Jay Kristoff Quotes

But there is beauty in knowing all things end, Mia. The brightest flames burn out the fastest. But in them, there is warmth that can last a lifetime.

I am the war you cannot win.

Hear me Niah, hear me Mother. This flesh your feast. This blood your wine. This life, this end, my gift to you. Hold him close.

The blood you have in your veins? You're strong enough for both of us.

The thunder tiger looked at her like an avalanche looks at a butterfly.

A girl who was to murder as maestros are to music.

Promises are only words.

He'd been kind to her in a world where kind only came at a price. He'd given her a roof when most creeps only ever offered a bed.

there's nothing quite the same as sitting with a real book in your hands

History, gentlefriends, is not without a sense of irony.

The place had a feeling unlike any other she'd visited. There were no altars nor golden trim, but for the first time in her life, she felt as if she were somewhere sanctified.

Promises are for poets.

Who am I to deny gravity, Aurora? When you shine brighter than any constellation in the sky?

You can keep the glory. I'm just here for the blood.

When you take a person out of the world, you don't just take them, do you? You take everything they were, too.

There's no softer pillow than a clear conscience.

This is how the rain becomes a flood. One drop at a time.

My name is Mia Corvere. Blade of the Red Church. Champion of the Venatus Magni. Chosen of the Dark Mother and Queen of Scoundrels. Never call me girl again.

Mia had seen some fighters who moved like dancers, lithe and graceful. Others moved like bulls, and brawn and bluster. But Cassius moved like a knife. Simple. Straight. Deadly. There was no flash to his style. No flair. He simply cut right to the bone.

QUIET NOW, MONKEY-CHILD. DREAM.

...a burst of profanity so colorful you could fling it into the air and call it a rainbow

You know, democracy sounds like a great idea until you spend three minutes with the average voter.

Just because you're standing in a crowd doesn't mean you belong there.

It's not the bullets that kill you. It's moments like these. One piece at a time.

But to live in the hearts of those we leave behind is to never die. And to burn in the memories of our friends is to never say goodbye.

since i will not send this, i also feel it is my duty to inform you that almost six months on I think I still love you and that makes me sad becaue love shouldn't feel this way. is like getting kicked in the stomach every time i think of you and it makes me want to roll my face across this keyboardbiu;///ubEWdcfhugiov'byhi;.//////-='-0i9juh8ygtfdcsaazs34defg7uefg7u8hi9o0p8hi9o0p-[[09ju8dcsaazs34d9o0p-[[09.

Beauty you're born with, but brains you earn.

I am a daughter of the dark between the stars. I am the thought that wakes the bastards of this world sweating in the nevernight. i am the vengeance of every orphaned daughter, every murdered mother, every bastard son. I am the war you cannot win.

I don't know my limit, but I'm scared to reach it. I don't know what will happen if I do. And I still can't sleep.

A split second. An eternity. Into the breach. Across the brink. A micron wide. Deep as forever. Of all our infinite possibilities, these are but two.

You promised to remember her. Not just the good parts. The ugly parts and the selfish parts and the real parts, too. All of her, Mercurio, who can do that ,if not you?

The pair stood watching each other, still as statues, moments ticking by like hours as the gale howled about them.
"You have very good ears, sir." she finally said.
"You have better feet, Pale Daughter. I heard nothing."
"Then how?"
The boy offered a dimpled smile. "You stink of cigarillo smoke. Cloves, I think."
"That's impossible. I'm upwind from you."
The boy glanced at the shadows moving like snakes around his feet.
"Seems to be raining impossible in these parts.

...sneakier than a fart in church...

On Salem's Lot: " My favorite vampire story ever. I first read this 20 years ago, and I can still quote lines from it.
"You have been ill-used, Mr Bryant."
"I will see you sleep like the dead, teacher."
"The boy makes ten of you, false priest."
Fuck twilight. Seriously ...

This is not the end of me.
This is just one more enemy.

...Because the voices in your head that say otherwise are just fear talking. Never listen to fear.

