The Dream Thieves Quotes

“Reality's what other people dream for you.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Dream Thieves

“It shouldn't have happened at all, but their friendship had been cemented in only the time it took to get to school that morning - Adam demonstrating how to fasten the Camaro's ground wire more securely, Gansey lifting Adam's bike halfway into the trunk so they could ride to school together, Adam confessing he worked at a mechanic's to put himself through Aglionby, and Gansey turning to the passenger seat and asking, "What do you know about Welsh kings?”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Dream Thieves

“Gansey lifted her hand gently from his skin, holding it as formally as a dance. He put it against his mouth. Blue froze. Absolutely still. Her heart didn't beat. She didn't blink. She couldn't say don't kiss me. She couldn't even form don't. He just leaned his cheek and the edge of his mouth against her knuckles and then set her hand back.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Dream Thieves

“Ronans second secret was Adam Parrish”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Dream Thieves

“Gansey sighed, small and quiet and ragged, like he hadn't meant to let it escape. She shifted her gaze from the window to the side of his head, watching him watch instead. He pressed his thumb against his lower lip-this was Gansey, that gesture- and then he swallowed. It was, she thought, just as she felt when she looked at the stars, when she walked in Cabeswater.”
― Maggie Stiefvater

“She was decidedly uncomfortable with the switchblade. Although she very much liked the idea of it---Blue Sargent, desperado; Blue Sargent, superhero; Blue Sargent, badass---she suspected that the only thing she would cut the first time she opened it was herself.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Dream Thieves

“With force, Gansey kicked off his shoes. One flew over his miniature Henrietta and the other made it all the way to the side of his desk. It slammed off the old wood and slid to the ground. Under his breath, Gansey said, "Yee haw.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Dream Thieves

“Ganseys were creatures of habit, and he wanted Adam here, and he wanted Noah here, and he wanted everyone to like him, and he wanted to be in charge.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Dream Thieves

“But she didn't want that. She wanted something more.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Dream Thieves

“You know me,” Blue said. “Ever sensible.”
“Like myself,” Gansey agreed grandly, and she laughed delightedly. “A creature of simple delights.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Dream Thieves

“She called Gansey.
"Blue?" he said.
Just his voice. Her heart tethered itself. Not completely, but enough to stop quivering so much. She closed her eyes”
― Maggie Stiefvater

“The two of them were on perpendicular paths, not parallel ones, and eventually, they'd have to go different ways.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Dream Thieves

“A robed figure stood before a coin, a cup, a sword, a wand---all of the symbols of all the tarot suits. An infinity symbol floated above his head; one arm was lifted in a posture of power. Yes, thought Adam. Understanding prickled and then evaded him.

He read the words at the bottom of the card.

The Magician.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Dream Thieves

“Two more tears had queued up, but when she blinked, they remained in her eyes. Shining little lakes.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Dream Thieves

“She did not feel like Blue Sargent, superhero, or Blue Sargent, desperado, or Blue Sargent, badass.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Dream Thieves

“Her heart tethered itself.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Dream Thieves

“Ronan's second secret was Adam Parrish. Adam was different since making the bargain with Cabeswater. Stronger, stranger, farther away. It was hard not to stare at the odd and elegant lines of his face.”
― Maggie Stiefvater

“I'm sorry," Gansey said, not looking at her as she leaned on the car beside him. "That was very rude."

Blue thought of a few things to reply, but couldn't say any of them out loud. She felt like one of the night birds had gotten inside her. It tumbled and fumbled every time she breathed.

He's going to die; this is going to hurt--

But she touched his neck, right where his hair was cut evenly above the collar of his shirt. He was very still. His skin was hot, and she could very, very faintly feel his pulse beneath her thumb. It wasn't like when she was with Adam. She didn't have to guess what to do with her hands. They knew. This was what it should have felt like with Adam. Less like playacting and more like a foregone conclusion.

He closed his eyes and leaned, just a little, so that her palm was flat on his neck, fingers sprawled from his ear to his shoulder.

Everything in Blue was charged. Say something. Say something.

Gansey lifted her hand gently from his skin, holding it as formally as a dance. He put it against his mouth.

Blue froze. Absolutely still. Her heart didn't beat. She didn't blink. She couldn't say don't kiss me. She couldn't even form don't.

He just leaned his cheek and the edge of his mouth against her knuckles, and then set her hand back.

"I know," he said. "I wouldn't."

Her skin burned with the memory of his mouth. The thrashing bird of her heart shivered and shivered again. "Thank's for remembering."

He looked back over the valley. "Oh, Jane."

"Oh, Jane, what?"

"He didn't want me to, did you know? He told me not to try to get you to come to the table that night at Nino's. I had to talk him into it. And then I made such an idiot of myself--" He turned back to her. "What are you thinking?"

She just looked at him. That I went out with the wrong boy. That I destroyed Adam tonight for no reason at all. That I'm not sensible at all--"I thought you were an asshole."

Gallantly, he said, "Thank God for past tense." Then: "I can't--we can't do this to him."

It was jagged inside her. "I'm not a thing. To have."

"No. Jesus. Of course you're not. But you know what I mean."

She did. And he was right. They couldn't do this to him. She shouldn't do it to herself, anyway. But how it made a disaster of her chest and her mouth and her head.

