Quotes from The Girl Who Drank the Moon

“Knowledge is power, but it is a terrible power when it is hoarded and hidden.”
― Kelly Barnhill, quote from The Girl Who Drank the Moon

“How many feelings can one heart hold?... Infinite, Luna thought. The way the universe is infinite. It is light and dark and endless motion; it is space and time, and space within space, and time within time. And she knew: there is no limit to what the heart can carry.”
― Kelly Barnhill, quote from The Girl Who Drank the Moon

“Death is always sudden," Glerk said. His eyes had begun to itch. "Even when it isn't.”
― Kelly Barnhill, quote from The Girl Who Drank the Moon

“Just because you don't see something doesn't mean it isn't there. Some of the most wonderful things in the world are invisible. Trusting in invisible things makes them more powerful and wondrous.”
― Kelly Barnhill, quote from The Girl Who Drank the Moon

“Everything you see is in the process of making or unmaking or dying or living. Everything is in a state of change.”
― Kelly Barnhill, quote from The Girl Who Drank the Moon

“A story can tell the truth...but a story can also lie. Stories can bend and twist and obfuscate. Controlling stories is power indeed. And who could benefit most from such a power?”
― Kelly Barnhill, quote from The Girl Who Drank the Moon

“Some of us...choose love over power. Indeed, most of us do.”
― Kelly Barnhill, quote from The Girl Who Drank the Moon

“Not all knowledge comes from the mind. Your body, your heart, your intuition. Sometimes memories even have minds of their own.”
― Kelly Barnhill, quote from The Girl Who Drank the Moon

“It was a fine thing indeed, Luna thought, being eleven. She loved the symmetry of it, and the lack of symmetry. Eleven was a number that was visually even, but functionally not - it looked one way and behaved in quite another. Just like most eleven-year-olds, or so she assumed.”
― Kelly Barnhill, quote from The Girl Who Drank the Moon

“Memory was a slippery thing—slick moss on an unstable slope—and it was ever so easy to lose one’s footing and fall”
― Kelly Barnhill, quote from The Girl Who Drank the Moon

“And the more they asked, the more they wondered. And the more they wondered, the more they hoped. And the more they hoped, the more the clouds of sorrow lifted, drifted, and burned away in the heat of a brightening sky.”
― Kelly Barnhill, quote from The Girl Who Drank the Moon

“My love isn't divided," she said. "It is multiplied.”
― Kelly Barnhill, quote from The Girl Who Drank the Moon

“She needs to be educated. She needs to know the contents of those books, there. She needs to understand the movements of the stars and the origins of the universe and the requirements of kindness. She needs to know mathematics and poetry. She must ask questions. She must seek to understand. She must understand the laws of cause and effect and unintended consequences. She must learn compassion and curiosity and awe. All of these things. We have to instruct her, Glerk. All three of us. It is a great responsibility.” The”
― Kelly Barnhill, quote from The Girl Who Drank the Moon

“Human babies are only tiny for an instant—their growing up is as swift as the beat of a hummingbird’s wing.”
― Kelly Barnhill, quote from The Girl Who Drank the Moon

“Hope and light and motion, her soul whispered. Hope and formation and fusion, Hope and heat and accretion. The miracle of gravity. The miracle of transformation. Each precious thing is destroyed and each precious thing is saved. Hope, hope, hope.”
― Kelly Barnhill, quote from The Girl Who Drank the Moon

“The heart is built of starlight
And time.
A pinprick of longing lost in the dark.
An unbroken chord linking the Infinite to the Infinite.
My heart wishes upon your heart and the wish is granted.
Meanwhile the world spins.
Meanwhile the universe expands.
Meanwhile the mystery of love reveals itself,
again and again, in the mystery of you.
I have gone.
I will return.
Glerk”
― Kelly Barnhill, quote from The Girl Who Drank the Moon

