Falcon Quotes

“Once there was a boy,” said Jace.

Clary interrupted immediately. “A Shadowhunter boy?”

“Of course.” For a moment a bleak amusement colored his voice. Then it was gone. “When the boy was six years old, his father gave him a falcon to train. Falcons are raptors – killing birds, his father told him, the Shadowhunters of the sky.

“The falcon didn’t like the boy, and the boy didn’t like it, either. Its sharp beak made him nervous, and its bright eyes always seemed to be watching him. It would slash at him with beak and talons when he came near: For weeks his wrists and hands were always bleeding. He didn’t know it, but his father had selected a falcon that had lived in the wild for over a year, and thus was nearly impossible to tame. But the boy tried, because his father told him to make the falcon obedient, and he wanted to please his father.

“He stayed with the falcon constantly, keeping it awake by talking to it and even playing music to it, because a tired bird was meant to be easier to tame. He learned the equipment: the jesses, the hood, the brail, the leash that bound the bird to his wrist. He was meant to keep the falcon blind, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it – instead he tried to sit where the bird could see him as he touched and stroked its wings, willing it to trust him. Hee fed it from his hand, and at first it would not eat. Later it ate so savagely that its beak cut the skin of his palm. But the boy was glad, because it was progress, and because he wanted the bird to know him, even if the bird had to consume his blood to make that happen.

“He began to see that the falcon was beautiful, that its slim wings were built for the speed of flight, that it was strong and swift, fierce and gentle. When it dived to the ground, it moved like likght. When it learned to circle and come to his wrist, he neary shouted with delight Sometimes the bird would hope to his shoulder and put its beak in his hair. He knew his falcon loved him, and when he was certain it was not just tamed but perfectly tamed, he went to his father and showed him what he had done, expecting him to be proud.

“Instead his father took the bird, now tame and trusting, in his hands and broke its neck. ‘I told you to make it obedient,’ his father said, and dropped the falcon’s lifeless body to the ground. ‘Instead, you taught it to love you. Falcons are not meant to be loving pets: They are fierce and wild, savage and cruel. This bird was not tamed; it was broken.’

“Later, when his father left him, the boy cried over his pet, until eventually his father sent a servant to take the body of the bird away and bury it. The boy never cried again, and he never forgot what he’d learned: that to love is to destroy, and that to be loved is to be the one destroyed.”
― Cassandra Clare, City of Bones

“Featherweight by Suzy Kassem


One evening,
I sat by the ocean and questioned the moon about my destiny.
I revealed to it that I was beginning to feel smaller compared to others,
Because the more secrets of the universe I would unlock,
The smaller in size I became.

I didn't understand why I wasn't feeling larger instead of smaller.
I thought that seeking Truth was what was required of us all –
To show us the way, not to make us feel lost,
Up against the odds,
In a devilish game partitioned by
An invisible wall.

Then the next morning,
A bird appeared at my window, just as the sun began
Spreading its yolk over the horizon.
It remained perched for a long time,
Gazing at me intently, to make sure I knew I wasn’t dreaming.
Then its words gently echoed throughout my mind,
Telling me:

'The world you are in –
Is the true hell.
The journey to Truth itself
Is what quickens the heart to become lighter.
The lighter the heart, the purer it is.
The purer the heart, the closer to light it becomes.
And the heavier the heart,
The more chained to this hell
It will remain.'

And just like that, it flew off towards the sun,
Leaving behind a tiny feather.
So I picked it up,
And fastened it to a toothpick,
To dip into ink
And write my name.”
― Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

“Lirralei was a girl of storm--winds and thorns, the musk of the wild rose and the flight of the falcon.”
― Rosamund Hodge, Uncanny Magazine Issue 3: March/April 2015

“I spread my majestic wings. I had really done it! I was a noble falcon, lord of the sky. I launched myself off the sidewalk and flew straight into the fence.”
― Rick Riordan

“Not it. Her. Give the Falcon some respect, kid.”
― Chuck Wendig, Empire's End

“to love is to destroy and that to be loved is the one to be destroyed”
― Cassandra Clare, City of Bones

“There was a downpour coming; Avery could feel it. The wind was already gaining strength, tearing out the last of her hairpins, whipping her dress close to her body. The air was heavy with the scent of rain. Avery's thoughts circled frantically in her mind, pressing so hard she thought she would burst.
A falcon that had been perched farther along the railing turned a beady eye on her, curious. Avery watched it unfurl its wings and take off. She felt a sudden kinship with the bird, the way it flew screaming into the sky like a wild thing. She wished she could follow it straight into the gathering storm.”
― Katharine McGee, The Thousandth Floor

“Chewbacca’s back home, looking for his family. Luke’s searching the galaxy for old Jedi teachings. Han Solo’s got nothing to smuggle, nowhere to gamble, no foolish Rebellion to fight for. He’s like the Falcon: retired to a hangar somewhere, waiting for something, anything, to happen.”
― Chuck Wendig, Empire's End

“The Falcon ready?” Sana asked.
“Always, sister. Always.”
“Are you, though?”
“Usually, sister. Usually.”
― Daniel José Older, Last Shot: A Han and Lando Novel

“He hissed, “You do not strike the King!”
“You’re not my king!” she shouted back.”
― Thea Harrison, Lionheart

“He hadn’t eaten for a very long time, and he was in the mood to find out what a falcon tasted like.”
― Thea Harrison, Lionheart

“The Falcon had taken him away from Tatooine decades ago—a shell-shocked farm boy hurled into the middle of a galactic civil war he’d wrongly assumed would never touch him, his step-parents, or his friends.
He wondered what that Luke Skywalker would think of what he’d become.”
― Jason Fry, The Last Jedi: Expanded Edition (Exclusive Edition)

“Leaning forward, she pressed her lips to his. His mouth was so still, so warm and perfect. Her closed eyes filled with dampness as she lingered over the sensation of touching his lips with hers.
It felt like saying goodbye to a man she had never met and could barely acknowledge to herself that she had truly wanted to.
Then he moved.
He moved.”
― Thea Harrison, Lionheart

“So, you like cats?”
― Sam Wilson

“I've seen the big lie technique -- say anything loud enough, often enough, and it'll sound like the truth. But I considered it a tool of totalitarian governments, and not possible in America. I was wrong! Suddenly they capped their campaign by framing me-- --for murder!”
― Steve Englehart, Captain America (1968-1996) #154

“With precise eye and strong wings, it embraces the sky, immersed in its flight.”
― David Passarelli, Mountain poems: Musings on stone, forest, and snow

“The Falcon? He ain't no hero -- Not up here!
Yeah! His skin be black -- -- but inside, he just another white guy!”
― Kurt Busiek, Marvels (1994) #4