The heavens grant us only one life, but through books, we live a thousand." - Godsgrave by Jay Kristoff

RAIJIN, TAKE ME NOW.
She shot Buruu a withering glance as he rolled over on his back and pawed at the sky.
HAVE MERCY ON ME, FATHER. TAKE MY WINGS. CHAIN ME TO STINKING EARTH. BUT THIS TORTURE I CANNOT ENDURE.
Oh, shut it.

No matter how impressive it might sound to your future colleagues, not only is raw meat more difficult to ingest and less nutrient rich, it's also rife with ill humors.

When feasting on the flesh of your enemies, gentle friends, always take the time to cook it first.

Iron or glass? they'd ask.
She was neither.
She was steel.

Like a life. Like a universe. It begins as all things do. Very small.

Just a tiny moment of illumination, a heartbeat long ... page 348.

In the space of a heartbeat, she was no longer a frightened girl dancing on razors.

She was a destroyer. Shadow forged. The blood of the night flowing in her veins. And the splinter of a fallen god burning dark inside her chest. Unbreakable.

Never Flinch.' A cold whisper in her ear. 'Never fear. And never, ever forget.'
The girl nodded slowly.
Exhaled the hope inside.
And she'd watched her father die.

This is for me," Mia whispered. "The me who never was. The me who lived in peace and married someone beautiful and perhaps held a daughter in her arms. The me who never knew the taste of blood, or the smell of poison, or the kiss of steel. The me you killed, just as surely as you killed the rest of them.

Pale and beautiful, she walked on.
She wore the night, gentlefriends.
And all the night came with her.

Pretty warriors can't fight for shit. You can't know how sweet it is to breathe 'til you've had your ribs broken. You can't appreciate being happy 'til someone has made you cry.

My name,' he sad, 'is Tric.'
The girl looked him over, dark eyes narrowed. A puzzle, this one. And sure and certain, our girl had ever the weakness for puzzlea.
'Mia,' she finally said.

The truth is, the abyss lives in us. In our greed. In the way we look at things different to us, and see things lesser. In the way we see the smaller, or the weaker, and think them prey.

It begins with the beasts of the land, the birds of the sky. And in a blinking, we find ourselves seeing our lessers in people with different colored skins. Different gods. Different creeds. We see them as lessers, and we hurt, and we kill, and we think nothing of it. Because they are different, we think ourselves just. Because we are stronger, we think ourselves righteous.

That is the abyss in all of us. And we stand close to the edge still. Closer than any can dream. We need but stray for a moment and we will find ourselves back again, staring down into that black. And who will save us? When everything that was different to us is already gone?

You be the push that makes them move.

You give people hope, Yukiko. The strength at the heart of all strength. The steps you take now, the first steps- they are always the hardest. But the footprints you leave in the earth behind you will be followed by thousands.

I've been thinking about what you said," Lemon declared. "About whether your past makes you what you are. That's all our memories are, right? The pieces of our yesterdays that make us who we are today?"
Eve thought about it for a while, finally nodded. "Sounds right."
"So you've had some bad days, no doubt," Lemon said. "But I figure, instead of letting your yesterdays bring you down, maybe you can concentrate on building some happier memories today. And that way you'll have them for tomorrow?

You mean everything to me. Everything I've done. All of it. You're the reason. The first and only reason.

Never flinch" she breathed. "Never fear."
The girl felt the words in her chest. In the deepest, darkest place, where the hope children breathe and adults mourn withered and fell away, floating like ashes on the wind.

This is what I am. This is what I do. And it does not matter what they believe.

It's the smallest spiders that have the darkest poison, lads.

Cock is just another word for 'fool.' But you call someone a cunt, well..." The girl smiled. "You're implying a sense of malice there. An intent. Malevolent and self-aware. Don't think I name Consul Scaeva a cunt to gift him insult. Cunts have brains, Don Tric. Cunts have teeth. Someone calls you a cunt, you take it as a compliment. As a sign that folks believe you're not to be lightly fucked with.

I thought I'd be alone my whole life. I thought I'd never find a piece of happy. Well, I've found one now, and I want to keep it. If that's selfish, then I'll be selfish. Because at least I'll be in love. And fuck you for trying to take that away from me.

