April Genevieve Tucholke Quotes

River's kiss tasted like coffee and storms and secrets.
And slowly, slowly he began to move faster, and then faster ...
And then he stopped.
River let go of me, just like that. Just about the time I'd forgotten who I was, just about the time I'd forgotten we were even two separate people anymore and not just one glowing, quivering, ocean of kissing ... he let me go. He stepped back and took a deep breath.

Some people don't deserve to live. And, to go a step further, some people need to die.

I was a Mercy-girl with no family, no home, no fortune, and yet my blood sang a song of glory.

If attics could make wishes, this one would have nothing to wish for.

For your sake I have braved the glen, and had to do with goblin merchant men. Eat me, drink me, love me. Hero, Wolf, make much of me. With clasping arms and cautioning lips, with tingling cheeks and fingertips, cooing all together.

Revenge. Justice. Love. They are the three stories that all other stories are made up of. It's the trifecta.

I had to tell someone that a panther-hipped boy had come to live in my backyard.

Your life is not your own, Vi,' she said. 'Don't you know that? It belongs to the people who love you. So you need to take better care of it.

Did you think that if you created a fairy tale and made all of us play along, made me defeat a monster and become a hero ... you'd have a happy ending, like a princess in a hayloft story?

Maybe it was just the after glow talking. Maybe it was the glow giving me my River blues..but it felt real. And my feeling, pure or not, were the only thing I had to go on. River had manipulated people. And Murdered people. He was wicked. Not as wicked as Brodie, but.. Still wicked. It was better that he was gone. Better he was out of my life. I knew that, logically. What I felt though, deep, deep down in the darkest of my heart, was that I didn't give a damn if River was Evil. I still liked him. Maybe i even kind of love him. And Maybe that made me Wicked too.

Juniper said the gods like to humble people who dream big dreams. But the gods had never done much for me, and I wasn't afraid of them.

Once upon a time, in the final days before Salt and Marsh Witch War, four Boneless Mercies turned their backs on the death trade, and went west, seeking immortality.

Juniper began a death prayer. It was a familiar invocation, asking the sea to bring the peace of deepest sleep, and the wind to whisper the girl's name in its travels.

We both fell asleep wrapped up together with the wolves still lullaby-ing us in the background

River looked out the kitchen window, at the purple-black sky and the purple-black sea. "I've been having nightmares since I turned fourteen. Always. But then I took a nap with you a few days ago, and, all of a sudden, they're gone. I leave for a day, and 'boom', they come back, just like that." He paused. "You know what this means, don't you?"
I shook my head.
"It means that you're just going to have to sleep next to me, for the rest of my life.

I wanted to change my fate, to force it down another road. I wanted to stand in the river of time and make it flow a different direction, if just for a little while.

I didn't move for a bit, just lay there thinking about things. Like how the world was full of mystery and magic and horror and love.

People like you don't go mad, Vi. They're quiet on the outside and loud on the inside and sane as the day is long

They called us the Mercies, or sometimes the Boneless Mercies. They said we were shadows, ghosts, and if you touched our skin, we dissolved into smoke.

Freddie often fold me that you've got to be happy when you can, because life won't wait for you to take the time. And she was right.

Mea Culpa. By That Sin Fell the Angels. Exuro, Exuro, Exuro.

There's truths and then there's truths, Violet. And some damn truths shouldn't be spoken out loud, or the Devil will hear, and then he'll come for you. Amen.

I used to think that I needed to be part of a story, a big story, one with trials and villains and temptations and rewards. That's how I would conquer it, conquer death."
She sighed again, and nestled in closer to me. "All that matters, in the end, is the little things. The way Mim says my name to wake me up in the morning. The way Bee's hand feels in mine. The way the sun cast my shadow across the yard yesterday. The way your cheeks flush when we kiss. The smell of hay and the taste of strawberries and the feel of fresh black dirt between my toes. This is what matters, Midnight.

Lots of people have bad stories, and if they wail and sob and tell their story to anyone who'll listen, it's crap. Or half crap, at least.The stuff that really hurts people, the stuff that almost breaks them ... that they won't talk about. Ever.

Wink kissed deep. Deep as a dark, misty, forest path. One that lead to blood and love and death and monsters.

All the strangest things are true.

I walked into her arms and we hugged like hugging was breathing and we'd been holding our breath for a long, long time.

It took strength to be quiet. It took strength to be kind. It took strength to let other people's cruelty bounce right off of you.

Freddie once told me that I was the worst kind of stubborn-because I wasn't stubborn at all. I was patient. Patient, but determined. A stubborn person could be distracted, or tricked. But not me. I just held on and on and on, never giving up until I got my way, long after everyone else stopped caring.

He looks expensive. In a vintage way. He has a good smile. It's kind of crooked.

Lying makes life more interesting. Not to mention easier, for the most part.

Wink wasn't a villain.
She wasn't a hero.
People aren't just one thing. They never, ever are.
Wink was flesh and blood.
She was bad.
And she was good.
She was real.

Please tell me you don't go around saying crap like that to everyone. No wonder no one in town ever talks to us. Wealthy families always have a crazy person or two. Is that really the role you want to play, Vi?"
"We're not wealthy anymore. Remember? So if I'm crazy, no one will care.

Once upon a time I thought I could change stories, make them go the way I wanted, instead of where they actually went.

I coughed and choked, and drowned on moonlight, which tastes like butter and steel and salt and mist. And then, just like that, just when I thought she was going to kill me, suck the air out of my lungs and make me a ghost too, she lifted her hand, and ... faded away.

Freddie used to say that Life could be safe, or it could be interesting, but it couldn't be both.

It's easier to forgive someone for scaring you than for making you cry.

Our town was small enough that I never developed a healthy fear of strangers. To me, they were exciting things, gift-wrapped and full of possibilities, the sweet smell of somewhere else wafting from them like perfume.

We were like the three Fates, weaving the story together, threads of gold, red, and midnight blue.

I loved him. God help me, I loved him more than a girl has ever loved a boy. More than anyone has ever loved anyone.