Quotes from Take the Key and Lock Her Up

Ally Carter ·  336 pages

Rating: (4.9K votes)


“Because that's the thing about hope- you can never kill it yourself.”
― Ally Carter, quote from Take the Key and Lock Her Up


“I've never heard of it. And, I don't like to brag, but I read a lot. I mean a lot. And most of it is classified. - Megan”
― Ally Carter, quote from Take the Key and Lock Her Up


“No, you misunderstand, Madame Prime Minister. I'm not just good at staying alive. I'm also really, really good at drugging people. - Grace”
― Ally Carter, quote from Take the Key and Lock Her Up


“Oh, can I? Because what I want to do is strangle you. I want to tie you up and throw you over my shoulder and jump out of a moving train. I want to take you to the coldest place in Siberia, to the darkest part of the moon. I want to keep you safe, Gracie. So the question is, why are you so determined to stop me?" - Alexei”
― Ally Carter, quote from Take the Key and Lock Her Up


“-I'm your girlfriend?
- "No." Alexei shakes his head, then pulls me to him again, holds me closer. "There's not a word in either of our language for what you are to me".”
― Ally Carter, quote from Take the Key and Lock Her Up



“Why are you here?" I demanded, but the PM only smirks again.
"You've been a very bad girl, Ms Blakely."
I ease closer. "You're under the impression that I care, Ms Petrovic.”
― Ally Carter, quote from Take the Key and Lock Her Up


“But Alexandra Petrovic did not become the most powerful politician in Adria by taking no for an answer.
"You seem to think that I'm asking, Ms Blakely. Which I'm not."
I stop and turn. "And you seem to think that you scare me, Ms Petrovic. Which you don't.”
― Ally Carter, quote from Take the Key and Lock Her Up


“The man is strong. He's huge. But Alexei has something to fight for. And i realise with a start that the something is me. - Grace”
― Ally Carter, quote from Take the Key and Lock Her Up


“The sun is at the horizon now, and the sky streaks with reds and golds. The whole world seems to be wearing a halo, and for a second I let myself savor it.
I let myself believe.
Alexei's arm is warm around my shoulder and a cool breeze blows in off the sea. Between us, we speak seven different languages, but not a one of us says a word.
We sit in silence as the sun sets, marking the end of this day.
Marking the beginning of everything else.”
― Ally Carter, quote from Take the Key and Lock Her Up


“I’m the solution to a two-hundred-year-old”
― Ally Carter, quote from Take the Key and Lock Her Up



“What was her idea?" I ask, my voice like ice.
"For Amelia's heir to marry the prince. Your mother was the one who first thought of this solution... The only problem is... well... we got the heir wrong.”
― Ally Carter, quote from Take the Key and Lock Her Up


“Five decades on the throne and this is how they treat me, Ms. Blakely. Makes me wish I'd been a teacher." His voice drops. He almost sounds a little wistful. "I would have liked to have been a teacher.”
― Ally Carter, quote from Take the Key and Lock Her Up


“Hope is a delicate thing.
A dangerous thing.”
― Ally Carter, quote from Take the Key and Lock Her Up


“I ease out my third-story window and drop onto the brick ledge below, but I’m not even a little bit afraid. I should be, I know. If I were normal. If I had good sense. If I were sane.”
― Ally Carter, quote from Take the Key and Lock Her Up


“I know there's no use in looking back. It's started now. And looking back won't do anything but make me turn to salt.
I blame my new designer shoes for the fact that my footsteps are unsteady.
I blame the fact that I can't breathe on the blue dress's tiny waste.”
― Ally Carter, quote from Take the Key and Lock Her Up



“I believe it has an entire staff of seamstresses and tailors. We can have anything altered—anything at all. It’s really no—”
― Ally Carter, quote from Take the Key and Lock Her Up


About the author

Ally Carter
Born place: in The United States
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“Well it seems to me that there are books that tell stories, and then there are books that tell truths...," I began.
"Go on," she said
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No one spoke for a few seconds. I could hear the clock ticking and the sound of my own breathing. Then Lou quietly said, "Cripes, Mattie. You oughtn't to talk like that."
I realized then that Miss Wilcox had stopped smiling. Her eyes were fixed om me, and I was certain she'd decided I was morbid and dispiriting like Miss Parrish had said and that I should leave then and there.
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“I have sometimes thought that the mere hearing of those songs would do more to impress some minds with the horrible character of slavery, than the reading of whole volumes of philosophy on the subject could do.

I did not, when a slave, understand the deep meaning of those rude and apparently incoherent songs. I was myself within the circle; so that I neither saw nor heard as those without might see and hear. They told a tale of woe which was then altogether beyond my feeble comprehension; they were tones loud, long, and deep; they breathed the prayer and complaint of souls boiling over with bitterest anguish. Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains. The hearing of those wild notes always depressed my spirit, and filled me with ineffable sadness. I have frequently found myself in tears while hearing them. The mere recurrence to those songs, even now, afflicts me; and while I am writing these lines, an expression of feeling has already found its way down my cheek. To those songs I trace my first glimmering conception of the dehumanizing character of slavery. I can never get rid of that conception. Those songs still follow me, to deepen my hatred of slavery, and quicken my sympathies for my brethren in bonds. If any one wishes to be impressed with the soul-killing effects of slavery, let him go to Colonel Lloyd's plantation, and, on allowance-day, place himself in the deep pine woods, and there let him, in silence, analyze the sounds that shall pass through the chambers of his soul, - and if he is not thus impressed, it will only be because "there is no flesh in his obdurate heart."

I have often been utterly astonished, since I came to the north, to find persons who could speak of the singing, among slaves, as evidence of their contentment and happiness. It is impossible to conceive of a greater mistake. Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears. At least, such is my experience. I have often sung to drown my sorrow, but seldom to express my happiness. Crying for joy, and singing for joy, were alike uncommon to me while in the jaws of slavery. The singing of a man cast away upon a desolate island might be as appropriately considered as evidence of contentment and happiness, as the singing of a slave; the songs of the one and of the other are prompted by the same emotion.”
― Frederick Douglass, quote from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass


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