“But that's how memory works," Bitterblue said quietly. "Things disappear without your permission, then come back again without your permission." And sometimes they came back incomplete and warped.”
― Kristin Cashore, quote from Bitterblue
“Find something useful to do with your morning,' she thought to him as she neared her chambers. 'Do something heroic in front of an audience. Knock a child into a river while no one's looking and then rescue him.”
― Kristin Cashore, quote from Bitterblue
“Katsa and Po were trying to drown each other and, judging from their hoots of laughter, enjoying it immensely.”
― Kristin Cashore, quote from Bitterblue
“The more I see and hear, the more I realize how much I don't know.”
― Kristin Cashore, quote from Bitterblue
“I was doing science," Giddon said. "He threw a bean."
"I was testing the impact of a bean upon water," Bann said.
"That's not even a real thing."
"Perhaps I'll test the impact of a bean upon your beautiful white shirt.”
― Kristin Cashore, quote from Bitterblue
“His name was Death. It was pronounced to rhyme with "teeth", but Bitterblue liked to mispronounce it by accident on occassion.”
― Kristin Cashore, quote from Bitterblue
“Teddy grinned again. 'Truths are dangerous,' he said.
-'Then why are you writing them in a book?'
-'To catch them between the pages,' said Teddy, 'and trap them before they disappear.'
-'If they're dangerous, why not let them disappear?'
-'Because when truths disappear, they leave behind blank spaces, and that is also dangerous.”
― Kristin Cashore, quote from Bitterblue
“Your face will freeze like that, you know, Kat," Raffin said helpfully to Katsa.
"Maybe I should rearrange your face, Raff," said Katsa.
"I should like smaller ears," Raffin offered.
"Prince Raffin has nice, handsome ears," Helda said, not looking up from her knitting. "As will his children. Your children will have no ears at all, My Lady," she said sternly to Katsa.
Katsa stared back at her, flabbergasted.
"I believe it's more that her ears won't have children," began Raffin, "which, you'll agree, sounds much less—”
― Kristin Cashore, quote from Bitterblue
“Why does everybody throw every troublesome thing into the river?”
― Kristin Cashore, quote from Bitterblue
“Only a person with the true heart of a dictionary-writer would be lying in bed, three days after being stabbed in the gut, worrying about his P's.”
― Kristin Cashore, quote from Bitterblue
“You’re crying.”
“I’m not.”
“Right,” he said mildly. “I suppose you got rained on.”
― Kristin Cashore, quote from Bitterblue
“I wish people would stop hitting Po," whispered Bitterblue.
"Well," Giddon said. "Yes. I'm hoping Skye is following my model. Punch Po; go on a long trip; feel better; come back and make up.”
― Kristin Cashore, quote from Bitterblue
“I hear you're supposed to be good at manipulating people. Try a little harder to make me like you, all right? I'm the queen. Your life will be nicer if I like you.”
― Kristin Cashore, quote from Bitterblue
“Every configuration of people is an entirely new universe unto itself.”
― Kristin Cashore, quote from Bitterblue
“...when truths disappear, they leave behind blank spaces, and that is also dangerous.”
― Kristin Cashore, quote from Bitterblue
“I've liked you better when Katsa's around,' Giddon said. 'She's so rotten to me that you seem positively pleasant in contrast.”
― Kristin Cashore, quote from Bitterblue
“Everybody was strange. In a fit of frustration, she scratched out strange and wrote the word CRACKPOTS in big letters.”
― Kristin Cashore, quote from Bitterblue
“Raff,' Katsa said, 'your problem is that your heart's not in it. We need to find something to strengthen your defensive resolve. What if you pretended he's trying to smash your favorite medicinal plant?'
'The rare blue safflower,' Bann suggested.
'Yes,' Katsa said gamely, 'pretend he's after your snaffler.'
'Bann would never come after my rare blue safflower,' Raffin said distinctly. 'The very notion is absurd.'
'Pretend he's not Bann. Pretend he's your father.”
