Frances

“Children," said Theodolphus Rose, "are adults who haven't yet learned to make fear their hand puppet.”
― Charlie Jane Anders, All the Birds in the Sky

“Deedee dropped out of her ska-punk band and joined an eight-person madrigal chorus. She had a clot somewhere deep inside her that was connected to the people she had lost in the flood, or might lose in the aftermath, and the endless conversations where everybody compared notes on their respective tragedies only made her feel shittier. Just saying the words "My brother is still missing" made Deedee want to throw up and then head-butt whoever had asked. She needed an alternative to the dull repetition of facts, a way to share her uncut heartbreak without any particulars, and to her amazement she found it in these strange old songs about doomed lovers.”
― Charlie Jane Anders, All the Birds in the Sky

“You will find out who you are when your choices test you. In the end, we are what we do and what we allow to be done.”
― Frances Hardinge, Deeplight

“Don't follow after me, Tian-Tian." She caresses my face, but her fingers crumble into smoke before I can cherish their warmth. "There's nothing here. It's not a solution. Not an escape. I'm not free. I'm just gone.”
― Xiran Jay Zhao, Iron Widow