“Patience does not run Nor blow, nor skitter, nor falter. Patience is the swell of the ocean; Patience is the sigh of the mountain; Patience is the shirr of the Bog; Patience is the chorus of stars, Infinitely singing.’ ” “I”
― Kelly Barnhill, quote from The Girl Who Drank the Moon

“Once upon a time, something terrifying lived in the woods. Or perhaps the woods were terrifying. Or perhaps the whole world is poisoned with wickedness and lies, and it's best to learn that now.
No, Fyrian, darling. I don't believe that last bit either.”
― Kelly Barnhill, quote from The Girl Who Drank the Moon

“How many feelings can one heart hold? She looked at her grandmother. At her mother. At the man protecting his family. Infinite, Luna thought. The way the universe is infinite. It is light and dark and endless motion; it is space and time, and space within space, and time within time. And she knew: there is no limit to what the heart can carry.”
― Kelly Barnhill, quote from The Girl Who Drank the Moon

“The more he learned, the more he knew what more there was to learn. There were deep pools of knowledge in dusty volumes quietly shelved in libraries, and Antain thirsted for all of them”
― Kelly Barnhill, quote from The Girl Who Drank the Moon

“She is doing that on purpose, he thought as he tried to force his own smile away from his wide, damp jaws. She is being adorable as some sort of hideous ruse, to spite me. What a mean baby!
...
Do not fall in love with that baby...”
― Kelly Barnhill, quote from The Girl Who Drank the Moon

“Curiosity is the curse of the Clever. Or perhaps cleverness is the curse of the Curious. In any case, I am never lacking for either, I’m afraid, which does keep me rather busy.”
― Kelly Barnhill, quote from The Girl Who Drank the Moon

“Stuff. The stuff of stars. The stuff of light. The stuff of a planet before it is a planet. The stuff of a baby before it is born. The stuff of a seed before it is a sycamore. Everything you see is in the process of making or unmaking or dying or living. Everything is in a state of change.”
― Kelly Barnhill, quote from The Girl Who Drank the Moon

“When you apologize, however, you may begin healing yourself. It is not for us. It is for you. I recommend it.”
― Kelly Barnhill, quote from The Girl Who Drank the Moon

“In every breeze exhales the promise of spring,
Each sleeping tree
dreams green dreams;
the barren mountain
wakes in blossom.”
― Kelly Barnhill, quote from The Girl Who Drank the Moon

“The Fool, when removed
from solid ground, leaps-
From mountaintop,
to burning star,
to black, black space.
The scholar,
when bereft of scroll,
of quill,
of heavy tome,
Falls.
And cannot be found.”
― Kelly Barnhill, quote from The Girl Who Drank the Moon

“Their backs bent under the weight of secrets.”
― Kelly Barnhill, quote from The Girl Who Drank the Moon

“She was eleven, after all. She was both even and odd. She was ready to be many things at once—child, grown-up, poet, engineer, botanist, dragon. The list went on.”
― Kelly Barnhill, quote from The Girl Who Drank the Moon

“A story can tell the truth, she knew, but a story can also lie. Stories can bend and twist and obfuscate. Controlling stories is power indeed.”
― Kelly Barnhill, quote from The Girl Who Drank the Moon

About the author

Popular quotes

“Is there anything more frightening than people?”
― Svetlana Alexievich, quote from Voces de Chernóbil: Crónica del futuro

“If we are biological organisms, not angels, then our cognitive faculties are similar to those called “physical capacities” and should be studied much as other systems of the body are.”
― Noam Chomsky, quote from What Kind of Creatures Are We?

“The social contract imposes obligations on citizens, but it does so in exchange for rights, and the government may not deny the rights while it insists on the obligations.”
― Kermit Roosevelt III, quote from Allegiance

“I am not your justification for existence.”
― Margaret Atwood, quote from The Handmaid's Tale (Contemporary Classics)

“You don’t need to like me to fuck me,” he said. “You just need to like fucking me.” He stepped closer, letting his forehead touch mine. “And from the way you still come every time we meet up, it’s clear you still like that.”
― Whitney G., quote from Turbulence

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.