Emily Simon

“But he wasn’t going for the sake of corruption or the kingdom. His tower was broken, he’d drunk Spindle-water, and he’d held my hand. So now he was going to run away as quick as he could, and find himself some new stone walls to hide behind. He’d keep himself locked away for ten years this time, until he withered his own roots, and didn’t feel the lack of them anymore.”
― Naomi Novik, Uprooted

“All those stories must have ended this same way, with someone tired going home from a field full of death, but no one ever sang this part.”
― Naomi Novik, Uprooted

“We're meant to go. We're not meant to stay forever.”
― Naomi Novik, Uprooted

“I remembered when my oldest brother married Malgosia, and suddenly the two of them stopped running around with us and started sitting with the parents: a very solemn kind of alchemy, one that I felt shouldn't have been able to just sneak up on me.”
― Naomi Novik, Uprooted