Quotes from The Winner's Curse

“Isn't that what stories do, make real things fake, and fake things real?”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Curse

“Happiness depends on being free, and freedom depends on being courageous.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Curse

“You don't, Kestrel, even though the god of lies loves you.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Curse

“He knew the law of such things: people in brightly lit places cannot see into the dark.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Curse

“The truth can deceive as well as a lie.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Curse

“Arin smiled. It was a true smile, which let her know that all the others he had given her were not.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Curse

“My soul is yours," he said. "You know that it is.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Curse

“Arin wondered if she would lift her eyes, but wasn’t worried he would be seen in the garden’s shadows.
He knew the law of such things: people in brightly lit places cannot see into the dark.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Curse

“Nothing in dreams can hurt you.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Curse

“The god of lies must love you, you see things so clearly.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Curse

“People in brightly lit places cannot see into the dark.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Curse

“You might not think of me as your friend,' Kestrel told Arin, 'but I think of you as mine.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Curse

“The Winner’s Curse is when you come out on top of the bid, but only by paying a steep price.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Curse

“He lifted her up onto the table so that her face was level with his, and as they kissed it seemed that words were hiding in the air around them, that they were invisible creatures that feathered against her and Arin, then nudged, and buzzed, and tugged.
Speak, they said.
Speak, the kiss answered.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Curse

“She reminded herself bitterly that this was what curiosity had bought her: fifty keystones for a singer who refused to sing, a friend who wasn't her friend, some one who was hers and yet would never be hers.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Curse

“I can't - Kestrel, you must understand that I would never claim you. Calling you a prize - my prize - it was only words. But it worked. Cheat won't harm you, I swear that he won't, but you must...hide yourself a little. Help a little. Just tell us how much time we have before the battle. Give him a reason to decide you're not better off dead. Swallow your pride."

"Maybe it's not as easy for me as it is for you."

He wheeled on her. "It's not easy for me," "You know that it's not. What do you think I have had to swallow these past ten years? What do you think I have had to do to survive?"

"Truly," she said, "I haven't the faintest interest. You may tell your sad story to someone else."

He flinched as if slapped. His voice came low: "You can make people feel so small.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Curse

“She saw him and didn’t understand how she had ever missed his beauty. How it didn’t always strike her as it did now, like a blow.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Curse

“For once he didn't stop himself. The pressure of song was too strong, the need for distraction too great. Then he found that the music caged behind his closed teeth was the melody Kestrel had played for him months ago. He felt the sensation of it, low and alive on his mouth.
For a moment, he imagine it wasn't the melody that touched his lips, but Kestrel.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Curse

“Kestrel's eyes slipped shut. She faded in and out of sleep. When Arin spoke again, she wasn't sure whether he expected her to to hear him.
'I remember sitting with my mother in a carriage.' There was a long pause. Then Arin's voice came again in that slow, fluid way that showed the singer in him. 'In my memory, I am small and sleepy, and she is doing something strange. Every time the carriage turns into the sun, she raises her hand as if reaching for something. The light lines her fingers with fire. Then the carriage passes through shadows, and her hand falls. Again sunlight beams through the window, and again her hand lifts. It becomes and eclipse.'
Kestrel listened, and it was as if the story itself was an eclipse, drawing its darkness over her.
'Just before I fell asleep,' he said, 'I realized that she was shading my eyes from the sun.'
She heard Arin shift, felt him look at her.
'Kestrel.' She imagined how he would sit, lean forward. How he would look in the glow of the carriage lantern. 'Survival isn't wrong. You can sell your honor in small ways, so long as you guard yourself. You can pour a glass of wine like it's meant to be poured, and watch a man drink, and plot your revenge.' Perhaps his head tilted slightly at this. 'You probably plot even in your sleep.'
There was a silence as long as a smile.
'Plot away, Kestrel. Survive. If I hadn't lived, no one would remember my mother, not like I do.'
Kestrel could no longer deny sleep. It pulled her under.
'And I would never have met you.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Curse

“Cold without, color within. This was how it had been.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Curse

“She remembered how her heart, so tight, like a scroll, had opened when Arin kissed her.
It had unfurled.
If her heart were truly a scroll, she could burn it.
It would become a tunnel of flame, a handful of ash.
The secrets she had written inside herself would be gone. No one would know”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Curse

“The snow fell on her, it fell on him, but Kestrel knew that no single flake could ever touch them both. She didn’t look back when he spoke again. “You don’t, Kestrel, even though the god of lies loves you.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Curse

“It was a sin to break a deathbed promise.