The shadowwolf had stared at her long and mute, and Mia had thought she'd refuse. But as the girl had looked down at the darkness beneath her feet, it had grown darker still.
Dark enough for three.

You might get only one shot. So shoot. You know who said that?"
The rifle clatters to the bloody floor.
"Hanna FUCKING Donnelly. That's who.

And then the wolves come. And they eat him. And they drink his beer.

He wants a thunder tiger, Akihito."
"Well, I want a woman who can touch her ears with her ankles, cook a decent meal and keep her opinions to herself. But they don't fucking exist either!

My gift to you, Yukiko-chan.' He nodded. 'Use it to cut away your fear, and leave nothing in its wake. Cherish it. And cherish this truth I speak to you now, if no other before or after: The greatest tempest Shima has even known waits in the wings for you to call its name. Your anger can topple mountains. Crush empires. Change the very shape of the world.'
He pressed the blade into her hand, watched her with cool eyes the colour of steel.
'Your anger is a gift.

The butterfly remembers being the caterpillar. But do you think it feels anything but pity for that thing crawling around in the muck? Once it has spread those beautiful wings and learned to fly?

I'm not a slave to your destiny. I walk my own road. I make my own mistakes. And maybe this is one of them. But I'll fucking own it. because it's my choice. My life. My fate.

And within the computer's innards, a spreading cancer. A self-replicating corruption. A B-pop mutiny of bass and drum and oscillating frequency. Inane quasi poetry glorifying a pointless act of intimacy.

We have a saying in Vaan," Byern replied.
"In every breath, hope abides."
(...)
"Just keep breathing, little Crow.

You tend to find the best in yourself as an artist when you're challenged.

And last, the language of cats. O, yes, cats speak gentlefriend, doubt it not - if you own more than one and can't see them at this particular moment, chances are they're off in a corner somewhere lamenting the fact that their owner seems to spend all their time reading silly books rather than paying them the attention they so richly deserve

She is stubborn, and moves, even when it seems she cannot. But sometimes, as she crawls along, she cries slow, fat tears. And other times, she looks at her palm pad. And other times, she closes her eyes and meditates, or wishes, or simply grieves. But always, always, she crawls.

Better to rule in hell," the beautiful man smiles, "than serve in heaven.

That's Fear talking. Never listen to him. Fear is a coward.

The books we love, they love us back. And just as we mark our places in the pages, those pages leave their marks on us. I can see it in you, sure as I see it in me. You're a daughter of the words. A girl with a story to tell.

If I were going to name my blade," Mia said thoughtfully, "I'd call it 'Fluffy.

You gave me life, but that does not give you power. And though you left me shattered, that does not make me broken. The pieces of me you left behind are sharp as knives, sharp as truth. So, hear it now and know.

You struck at me when I was but a child. You made me low when I was sleeping. But I am a child no more, Father. And I am awake.

The Light is full of lies, Acolyte. The Suns serve only to blind us.

well," says the Gearhead. "I have good news, kids."
"heyyyy, that's a switch," Tyler replies.
"I'm kidding. I actually have bad news and other bad news.

And who am I, mighty Khan?
She felt warmth in him then, the beginnings of a smile deep inside.
He spread his wings.
Bowed his head.
Purred.
YOU ARE YUKIKO.

They will never see the knife in your hand if they are lost in your eyes. They will never taste the poison in their wine when they are drunk on the sight of you." A small shrug. "Beauty simply makes it easier, love. Easier than you have it now. It may be sad. It may be wrong. But it is also true.

The four others wore ropes at their wrists and rebellion in their eyes.

Sometimes the past won't just die. Sometimes you have to kill it.

Say what you will about being fearless, but there's only the finest line between bravery and idiocy.

It's quite a thing, to watch a person slip from the potential of life into the finality of death. It's another thing entirely to be the one who pushed. And for all Mercurio's teachings, she was still a sixteen-year-old girl who'd just committed her first act of murder. Her

You can take the girl from the gutter, but not the gutter from the girl. Sadly, the same can be said about the glitter.

The brighter the light, the deeper the shadow.

My mother teases my father, saying he can only create people, while authors can create entire worlds.

Go, brother! If I'm not back aboard in half an hour, tell your wife I love her!

