Quotes from The Winner's Crime

“If you won’t be my friend, you’ll regret being my enemy.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Crime

“Sometimes you think you want something,” Arin told him, “when in reality you need to let it go.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Crime

“She turned to look at him, and he was already looking at her. “I’m going to miss you when I wake up,” she whispered, because she realized that she must have fallen asleep under the sun. Arin was too real for her imagination. He was a dream.
“Don’t wake up,” he said.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Crime

“Marry him,” Arin said, “but be mine in secret.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Crime

“I don’t mind being a moth. I would probably start eating silk if it meant that I could fly.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Crime

“There was dishonor, she decided, in accepting someone else’s idea of honor without question.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Crime

“An emotion clamped down on her heart. It squeezed her into a terrible silence. But he said nothing after that, only her name, as if her name were not a name but a question. Or perhaps that it wasn’t how he had said it, and she was wrong, and she’d heard a question simply because the sound of him speaking her name made her wish that she were his answer.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Crime

“He did not want her to know.
He did not want her to see.
But:
Look at me, he found himself thinking furiously at her. Look at me.
She lifted her eyes, and did.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Crime

“She’d felt it before, she felt it now: the pull to fall in with him, to fall into him, to lose her sense of self.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Crime

“Her fierce creature of a mind: sleek and sharp-clawed and utterly unwilling to be caught.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Crime

“His dear face, dear to her, dearer still. how could she love his face more for its damage? What kind of person saw someone's suffering and felt her heart crack open even wider, even more sweetly than before?
There was something wrong with her. It was wrong to want to touch a scar and call it beautiful.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Crime

“You snored,” Kestrel said. “I did not.” “You did. You snored so loudly that the people in my dreams complained.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Crime

“Brother, you are mad,” said the queen. “He loves me,” Roshar protested. The cub was sleeping huddled against Rosher’s leg. “And when it has grown, and is large enough to eat a man?” “Then I’ll make Arin take care of him.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Crime

“She breathed in the cold, and it felt free, so she felt free, and it felt alive, so she felt alive.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Crime

“You can't see both sides of one coin at once, can you, child? The god of money always keeps a secret.
The god of money was also the god of spies.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Crime

“So you give me nothing.”
“When have I ever given you anything?”
Softly, Arin said, “You gave me much, once.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Crime

“Arin hadn’t fallen asleep on the deck of his strangely still ship, yet, it felt as if he’d been dreaming. As if dreams and memories and lies were the same thing.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Crime

“Someone was coming through the velvet.

He was pulling it wide, he was stepping onto Kestrel’s balcony—close, closer still as she turned and the curtain swayed, then stopped. He pinned the velvet against frame. He held the sweep of it high, at the level of his gray eyes, which were silver in the shadows.

He was here. He had come.

Arin.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Crime

“Sometimes you think you want something,” Arin told him, “when what you need is to let it go.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Crime

“The guard hit Kestrel across the face. “I said, what did you give him?”
You had a warrior’s heart, even then.
Kestrel spat blood. “Nothing,” she told the guard. She thought of her father, she thought of Arin. She told her final lie. “I gave him nothing.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Crime

“Kestrel’s laugh was white in the cold. “We could gamble for your coat.”
“Ah, love, why don’t we skip to the part where you win and I give it to you?”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Crime

“Sometimes, Arin almost understood what Kestrel had done. Even now, as he felt the drift of the boat and didn't fight its pull, Arin remembered the yearning in Kestrel's face whatever she'd mentioned her father. Like a homesickness. Arin had wanted to shake it out of her. Especially during those early months when she had owned him. He had wanted to force her to see her father for what he was. He had wanted her to acknowledge what she was, how she was wrong, how she shouldn't long for her father's love. It was soacked in blood. Didn't she see that? How could she not?

Once, he'd hated her for it. Then it had somehow touched him. He knew it himself. He, too, wanted what he shouldn't. He, too, felt the heart chooses its own home and refuses reason. Not here, he'd tried to say. Not this. Not mine. Never. But he had felt the same sickness.

In retrospect, Kestrel's role in the taking of the eastern plains was predictable. Sometimes he damned her for currying favor with the emperor, or blamed her playing war like a game just because she could. Yet he thought he knew the truth of her reasons. She'd done it for her father. It almost made sense. At least, it did when he was near sleep and his mind was quiet, and it was harder to help what entered. Right before sleep, he came close to understanding. But he was awake now.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Crime

“Once, he'd hated her for it. Then it had somehow touched him. He knew it himself. he, too, felt how the heart chooses its own home and refuses reason.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Crime

“Her blood felt laced with black powder. How could she have forgotten what it was like to burn on a fuse before him?”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Crime

“How did you ever survive, little slave, with that mouth of yours?”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Crime

“The sky was a feather blanket of clouds, save for one blue hole in the fabric. A blue cloud in a white sky.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Crime

