a child to have these skills and never use them, than not have them and one day need them," she said.”
― Kristin Cashore, Graceling

“Still doing your best to ruin the horses, I see.”
― Kristin Cashore, Graceling

“I wanted you to go away, because it hurts to be with you when I can't see you.”
― Kristin Cashore, Graceling

“In the end, Leck should have stuck to his lies. For it was the truth he almost told that killed him.”
― Kristin Cashore, Graceling

“Katsa sat in the darkness of the Sunderan forest and understood three truths. She loved Po. She wanted Po. And she could never be anyone's but her own.”
― Kristin Cashore, Graceling

“It was when she returned to him, chilled & clearheaded, that it happened. He sat against the tree, his knees bent & his head in his hands. His shoulders slumped. Tired, unhappy. Something tender caught in her breath at the sight of him. And then he raised his eyes and looked at her, and she saw what she had not seen before. She gasped.
His eyes were beautiful. His face was beautiful to her in every way, and his shoulders and hands. And his arms that hung over his knees, and his chest that was not moving, because he held his breath as he watched her. And the heart in his chest. This friend. How had she not seen this before? How had she not seen him? She was blind. And then tears choked her eyes, for she had not asked for this. She had not asked for this beautiful man before her, with something hopeful in his eyes that she did not want.”
― Kristin Cashore, Graceling

“I have no doubt that you are more than capable of bringing the Monsean queen and my son and the rest of my sons and a hundred Nanderan kittens through an onslaught of howling raiders if you chose to.”
― Kristin Cashore, Graceling

“Mercy was more frightening than murder, because it was harder.”
― Kristin Cashore, Graceling

“She knew her nature. She would recognize it if she came face-to-face with it. It would be a blue-eyed green-eyed monster, wolflike and snarling. A vicious beast that struck out at friends in uncontrollable anger, a killer that offered itself as a vessel of the king's fury.
But then it was a strange monster, for beneath its exterior it was frightened and sickened by its own violence. It chastised itself for its savagery. And sometimes it had no heart for violence and rebelled against it utterly.
A monster that refused, sometimes, to behave like a monster. When a monster stopped behaving like a monster , did it stop being a monster? Did it become something else?
Perhaps she wouldn't recognize her own nature after all.”
― Kristin Cashore, Graceling

“I'm not such a bad fighter myself," Skye said. Po exploded with laughter. "Oh, fight him, Katsa. Please fight him. I can't imagine a more entertaining diversion.”
― Kristin Cashore, Graceling

“The only way for you to keep your mind straight is to run from those who would confuse you.”
― Kristin Cashore, Graceling

“She looked at him then, but his image blurred behind tears that swelled into her eyes. She must leave. She must leave this room, because she wanted to hit him, as she had sworn she never would do. She wanted to cause him pain for taking a place in her heart that she wouldn't have given him if she'd known the truth.
"You lied to me," she said.
She turned and ran from the room.”
― Kristin Cashore, Graceling

“I thought it was supposed to be impossible to sneak up on you. Eyes of a hawk and ears of a wolf and all.”
― Kristin Cashore, Graceling

“I love you," he said. "You're more dear to my heart than I ever knew anyone else can be. And I've made you cry; and there I'll stop."
She was crying, but not because of his words. It was because of a certainty she refused to consider while she sat before him.”
― Kristin Cashore, Graceling

“She wanted to cause him pain for taking a place in her heart she wouldn't have given him if she'd known the truth.”
― Kristin Cashore, Graceling

“Uncle," she said. "Let me explain what will happen the instant one of your men makes a move toward me. Let's say, for instance, one of your archers lets an arrow fly. You've not come to many of my practices, Uncle. You haven't seen me dodge arrows; but your archers have. If one or your archers releases an arrow, I'll drop to the floor. The arrow will doubtless hit one of your guards. The sword and the dagger of that guard will be in my hands before anyone in the room has time to realize what's happened. A fight will break out with the guards; but only seven or eight of them can surround me at once, Uncle, and seven or eight is nothing to me. As I kill the guards I'll take their daggers and begin throwing them into the hearts of your archers, who of course will have no sighting on me once the brawl with the guards has broken out. I'll get out of the room alive, Uncle, but most of the rest of you will be dead. Of course, this is only what will happen if I wait for one of your men to make a move. I could move first. I could attack a guard, steal his dagger, and hurl it into your chest this instant.”
― Kristin Cashore, Graceling

“He made her drunk, this man made her drunk; and every time his eyes flashed into hers she could not breathe.”
― Kristin Cashore, Graceling

“When you're a monster, you are thanked and praised for not being a monster.”
― Kristin Cashore, Graceling

“It's as if when I open myself up to every perception, things create their own focus.”
― Kristin Cashore, Graceling

“Alone in the forest, Katsa sat on a stump and cried. She cried like a person whose heart is broken and wondered how, when two people loved each other, there could be such a broken heart.”
― Kristin Cashore, Graceling

“There's no shame in crawling when one can't walk.”
― Kristin Cashore, Graceling

“Maybe it was for the best that she'd been so foolish, for if she'd known how hard this would be, perhaps she wouldn't have done it.”
― Kristin Cashore, Graceling

“And the kings were no better to their own people than they were to each others.”
― Kristin Cashore, Graceling

“She couldn't steal herself back from Randa only to give herself away again - belong to another person, be answerable to another person, build her very being around another person.”
― Kristin Cashore, Graceling