This is a sensationally bad idea, Ash." "So you said. About twenty times now." "You remember what Marielle did to Hush?" "Maw's teeth, Corvere. When my da got tortured in the Thorn Towers of Elai, they chopped his bollocks off and fed them to the scabdogs. What's your excuse?

Worthless slip," Mia growled.

Dragging her blade down through his ribs, she tore it free in a slick of bright red gore.

"Pathetic child," she spat, spinning on the spot and opening up his belly.

"Girl," she smiled. "But I'm still the one who beat you.

We're perfect while we hide behind our little screens. We can be whoever we want in the dark. But there's no delete key IRL. No way to undo the mistakes we make.

You can sit," Maggot said in a small, shy voice.

Mia did as she was bid, holding her throbbing hand to her chest. Maggot toddled across the room, fishing about in a series of chests. She returned with a handful of wooden splints and a ball of woven brown cotton.

"Hold out your hand," the girl commanded.

Mia's shadow swelled, Mister Kindly drinking her fear at the thought of what was to come. Maggot looked her digits over, stroking her chin. And gentle as falling leaves, she took hold of Mia's smallest finger.

"It won't hurt," she promised. "I'm very good at this."

"All riiiiiaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAGHH!" Mia howled as Maggot popped her finger back into place, quick as silver. She rose from the slab and bent double, clutching her hand.

"That HURT!" she yelled.

Maggot gave a solemn nod. "Yes."

"You promised it wouldn't!"

"And you believed me." The girl smiled sweet as sugarfloss. "I told you, I'm very good at this." She motioned to the slab again. "Sit back down."

Mia blinked back hot tears, hand throbbing in agony. But looking at her finger, she could see Maggot had worked it right, popping the dislocated joint back into place neat as could be. Breathing deep, she sat back down and dutifully proffered her hand.

The little girl took hold of Mia's ring finger, looked up at her with big, dark eyes.

"I'm going to count three," she said.

"All riiiiia

Fear was a poison. Fear was a prison. Fear was the bridesmaid of regret, the butcher of amibition. The bleak forever between forward and backward. Fear was can't. Fear was won't.

But fear wasn't ever a choice.

To never fear was to never hope, never love, never live. To never fear the dark was to never smile as the dawn kissed your face. To never fear solitude was to never know the joy of a beauty in your arms. Part of having is the fear of losing. Part of creating is the fear of it breaking. Part of beginning is the fear of your ending.

Fear is never a choice.

With a far-future setting merging Chinese and American culture, 'Firefly' also saw high-tech futurism blended with the traditional Wild West.

I appear to have misplaced the fucks I give for what you think.

We choose this. This place. This life. What it will be, and how we live it. We are not slaves to gods, or fate, or destinies woven in veils of smoke. We choose the people we want to be, and we choose the shape of the world in which we live. Nothing worthwhile comes without sacrifice. There is nothing so easy as swimming with the current, nothing so difficult as being the first to stand up. To say no. To point at a thing wrong and name it so. There are none so brave as those who choose to stand, when all others are content to kneel. None so worthy of the title 'hero' as those who fight when there are none to see it. Who choose a life bereft of accolade or fanfare, a life of struggle for the idea that we are all the same. Every one of us. And every one of us has the right to be happy. To know peace. To know love.

Too many books. Too few centuries.

It's hard to imagine, but even amid so much violence and chaos and loss, somehow the universe sometimes still manages to look beautiful.

LOOK AROUND. GAME DEAD, RIVERS BLACK, LAND CHOKED WITH WEED. SKIES BLEEDING, RED AS BLOOD. FOR WHAT?
YOUR KIND ARE BLIND. YOU SEE ONLY THE NOW. NEVER THE WILL BE.
BUT SOON YOU WILL. WHEN ALL IS GONE, WHEN THERE ARE SO MANY MONKEY-CHILDREN THAT YOU MURDER FOR A SCRAP OF LAND, A DROP OF CLEAN WATER, THEN YOU WILL SEE.

I'd have killed the sky for you.

Tiger proudly roars.
Dragon dives and Phoenix soars.
Fox gets the chicken.