Estelle > Estelle's Quotes

“When Gansey was polite, it made him powerful. When Adam was polite, he was giving power away.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Raven Boys

“I know when I'm awake and when I'm asleep."

"Do you?"

"Maybe I dreamt you."

"Thanks for the straight teeth, then.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Blue Lily, Lily Blue

“Not every man," I murmured.

Nikolai followed my gaze. "Yes, Alina, even your stalwart champion has his price." He turned back to me, his hazel eyes thoughtful. "And I suspect I'm looking at it right now.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Siege and Storm

“Depending on where you began the story, it was about Noah Czerny.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Raven King

“You're asking me to define an abstract concept that no one has managed to explain since time began. You sort of sprang it on me," Gansey said. "Why do we breathe air? Because we love air? Because we don't want to suffocate. Why do we eat? Because we don't want to starve. How do I know I love her? Because I can sleep after I talk to her. Why?”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Raven King

“Ronan looked angry, but he was in the mood where he was going to look angry no matter what. "I don't know what I want. I don't know what the hell I am."
He got into the Camaro.
"You promised me," Gansey said through the open car door.
Ronan didn't look up."I know what I did, Gansey."
"Don't forget.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Raven Boys

“It was this: Gansey saying, "I like you an awful lot, Blue Sargent."

It was this: Blue's smile – crooked, wry, ridiculous, flustered. There was a lot of happiness tucked in the corner of that smile, and even though her face was several inches from Gansey, some of it still spilled out and got on him. She put her finger on his cheek where he knew his own smile was dimpling it, and then they took each other’s hands, and they climbed back up together.

It was this: this moment and no other moment, and for the first time that Gansey could remember, he knew what it would feel like to be present in his own life.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Raven King

“Adam Parrish was lonesome.
There is no good word for the opposite of lonesome. One might be tempted to suggest togetherness or contentment, but the fact that these two other words bear definitions unrelated to each other perfectly displays why lonesome cannot be properly mirrored. It does not mean solitude, nor alone, nor lonely, although lonesome can contain all of those words in itself.
Lonesome means a state of being apart. Of being other. Alone-some.
Adam was not always alone, but he was always lonesome. Even in a group, he was slowly perfecting the skill of holding himself separate. It was easier than one might expect; the others allowed him to do it. He knew he was different since aligning himself more tightly with the ley line this summer. He was himself, but more powerful. Himself, but less human.
If he were them, he would silently watch him draw away, too.
It was better this way. He had not fought with anyone for so long. He had not been angry for weeks.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Blue Lily, Lily Blue

“You be as angry as you need to be,” she said. “Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Not your grandma, not your dad, no one. And if you need to break things, then by God, you break them good and hard.”
― Patrick Ness, A Monster Calls

“Great danger is always associated with great power. The difference between the great and the mediocre is that the great are willing to take the risk.”
― R.F. Kuang, The Poppy War

“Sir?” Kitay asked. The magistrate turned to look at him. “What?” With a grunt, Kitay raised the crate over his head and flung it to the ground. It landed on the dirt with a hard thud, not the tremendous crash Rin had rather been hoping for. The wooden lid of the crate popped off. Out rolled several very nice porcelain teapots, glazed with a lovely flower pattern. Despite their tumble, they looked unbroken. Then Kitay took to them with a slab of wood. When he was done smashing them, he pushed his wiry curls out of his face and whirled on the sweating magistrate, who cringed in his seat as if afraid Kitay might start smashing at him, too. “We are at war,” Kitay said. “And you are being evacuated because for gods know what reason, you’ve been deemed important to this country’s survival. So do your job. Reassure your people. Help us maintain order. Do not pack your fucking teapots.”
― R.F. Kuang, The Poppy War

“I'm sorry that the world is what it is. But you'll learn how to survive - and you'll have to create a space where you're safe and learn to trust the right people. And you will find happiness.”
― Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World

“Cowards start wars, and the brave fight them.”
― Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World

“In the jaundiced light of a streetlamp, Sarina realizes why people have children: to see the face of the one they love at the ages they’ve missed...”
― Marie-Helene Bertino, 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas

“Saying good-bye to Ben is Sarina's least favorite activity. So sad the number of times she's had to do it. Ball games, recitals, the homes of friends, rented shore houses, through car windows after dropping off some forgotten camera to Annie. Goodbye. See you later. Nice seeing you. She has mastered it: A dismissive peck on the cheek. A hug like an afterthought. Telling herself, Do not watch him walk away. Watching him walk away. Watching him drive away. Watching him descend the stairs to the subway. How many times have they said goodbye to each other? Already tonight, twice.
He interrupts her before she can get the second goodbye out.
"How would you feel," he says, "about missing your train?"
Once at the beach, Sarina watched a crane bathing in a gully at dusk. It used its wings to funnel the water over its back, then shook out the excess in a firework of droplets. After several minutes it took off, arcing out over the fretless sea. That felt like this.”
― Marie-Helene Bertino, 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas

“She hadn't realized how long it takes to become somebody else, or how lonely it can be living in a world not meant for you.”
― Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half

“People thought that being one of a kind made you special. No, it just made you lonely. What was special was belonging with someone else.”
― Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half

“A town always looked different once you'd returned, like a house where all the furniture had shifted three inches. You wouldn't mistake it for a stranger's house but you'd keeping banging your shins on the table corners.”
― Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half

“In the dark, you could never be too black. In the dark, everyone was the same color.”
― Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half

“The key to staying lost was to never love anything.”
― Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half

“Well, maybe that's your problem," Kennedy said, "You tell yourself no before anyone even says it to you.”
― Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half

“She had become white because it was practical, so practical that, at the time, her decision seemed laughably obvious. Why wouldn’t you be white if you could be? Remaining what you were or becoming something new, it was all a choice, any way you looked at it. She had just made the rational decision.”
― Brit Bennett, The Vanishing Half

“I’ve polished this anger and now it’s a knife.”
― Cathy Linh Che

“The best fighter is never angry.”
― Lao Tzu

“Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.”
― Maya Angelou

“You have bewitched me body and soul, and I love, I love, I love you. And wish from this day forth never to be parted from you.”
― Deborah Moggach, Pride & Prejudice screenplay

“Stay away from the ones you love too much. Those are the ones who will kill you.”
― Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch

“I had the epiphany that laughter was light, and light was laughter, and that this was the secret of the universe.”
― Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch

“Sometimes we want what we want even if we know it’s going to kill us.”
― Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch

“There is a famous painting, Nighthawks, by Edward Hopper. I am in love with that painting. Sometimes, I think everyone is like the people in that painting, everyone lost in their own private universes of pain or sorrow or guilt, everyone remote and unknowable. The painting reminds me of you. It breaks my heart.”
― Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe