Jessica

“I want to have the heart and mind of a queen,” she whispered. “I want it more than anything. But I’m only pretending. I can’t find the feeling of it inside me.”

Fire considered her quietly. You want me to look for it inside you.

“I just want to know,” Bitterblue said. “If it’s there, it would be a great comfort for me to know.”

Fire said, I can tell you already that it’s there.

“Really?” Bitterblue whispered.

Queen Bitterblue, Fire said, shall I share with you the feeling of your own strength?”
― Kristin Cashore, Bitterblue

“You have your wonderful memories," people said later, as if memories were solace. Memories are not. Memories are by definition of times past, things gone. Memories are the Westlake uniforms in the closet, the faded and cracked photographs, the invitations to the weddings of the people who are no longer married, the mass cards from the funerals of the people whose faces you no longer remember. Memories are what you no longer want to remember.”
― Joan Didion, Blue Nights

“Go safely. Go safely, she thought to him. What a silly, empty thing it was to say to anyone, anywhere.”
― Kristin Cashore, Fire

“There was no helping her tears. For they would leave Po behind… She cried into his shoulder like a child. Ashamed of herself, for it was only a parting, and Bitterblue had not wept like this even over a death.

‘Don’t be ashamed,' Po whispered. ‘Your sadness is dear to me. Don’t be frightened. I won’t die, Katsa. I won’t die, and we’ll meet again.”
― Kristin Cashore, Graceling