Arin left without making one.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Curse

“Kestrel had bought a life, and loved it, and sold it.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Curse

“Kestrel's cruel calculation appalled her. This was part of what had made her resist the military: the fact that she could make decisions like this, that she did have a mind for strategy, that people could be so easily become pieces in a game she was determined to win...”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Curse

“She saw, yet again, that her friend's compliments were just bits of art and artifice. They were paper swans, cunningly folded so that they could float on the air for a few moments. Nothing more.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Curse

“Isn’t that what stories do, make real things fake, and fake things real?”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Curse

“She was learning to live around it.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Curse

“Kestrel let the words echo in her mind. There had been a supple strength to his voice. An unconscious melody. Kestrel wondered if Arin knew how he exposed himself as a singer with every simple, ordinary word. She wondered if he meant to hold her in thrall.”
― Marie Rutkoski, quote from The Winner's Curse

Video

About the author

Popular quotes

“You're prettier than I imagined you", Raphael said. "Uh... thank you," I said. "But I don't really..."
"Wait,wait, I've got one," he interrupted. "Somebody better call God. Because Heaven's missing an angel!”
― Alexandra Adornetto, quote from Heaven

“I had lines inside me, a string of guiding lights. I had language. Fiction and poetry are doses, medicines. What they heal is the rupture reality makes on the imagination. I had been damaged, and a very important part of me had been destroyed - that was my reality, the facts of my life. But on the other side of the facts was who I could be, how I could feel. And as long as I had words for that, images for that, stories for that, then I wasn't lost.”
― Jeanette Winterson, quote from Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

“There's folks as make bad butter and trusten to the salt t' hide it.”
― George Eliot, quote from Adam Bede

“There might be a Starbucks on every corner and an iPhone at every ear, but don’t worry, people are still fucking crazy.”
― Marisha Pessl, quote from Night Film

“Alas, great is my sorrow. Your name is Ah Chen, and when you were born I was not truly pleased. I am a farmer, and a farmer needs strong sons to help with his work, but before a year had passed you had stolen my heart. You grew more teeth, and you grew daily in wisdom, and you said 'Mommy' and 'Daddy' and your pronunciation was perfect. When you were three you would knock at the door and then you would run back and ask, 'Who is it?' When you were four your uncle came to visit and you played the host. Lifting your cup, you said, 'Ching!' and we roared with laughter and you blushed and covered your face with your hands, but I know that you thought yourself very clever. Now they tell me that I must try to forget you, but it is hard to forget you.

"You carried a toy basket. You sat at a low stool to eat porridge. You repeated the Great Learning and bowed to Buddha. You played at guessing games, and romped around the house. You were very brave, and when you fell and cut your knee you did not cry because you did not think it was right. When you picked up fruit or rice, you always looked at people's faces to see if it was all right before putting it in your mouth, and you were careful not to tear your clothes.

"Ah Chen, do you remember how worried we were when the flood broke our dikes and the sickness killed our pigs? Then the Duke of Ch'in raised our taxes and I was sent to plead with him, and I made him believe that we could not pay out taxes. Peasants who cannot pay taxes are useless to dukes, so he sent his soldiers to destroy our village, and thus it was the foolishness of your father that led to your death. Now you have gone to Hell to be judged, and I know that you must be very frightened, but you must try not to cry or make loud noises because it is not like being at home with your own people.

"Ah Chen, do you remember Auntie Yang, the midwife? She was also killed, and she was very fond of you. She had no little girls of her own, so it is alright for you to try and find her, and to offer her your hand and ask her to take care of you. When you come before the Yama Kings, you should clasp your hands together and plead to them: 'I am young and I am innocent. I was born in a poor family, and I was content with scanty meals. I was never wilfully careless of my shoes and my clothing, and I never wasted a grain of rice. If evil spirits bully me, may thou protect me.' You should put it just that way, and I am sure that the Yama Kings will protect you.

"Ah Chen, I have soup for you and I will burn paper money for you to use, and the priest is writing down this prayer that I will send to you. If you hear my prayer, will you come to see me in your dreams? If fate so wills that you must yet lead an earthly life, I pray that you will come again to your mother's womb. Meanwhile I will cry, 'Ah Chen, your father is here!' I can but weep for you, and call your name.”
― Barry Hughart, quote from Bridge of Birds

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.