― Kristin Cashore, quote from Bitterblue
“Madlen: 'It's a relief to me, Lady Queen, that in your own pain, you take no interest in hurting yourself.'
Bitterblue: 'Why would I? Why should I? It's foolish. I would like to kick the people who do it.'
Madlen: 'That would, perhaps, be redundant, Lady Queen.”
― Kristin Cashore, quote from Bitterblue
“But all I feel is impatience, fury for the opposition I anticipate and the lies I'm going to have to tell to make it happen, and frustration that I can't even take a walk without them sending someone to hover. Attack me," she said.
"I beg your pardon, Lady Queen?"
"You should attack me, and we'll see what he does. He's probably quite bored--it'll be a relief to him."
"Mightn't he run me through with his sword?"
"Oh." Bitterblue chuckled. "Yes, I suppose he might. That would be a shame."
"I'm gratified that you think so," said Giddon dryly.”
― Kristin Cashore, quote from Bitterblue
“I'm afraid of plenty of things," he said. "I just do them anyway.”
― Kristin Cashore, quote from Bitterblue
“For a group of people who claimed to be concerned for her safety, they did seem to have developed rather a habit of encouraging uprisings against monarchs.”
― Kristin Cashore, quote from Bitterblue
“It has been a hard lesson to learn, that greatness requires suffering.”
― Kristin Cashore, quote from Bitterblue
“I don't understand your book. Isn't every book a book of words?”
― Kristin Cashore, quote from Bitterblue
“That's interesting," Bitterblue said. "You think a conscience requires fear?”
― Kristin Cashore, quote from Bitterblue
“That was a perfectly reasonable explanation," she said grumpily. "Perhaps my advisers don't lie to me."
"Isn't that what you'd want?" asked Giddon.
"Well, yes, but it doesn't elucidate my puzzle!"
"If I may say so, Lady Queen," said Giddon, "it's not always easy to follow your conversation."
"Oh, Giddon," she said, sighing. "If it's any comfort, I don't follow it either.”
― Kristin Cashore, quote from Bitterblue
“Katsa turned to Po with tears in her eyes. 'He'll be so angry.'
'He won't stay angry forever.'
'Won't he?' she said. 'People do sometimes.'
'Do they?' he said. 'Reasonable people? I hope that's not true.'
Katsa gave him a funny look, but didn't answer. Resumed hugging herself and kicking things.”
― Kristin Cashore, quote from Bitterblue
“You do trust him, though, Giddon?"
"Holt, who is stealing your sculptures and is of questionable mental health?"
"Yes."
"I trusted him five minutes ago. Now I'm at a bit of a loss."
"Your opinion five minutes ago is good enough for me.”
― Kristin Cashore, quote from Bitterblue
“Helda's been trying to impress me with the embroidery on the sheets. One more minute and I thought I might use them to hang myself."
"My mother did the embroidery," Bittterblue said.
Katsa clapped her mouth shut and glared at Helda. "Thank you, Helda, for mentioning that detail.”
― Kristin Cashore, quote from Bitterblue
Kristin Cashore
Born place: The United States
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“I only wanted to suggest to you that self-sacrifice is a passion so overwhelming that beside it even lust and hunger are trifling.”
― W. Somerset Maugham, quote from The Razor's Edge
“A true Englishman doesn't joke when he is talking about so serious a thing as a wager,”
― Jules Verne, quote from Around the World in Eighty Days
“Father, forgive them; they don't know what they're doing!”
― quote from Holy Bible: New International Version
“Reality is neither the subject nor the object of true art which creates its own special reality having nothing to do with the average "reality" perceived by the communal eye.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, quote from Pale Fire
“There are many things that can keep you in a relationship," I say. "Fear of being alone. Fear of disrupting the arrangement of your life. A decision to settle for something that's okay, because you don't know if you can get any better. Or maybe there's the irrational belief that it will get better, even if you know he won't change.”
― David Levithan, quote from Every Day
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