"I wish you could be kissed, Jane," he said. "Because I would beg one off you. Under all this." He flailed an arm toward the stars. "And then we'd never say anything about it again.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Dream Thieves

“Ronan's bedroom door burst open. Hanging on the door frame, Ronan leaned out to peer past Gansey. He was doing that thing where he looked like both the dangerous Ronan he was now and the cheerier Ronan he had been when Gansey had first met him. "Is Noah out here?"

"Hold on," Gansey told Adam. Then, to Ronan: "Why would he be?"

"No reason. Just no reason." Ronan slammed his door.

Adam's response was buried in the sound of the second-story door falling open. Noah slouched in. In a wounded tone, he said, "He threw me out the window!"

Ronan's voice sang out from behind his closed door: "You're already dead!”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Dream Thieves

“Blue had indeed cut herself.

After Adam had gone into the reading room, she'd experimentally opened the switchblade and it had obligingly attacked her. It was just a scratch, really. It barely warranted a Band-Aid, but she put one on anyway.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Dream Thieves

“He asked it so quietly that the words came out gravelly, like a violin played too softly.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Dream Thieves

“Gansey, a furious sun, glowed from the other side of the universe, his gravitational pull too distant to affect Adam.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Dream Thieves

“She said, "We can pretend. Just once. And then we'll never say anything about it again."

What a strange, shifting person he was. The Gansey who turned to her now was a world away from the lofty boy she'd first met. Without any hesitation, she stretched her arms around his neck. Who was this Blue? She felt bigger than her body. High as the stars. He leaned toward her--her heart spun again--and pressed his cheek against hers. His lips didn't touch her skin, but she felt his breath, hot and uneven, on her face. His fingers splayed on either side of her spine. Her lips were so close to his jaw that she felt his hint of stubble at the end of them. It was mint and memories and the past and the future and she felt as if she'd done this before and already she longed to do it again.

Oh, help, she thought. Help, help, help.

He pulled away. He said, "And now we never speak of it again.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Dream Thieves

“Blue Sargent was pretty in a way that was physically painful to him. He was attracted to her like a heart attack. Currently, she sat against his door in lace leggings and a tunic made of a ripped-up oversized Beatles shirt. She had been paging idly through the supermarket weekly saver, but she put it down when she saw him.

The only rub was, Blue was another troubling thing. She was like Gansey in that she wanted him to explain himself. What do you want, Adam? What do you need, Adam? Want and need were words that got eaten smaller and smaller: freedom, autonomy, a perennial bank balance, a stainless-steel condo in a dustless city, a silky black car, to make out with Blue, eight hours of sleep, a cell phone, a bed, to kiss Blue just once, a blister-less heel, bacon for breakfast, to hold Blue's hand, one hour of sleep, toilet paper, deodorant, a soda, a minute to close his eyes.

What do you want, Adam?

To feel awake when my eyes are open.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Dream Thieves

“Say hi to your mom?”
― Maggie Stiefvater

“Placing an elbow on the other side of her head, Noah leaned close and kissed her once more. This time, it was more of a thought than a feeling, a soft heat that began at her mouth and unfurled through the rest of her. One of his cold hands slid behind her neck and he kissed her again, lips parted. It was not just a touch, an action. It was the simplification of both of them: They were no longer Noah Czerny and Blue Sargent. They were now just him and her. Not even that. They were only the time that they held between them.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Dream Thieves

“She let him kiss her, and kissed him back until he pulled back on an elbow and clumsily wiped away some of her tears with the heel of his fist. His smudge had gotten very dark, and he was cold enough that she shivered.

Blue gave him a watery smile. "That was super nice."

He shrugged, eyes doleful, shoulders curled in on themselves. He was fading. It wasn't that she could see through him. It was that it was hard to remember what he looked like, even while she was looking at him. When he turned his head, she saw him swallow. He mumbled, "I'd ask you out, if I was alive."

Nothing was fair.

"I'd say okay," she replied.

She only had time to see him smile faintly. And then he was gone.

She rolled onto her back in the middle of the suddenly empty bed. Above her, the rafters glowed with the summer sun. Blue touched her mouth. It felt the same as it always did. Not at all like she had just gotten her first and last kiss.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Dream Thieves

“He said, "I am. I'm--I'm pulling another card."

He hesitated, waiting for her to tell him it wasn't allowed. But she just waited. Adam cut the deck, laid his hand on each stack. He took the card that felt warmer.

Flipping it, he placed the card beside the nine of swords.

A robed figure stood before a coin, a cup, a sword, and a wand--all of the symbols of the tarot suits. An infinity symbol floated above his head; one arm was lifted in a posture of power. Yes, thought Adam. Understanding prickled and then evaded him.

He read the words at the bottom of the card.

The Magician.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Dream Thieves

“In some parallel universe, there was a Gansey who could tell Blue that he found the ten inches of her bare calves far more tantalizing than the thirteen cubic feet of bare skin Orla sported. But in this universe, that was Adam's job.

He was in a terrible mood.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Dream Thieves

“What am I supposed to do with them?"
"Hell if I know. I just thought of you. Regift them. White rabbit shit."
"Elephant," murmured Gansey.
"Don't bring politics into this, Dick," Kavinsky replied.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Dream Thieves