The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic

You see, some people are born with a piece of night inside, and that hollow place can never be filled - not with all the good food or sunshine in the world. That emptiness cannot be banished, and so some days we wake with the feeling of the wind blowing through, and we must simply endure it as the boy did.

We were not made to please princes.

This goes to show you that sometimes the unseen is not to be feared and that those meant to love us most are not always ones who do.

This is the problem with making a thing forbidden. It does nothing but build an ache in the heart.

Bad fates do not always follow those who deserve them.

You know how the stories go. Interesting things only happen to pretty girls; you will be home by sunset.

They pray that their children will be brave and clever and strong, that they will tell the true stories instead of the easy ones. They pray for sons with red eyes and daughters with horns.

I know who I am without anyone there to tell me.

The trap is loneliness, and none of us escapes it. Not even me.

But hope rises like water trapped by a dam, higher and higher, in increments that mean nothing until you face the flood.

Magic doesn’t require beauty,’ she said. 'Easy magic is pretty. Great magic asks that you trouble the waters. It requires a disruption, something new.

This is the problem with even lesser demons. They come to your doorstep in velvet coats and polished shoes. They tip their hats and smile and demonstrate good table manners. They never show you their tails.

She held each sorrow like a chafing grain and grew her grudges like pearls.

Wanting is why people get up in the morning. It gives them something to dream of at night. The more I wanted, the more I became like them, the more real I became.

A thousand desperate wishes have been spoken on these shores, and in the end they were all the same: Make me someone new.

What harm can a little hope do?

There is no pain like the pain of transformation.

I can bear ugliness, I find the only thing I cannot live with is death.

I will love an honest monster before I swear loyalty to a treacherous king.

-My father never taught me mercy. -And can you not learn?

She had not been much to look at in her youth, and she knew well that only courage is required for an adventure.

It was the wounds from the thicket that had proven all the sweet blossoms and starlight had been real.

What gave her strength then? We cannot know for sure. That contrary thing inside her? The hard stone of rage all lonely girls possess?

Do not behave as a tyrant and then tell me to scold a tyrant to behave. Show mercy and mercy you may be shown

The beast might shout and snarl, and he might well devour her, but he'd at least been interested enough to listen to her speak.

Ulla could forgive betrayal, another abandonment, even her own death. But not this moment, when after all her sacrifice, she begged for mercy and Signy sought a prince's permission to grant it.

And now I say to you, Yeva Luchcova: will you remain here with the father who tried to sell you, or the prince who hoped to buy you, or the man too weak to solve his riddles for himself? Or will you come with me and be the bride to nothing but the shore?