Tarja

“It’s you I love,” he says. ”I spent much of my life guarding my heart. I guarded it so well that I could behave as though I didn’t have one at all. Even now, it is a shabby, worm-eaten, and scabrous thing. But it is yours.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing

“Asetun kyljelleni, kasvot emäntään päin, ja koetan nähdä hänet sellaisena kuin muut hänet näkevät: yhtä aikaa etuoikeutettu ja riistetty, kapinoiva ja alistunut, kerrostuneiden ristiriitojen sekasotku. Ei ihme, että hänen läheisensä katsovat oikeudekseen asetella elämän valmiiksi hänen ympärilleen. Emäntä antaa sen tapahtua, koska hänellä ei ole aatetta, ei päämäärää. Ei mitään, minkä puolesta elää ja taistella ja kuolla. Minkä puolesta tappaa.”
― Terhi Tarkiainen, Pure mua

“But what he hadn’t expected was that when everyone feared him and flattered him, Lan WangJi scolded him right in his face; when everyone spurned him and loathed him, Lan WangJi stood by his side.”
― 墨香铜臭, 魔道祖师 [Mó Dào Zǔ Shī]

“It’s you I love,” he says. “I spent much of my life guarding my heart. I guarded it so well that I could behave as though I didn’t have one at all. Even now, it is a shabby, worm-eaten, and scabrous thing. But it is yours.” He walks to the door to the royal chambers, as though to end the conversation. “You probably guessed as much,” he says. “But just in case you didn’t.”
― Holly Black, The Queen of Nothing