“All stories begin before they start and never, ever finish.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Crane Wife
“Yes", Kumiko said, seriously. "Exactly that. The extraordinary happens all the time. So much, we can't take it. Life and happiness and heartache and love. If we couldn't put it in story - "
"And explain it -"
"No!" she said, suddenly sharp. "Not explain. Stories do not explain. They seem to, but all they provide is a starting point. The story never ends at the end. There is always after. And even within itself, even by saying that this version is the right one, it suggests other versions, versions that exist in parallel. No, story is not an explanation, it is a net, a net through which the truth flows. The net catches some of the truth, but not all, never all, only enough so that we can live with the extraordinary without it killing us." She sagged a little, as if exhausted by this speech. "As it surely, surely would.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Crane Wife
“This is not the way our story ends. You know this'
- 'Stories do not end.'
- 'Ah, you are right, but you are also wrong. They end and they begin every moment. It is all about when you stop the telling.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Crane Wife
“At her core, she was broken, and life was just one long attempt to distract people from noticing”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Crane Wife
“The world has always been hungry, though it often does not know what it hungers for.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Crane Wife
“No one wanted to hear that people other than themselves might be complicated, that no one was ever just one thing, no history ever just one version.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Crane Wife
“It just felt like she'd been born with a small flaw, right at the centre of herself, a flaw somehow too shameful to be shown to anyone else, so she'd spent her life building a carapace around it to keep it hidden. Inevitably, the carapace became her true self, a fact she could never quite see, a fact that might have offered relief. Because all she knew was the truth deep inside of her, the little something wrong no one else could ever, ever know. And if that wasn't the real her, then what was? At her core, she was broken, and life was just one long attempt to distract people from noticing.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Crane Wife
“The purpose of a volcano is to die,' she says. 'Is this not what you strive for?'
'The purpose of a volcano is to die, my lady,' says the volcano, 'but as angrily as possible.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Crane Wife
“You end up hating so many people that without even noticing, you start to hate everyone. Including yourself. But that's the trick, you see? The trick that makes everything survivable. You've got to love somebody.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Crane Wife
“There were as many truths - overlapping, stewed together - as there were tellers. The truth mattered less than the story's life. A story forgotten died. A story remembered not only lived, but grew.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Crane Wife
“How have you made it this far in life, George? How do you not get eaten alive by the world out there?”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Crane Wife
“she is born in the breath of a cloud”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Crane Wife
“She is born a breath of cloud. She sees neither her mother nor her father – her mother has died during the birth and not hung around; her father is the cloud itself, silent, weeping, consumed with grief – and so she stands alone, on legs unfamiliar. ‘Where have I come from?’ she asks. There is no answer. ‘Where am I to go?’ There is no answer, even from the cloud, though he knows. ‘May I ask, at least, what I am called?’ After a hesitant moment, the cloud whispers into her ear. She nods her head and understands.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Crane Wife
“And by being possessed, you possess, because that's how love works.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Crane Wife
“He answered the phone to his daughter with a broken but joyous heart, ready to speak with her of astonishment and wonder.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Crane Wife
“A story forgotten died. A story remembered not only lived, but grew.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Crane Wife
“For Rachel, it might have even been worse, because she had known the rules for a long time, had thrived on them, and had maybe now - if her equally unprecedented lunch outburst was anything to go by - found them empty.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Crane Wife
“Ръцете му бяха изрязали вулкан. Изригва вулкан.
Вулкан, покрит с думи, вулкан, направен от книга. Вулкан, който диша пламък и сяра, и пепел, и смърт. Вулкан, който обявява пълната разруха на света.
Но и който, както винаги става, обявява раждането на нов свят.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Crane Wife
“Ръцете му бяха изрязали вулкан. Изригваy вулкан.
Вулкан, покрит с думи, вулкан, направен от книга. Вулкан, който диша пламък и сяра, и пепел, и смърт. Вулкан, който обявява пълната разруха на света.
Но и който, както винаги става, обявява раждането на нов свят.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Crane Wife
“Ръцете му бяха изрязали вулкан. Изригващ вулкан.
Вулкан, покрит с думи, вулкан, направен от книга. Вулкан, който диша пламък и сяра, и пепел, и смърт. Вулкан, който обявява пълната разруха на света.
Но и който, както винаги става, обявява раждането на нов свят.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Crane Wife
“The past always fails those who grasp at it.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Crane Wife
“Did it matter? George thought perhaps it did, and not in terms of finding truth or of any hope of discovering what really happened at any given moment. There were as many truths - overlapping, stewed together - as there were tellers. The truth mattered less than story's life. A story forgotten died. A story remembered not only lived, but grew.”
― Patrick Ness, quote from The Crane Wife
“There are some who'd say she hadn't known him long enough to be affected. I knew better. There are a rare few in this world with the power to touch the hearts of all those they meet, but Marc was one of them. He'd been my first friend in Trollus, and not a day went by that I wasn't stricken with an anguish so intense it stole my breath. For Marc. And for everyone else who'd fallen.”
― Danielle L. Jensen, quote from Warrior Witch
“This is not a men vs women issue. It’s about people vs prejudice.”
― Laura Bates, quote from Everyday Sexism
“We're only passers-by, and all you can do is love what you have in your life. A person has to fight the meanness that sometimes comes with you when you're born, sometimes grows if you aren't in lucky surroundings. It's our challenge to fend it off, leave it behind us choking and gasping for breath in the mud. It's our task to seek out something with truth for us, no matter if there is a hundred-mile obstacle course in the way, or a ramshackle old farmhouse that binds and binds.”
― Jane Hamilton, quote from The Book of Ruth
“Sweet dreams form a shade,
O'er my lovely infants head.
Sweet dreams of pleasant streams,
By happy silent moony beams
Sweet sleep with soft down.
Weave thy brows an infant crown.
Sweet sleep Angel mild,
Hover o'er my happy child.
Sweet smiles in the night,
Hover over my delight.
Sweet smiles Mothers smiles,
All the livelong night beguiles.
Sweet moans, dovelike sighs,
Chase not slumber from thy eyes,
Sweet moans, sweeter smiles,
All the dovelike moans beguiles.
Sleep sleep happy child,
All creation slept and smil'd.
Sleep sleep, happy sleep.
While o'er thee thy mother weep
Sweet babe in thy face,
Holy image I can trace.
Sweet babe once like thee.
Thy maker lay and wept for me
Wept for me for thee for all,
When he was an infant small.
Thou his image ever see.
Heavenly face that smiles on thee,
Smiles on thee on me on all,
Who became an infant small,
Infant smiles are His own smiles,
Heaven & earth to peace beguiles.
- "A Cradle Song”
― William Blake, quote from The Complete Poems
“Mom always says that doubt is just another way of expressing faith...
This is different than doubt. This is something I've never felt before, a total absence of whatever it is that's made me who I am, on the inside, all my life.”
― Sara Zarr, quote from Once Was Lost
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