Lush Quotes

“The streets of Prague were a fantasia scarcely touched by the twenty-first century—or the twentieth or nineteenth, for that matter. It was a city of alchemists and dreamers, its medieval cobbles once trod by golems, mystics, invading armies. Tall houses glowed goldenrod and carmine and eggshell blue, embellished with Rococo plasterwork and capped in roofs of uniform red. Baroque cupolas were the soft green of antique copper, and Gothic steeples stood ready to impale fallen angels. The wind carried the memory of magic, revolution, violins, and the cobbled lanes meandered like creeks. Thugs wore Motzart wigs and pushed chamber music on street corners, and marionettes hung in windows, making the whole city seem like a theater with unseen puppeteers crouched behind velvet.”
― Laini Taylor, Daughter of Smoke & Bone

“Enraged, Marco paced back and forth, gripping the newspaper in his fist. What do these animals hope to accomplish with senseless violence? We have enough suffering on this island. Do we have to kill each other, too?”
― Margarita Barresi, A Delicate Marriage

“Isa rolled her eyes. “Are you serious? You’re the only person I know who’d get upset that the FBI’s not watching him.”
― Margarita Barresi, A Delicate Marriage

“You boys must always remember your roots, everything that makes you Puerto Rican. Don’t ever lose the stain of the plantain,” Isa said.”
― Margarita Barresi, A Delicate Marriage

“After endless cajoling, rationalizing, ego stroking, and outright begging—all to no avail—Isa decided that what Marco didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him.”
― Margarita Barresi, A Delicate Marriage

“I want to keep sleeping, but the sun outside my window has other ideas: First blind her. Then jab her eyeballs with scorching-hot daggers.”
― Natasha Friend, Lush

“Life occasionally humbles us by making us turned on by someone whom we turn off.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“savor
with me
the lushness
of a lingering sleep...
and last night’s
dream.”
― Sanober Khan, Turquoise Silence

“Watch, how the sun
slowly rises
from behind my ear

new lines, new countries
spring up in my palms

my rough hair
become swaying silk

and all the leaves
in my body
become lusher than fruits.”
― Sanober Khan, A Thousand Flamingos

“Sensuality is an expression of modern luxury.”
― Lebo Grand

“I carry on in this island whipped by typhoons
Chained to the sea as the waves
Crash against the dam, and I proclaim you.
I scream, until hoarse, your beloved name.

—José Manuel Cardona, from Birnam Wood (Salmon Poetry, 2018), translated by Hélène Cardona”
― José Manuel Cardona, Hélène Cardona

“I only

dream of your ankles brushed by dark violets,
of honeybees above you

murmuring into a crown. Antique queen,

the night dreams on:”
― Mary Szybist, Incarnadine: Poems

“Across the road, under the willows, Rose Thorn saw a tangle of purple waterleaf, edible. The May apples had opened their umbrellas over creamy flowers, and a clump of white trillium waved flags of truce, a few of them blushing pink. The foliage between them and the island--- elderberry bushes and silky dogwood--- was already so thick that Rosie could barely see the cottage perched just above the bridge. She didn't understand why she'd wanted to leave this lovely, lush, watery place; at this time of year, she was always sure she'd never want to leave again.”
― Bonnie Jo Campbell, The Waters

“I keep falling asleep in your dreams
let's meet back here
yesterday morning”
― Christian Garduno, Meeting Sara Quill

“A backlit mist bathed the Cascade foothills in silver as Justin and I pledged our love before a justice of the peace. Standing in the same lush mountains where we’d first met, we exchanged rings, grinning on a stone stage in a fog-flowered forest clearing.”
― Aspen Matis, Your Blue Is Not My Blue: A Missing Person Memoir