“I’ve never been angry to have been born a woman. There have been times I’ve been angry at how the world treats us, but I see being a woman as a challenge I must fight. Like being born under a stormy sky. Some people are lucky enough to be born on a bright summer’s day. Maybe we were born under clouds. No wind. No rain. Just a mountain of clouds we must climb each morning so that we may see the sun.”
“I believe the stars align so souls can find one another. Whether they are meant to be souls in love or souls in life remains to be seen.”
“Be as swift as the wind. As silent as the forest. As fierce as the fire. As unshakable as the mountain. And you can do anything...”
“You are first and foremost a person. A reckless, foolish person, but a person nonetheless. If I ever say you are not permitted to do something, rest assured that the last reason I would ever say so would be because you are a girl.”
“Sometimes we must fall forward to keep moving. Remain motionless—remain unyielding—and you are as good as dead.
Death follows indecision, like a twisted shadow. Fall forward. Keep moving. Even if you must pick yourself up first.”
“If I am marching to my death, then I will march to it as a girl. Without fear.”
“The only power any man has over you is the power you give him.”
“You don't know the beginning of me." She trembled as she spoke. "And . . . you will never see the end.”
“There is such strength in being a woman. But it is a strength you must choose for yourself. No one can choose it for you. We can bend the wind to our ear if we would only try.”
“Until nothing at all existed between them.
But shared breaths.
And unspoken promises.
Lies.
And unshakable truth.”
“The stars could fall - the moon could crash from the heavens - and Mariko could not care.”
“Beautiful words were beautiful words, even to the most practical of minds.”
“The entire time she'd watched him - waited for him to join her, even in death - her features had remained serene. A flame in the mist.”
“But Mariko knew it was time to do more. Time to be more.
She would not die a coward. Mariko was the daughter of
a samurai. The sister of the Dragon of Kai. But more than that, she still held power over her decisions. For at least this one last day. She would face her enemy. And die with honor.”
“Bravery did not come to her naturally. She spent too much time weighing her options to be brave. Too much time calculating the many paths before her. But Mariko knew it was time to do more. Time to be more. She would not die a coward.”
“She remembered Chiyo telling her that finding one's match was like finding one's other half. Mariko had never understood the notion.
She was not a half. She was wholly her own.”
“The air between them filled with all that remained unsaid. All that should be said.
Yet wasn't.”
“Control is an illusion. Expectations will not rule my days. Not anymore.”
“Perhaps true weakness is weakness of the spirit”
“Curious had been the word most often ascribed to her
when she was younger. She’d been the watchful sort of child. The one conscious of every mistake. When Mariko had erred, it had usually been intentional. An attempt to push barriers. Or a desire to learn. Usually it was that. A wish to know more. As she grew from a curious child into an even more curious young woman, the word she most often overheard at her back was odd. Much too odd. Far too prone to asking questions.
Far too apt to linger in places she wasn’t meant to be.”
“Words are foolish. Promises are useless. Anyone can say anything to get what it is they desire. Believe in actions and actions alone.”
“Stay or go. I leave it to you. But you are welcome always. In all ways.”
“I deny being a slave to any one thing. In any situation we can choose who we are and choose who we want to be.”
“Are you ever angry you were born a woman?"
"I've never been angry to have been born a woman. There have been times I've been angry at how the world treats us.”
“She refused to die like an animal locked in a cage. Like a girl with nothing to save her name. Better to die by the sword. Better to die at the mercy of the nightbeasts. To die in the night air. Free.”
“Believe in actions and actions alone.”
“This boy did not take steps. He glided like a shark through the water. And like the sea, the members of the Black Clan parted around him”
“Without risk, life is far too predictable”
“She’d fought off her assailant. And in doing so, she’d displayed one of the seven virtues of bushidō: Courage. The way of the warrior. Mariko”
“He was in a terrible state - that of consciousness.”
“dreams may have been the paintings on my walls, but doubts and fears were the bars on my windows.”
“A conversation between a person of my age and one of hers is like a map of a maze: There are things that each of us knows, and that each of us knows the other knows, that can be talked about. But there are things that each of us knows that the other doesn't know we know, which must not be spoken of, no matter what. Because of our ages, and for reasons of decency, there are what Daffy would refer to as taboos: forbidden topics which we may stroll among like islands of horse dung in the road that, although perfectly evident to both of us, must not be mentioned or kicked at any cost.
It's a strange world when you come right down to it.”
“My dream is to walk around the world. A smallish backpack, all essentials neatly in place. A camera. A notebook. A traveling paint set. A hat. Good shoes. A nice pleated (green?) skirt for the occasional seaside hotel afternoon dance.”
“Oh, but it is bleak!” she murmured. “Suppose we should have to stay here all next winter, too,… and the next! What will become of me, Niel?” There was fear, unmistakable fright in her voice. “You see there is nothing for me to do. I get no exercise. I don’t skate; we didn’t in California, and my ankles are weak. I’ve always danced in the winter, there’s plenty of dancing at Colorado Springs. You wouldn’t believe how I miss it. I shall dance till I’m eighty.… I’ll be the waltzing grandmother! It’s good for me, I need it.” They”
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