“He did not want her to know. He did not want her to see. But: Look at me, he found himself thinking furiously at her. Look at me. She lifted her eyes, and did.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Crime

“Arin would trade his heart for a snarled knot of thread if it meant he would never have to see Kestrel again.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Crime

“The world went luscious, and slow, and still.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Crime

“Kestrel...”
An emotion clamped down on her heart. It squeezed her into a terrible silence. But he said nothing after that, only her name, as if her name were not a name but a question. Or perhaps that wasn't how he had said it, and she was wrong, and she'd heard a question simply because the sound of him speaking her name made her wish that she were his answer.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Crime

About the author

Popular quotes

“To the most inconsiderate asshole of a friend,
I’m writing you this letter because I know that if I say what I have to say
to your face I will probably punch you.
I don’t know you anymore.
I don’t see you anymore.
All I get is a quick text or a rushed e-mail from you every few days. I
know you are busy and I know you have Bethany, but hello? I’m supposed to
be your best friend.
You have no idea what this summer has been like. Ever since we were
kids we pushed away every single person that could possibly have been our
friend. We blocked people until there was only me and you. You probably
haven’t noticed, because you have never been in the position I am in now.
You have always had someone. You always had me. I always had you. Now
you have Bethany and I have no one.
Now I feel like those other people that used to try to become our friend,
that tried to push their way into our circle but were met by turned backs. I
know you’re probably not doing it deliberately just as we never did it deliberately.
It’s not that we didn’t want anyone else, it’s just that we didn’t need
them. Sadly now it looks like you don’t need me anymore.
Anyway I’m not moaning on about how much I hate her, I’m just trying
to tell you that I miss you. And that well . . . I’m lonely.
Whenever you cancel nights out I end up staying home with Mum and
Dad watching TV. It’s so depressing. This was supposed to be our summer
of fun. What happened? Can’t you be friends with two people at once?
I know you have found someone who is extra special, and I know you
both have a special “bond,” or whatever, that you and I will never have. But
we have another bond, we’re best friends. Or does the best friend bond disappear
as soon as you meet somebody else? Maybe it does, maybe I just
don’t understand that because I haven’t met that “somebody special.” I’m
not in any hurry to, either. I liked things the way they were.
So maybe Bethany is now your best friend and I have been relegated to
just being your “friend.” At least be that to me, Alex. In a few years time if
my name ever comes up you will probably say, “Rosie, now there’s a name I
haven’t heard in years. We used to be best friends. I wonder what she’s doingnow; I haven’t seen or thought of her in years!” You will sound like my mum
and dad when they have dinner parties with friends and talk about old times.
They always mention people I’ve never even heard of when they’re talking
about some of the most important days of their lives. Yet where are those
people now? How could someone who was your bridesmaid 20 years ago not
even be someone who you are on talking terms with now? Or in Dad’s case,
how could he not know where his own best friend from college lives? He
studied with the man for five years!
Anyway, my point is (I know, I know, there is one), I don’t want to be
one of those easily forgotten people, so important at the time, so special, so
influential, and so treasured, yet years later just a vague face and a distant
memory. I want us to be best friends forever, Alex.
I’m happy you’re happy, really I am, but I feel like I’ve been left behind.
Maybe our time has come and gone. Maybe your time is now meant to be
spent with Bethany. And if that’s the case I won’t bother sending you this letter.
And if I’m not sending this letter then what am I doing still writing it?
OK I’m going now and I’m ripping these muddled thoughts up.
Your friend,
Rosie”
― Cecelia Ahern, quote from Love, Rosie

“When you're happy for yourself, it fills you. When you're happy for someone else, it pours over. It was almost too bright to watch.”
― Sarah Addison Allen, quote from Garden Spells

“But I'll have to ask you to wait a long time, Anne," said Gilbert sadly. "It will be three years before I'll finish my medical course. And even then there will be no diamond sunbursts and marble halls."

Anne laughed.

"I don't want sunbursts and marble halls. I just want YOU. You see I'm quite as shameless as Phil about it. Sunbursts and marble halls may be all very well, but there is more `scope for imagination' without them. And as for the waiting, that doesn't matter. We'll just be happy, waiting and working for each other -- and dreaming. Oh, dreams will be very sweet now."

Gilbert drew her close to him and kissed her. Then they walked home together in the dusk, crowned king and queen in the bridal realm of love, along winding paths fringed with the sweetest flowers that ever bloomed, and over haunted meadows where winds of hope and memory blew.”
― L.M. Montgomery, quote from Anne of the Island

“I am sorry my decisions do not meet with your approval, but nevertheless, they are mine, and the consequences are also mine.”
― Rachel Caine, quote from The Dead Girls' Dance

“When I turn around, he cups my face in his hands and he kisses me so deeply that I don't know who is breathing for who, but his mouth and tongue taste like warm honey. I don't know how long it lasts, but when I let go of him, I miss it already.”
― Melina Marchetta, quote from On the Jellicoe Road

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