Cynthia Hand Quotes

You look like Euler's equation, he murmured as he looked me up and down.
Nerd translation: Euler's equation is said to be the most perfect formula ever written. Simple but elegant. Beautiful. ~ Cynthia Hand

If idiots could fly, this place would be an airport. ~ Cynthia Hand

I love you as the plant that never blooms but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers. ~ Cynthia Hand

Dude. Hot Bozo. Best nickname ever. ~ Cynthia Hand

Before I moved here, I never got the whole love-triangle thing. You know, in movies or romance novels or whatnot, where there's one chick that all the guys are drooling over, even though you can't see anything particularly special about her. But oh, no, they both must have her. And she's like, oh dear, however will I choose? William is so sensitive, he understands me, he swept me off my feet, oh misery, blubber, blubber, but how can I go on living without Rafe and his devil-may-care ways and his dark and only-a-little-abusive love? Upchuck. ~ Cynthia Hand

That's ironic, because I always thought you were the ugliest out of all the angels. ~ Cynthia Hand

I want to explain to him that Angela is like a bloodhound when it comes to secrets, virtually impossible to get anything by her, but it doesn't matter. She knows. He knows she knows. Damage is done. ~ Cynthia Hand

Now," he said. "I want to hear about your day. Did you read any new books?"
"I've read all the books we have." She wrinkled her nose. "Armies aren't very good about carrying libraries with them. I can't imagine why. We'd fight so much less if everyone would just sit down and read."
Gifford's laugh rumbled through him, loud against her ear. "A question I often ask myself. Imagine how much money the realm would save if the rulers focused their finances on libraries, rather than wars."
"Not if I were allowed to shop for books."
"England would go bankrupt," he said gravely. "Thank God for wars."
She pushed him away, playful. "You can't switch sides like that."
The corner of his mouth quirked up. "It's too late. I've switched already, and since you've forbidden switching that quickly again, I'm stuck opposing you."
"Congratulations," she said. "You've just described our entire relationship. ~ Cynthia Hand

Sam: "I always thought you were the most beautiful of all the Nephilim."
Meg: "That's ironic because I always thought you were the ugliest of all the angels. ~ Cynthia Hand

Angela's in love with an angel. ~ Cynthia Hand

Fog rolls between the blackened trees.
Reminds me of hell, actually.
I pull away from Tucker, shivering.
God, I need therapy, I think.
Right. As if I can picture telling my story to a shrink, stretched out on a sofa talking about how I'm part angel, how all angel-bloods have this purpose we're put on earth to fulfill, how on the day of my purpose I happened to bump into a fallen angel. Who literally took me to hell for about five minutes. Who tried to kill my mother. And how I fought him with a type of holy light. Then I had to fly off to save a boy from a forest fire, only I didn't save him. I saved my boyfriend instead, but it turns out that the original boy didn't need saving, anyway, because he's part angel, too.
Yeah, somehow I have a feeling that my first visit to a therapist would end up with me in a straitjacket getting comfy in my new padded cell. ~ Cynthia Hand

The corner of his mouth lifts, and then I kiss him. Not so gently this time. His hand drops from my face and grab at my waist and pull me to him. A small soft groan escapes him, and that noise makes me absolutely crazy. I lose it. I wind my hands around his neck and kiss him without holding anything back. I can feel his heart thundering like mine, his breath coming faster, his arms tightening around me. ~ Cynthia Hand

Tucker: I'm glad it happened. because then I got to know who you really are.
Clara: Oh yeah? Who am I?
Tucker: A really, really spiritual, spoiled California chick.
Avery: Shut up.
Tucker: It's cool though. My girlfriend is an angel. ~ Cynthia Hand

Tucker strokes my hair. There's something so tender about the gesture. It might as well have been him whispering I love you. ~ Cynthia Hand

If it is a gift, I do not deserve it. If it is a curse, I do not deserve it. ~ Cynthia Hand

I mean, what good is a women's lib if we can't use it to ask guys to dances? ~ Cynthia Hand

What do you see in a guy like Christian Prescott? he asked me that night when he dropped me off from prom. And what he was really saying then, what would have come through loud and clear if I hadn't been so blind was, why don't you see me? ~ Cynthia Hand

What did the fish say when it hit a concrete wall?" he asks me. We're sitting on the bank of a stream and he's tying a fly onto my fishing rod, wearing a cowboy hat and a red lumberjack-style flannel shirt over a gray tee. So adorable.
"What?" I say, wanting to laugh and he hasn't even told me the punch line.
He grins. Unbelievable how gorgeous he is. And that he's mine. He loves me and I love him and how rare and beautiful is that?
"Dam!" he says. ~ Cynthia Hand

The key to a successful dance is to make it seem like you can't help yourself. You look into your partner's eyes, as if that gaze binds you while your body moves to the music. ~ Cynthia Hand

You're probably thinking the same thing we were: where did Jane get the rope to tie the prisoners? We researched this very conundrum thoroughly, and after two weeks we can say, without a doubt : nobody knows. It's a question that has baffled historians and archaeologists alike. Professor Herbert Halprin explains: "Ropes have been a mystery to scholars throughout the ages. The first ropes were thought to appear as far back as 17,000 BC and made of vines. Unfortunately, being made of vines, none of those early examples survived. Later, da Vinci drew sketches for a rope-making machine, but it was never built. In medieval times, there were secret societies, called Rope Guilds, whose rope-twisting practices were protected via a complicated series of handshakes and passwords -" Okay. Your narrators are interrupting the dear professor, for reasons of boredom. Plus, his English accent sounded sketchy and forced. We asked him where Jane could've gotten the rope, but maybe he thought we asked him where anyone could've gotten any rope at any given point in history. Trust us, we are as frustrated as you must be about the lack of a definitive answer. ~ Cynthia Hand

Because I'm like the opposite of Cinderella. My ball only starts after midnight. ~ Cynthia Hand

What purpose will your death serve?"
"It will serve to prove that you do not control this kingdom. It will serve to prove that not everyone will bow down to you. You think to rule us with fear, but you cannot. I will never renounce my beliefs, or my husband. ~ Cynthia Hand

Clara," he says, my name sounding different somehow when it passes through his lips. "I'll miss you. ~ Cynthia Hand

But Tucker is my choice. I love him. That isn't going to go away. ~ Cynthia Hand

I've seen the future all my life,' she says. 'It tends to work as a paradox, in my experience. You find out something is going to happen, and then you do it because you know that's what happens. It's a chicken-or-the-egg scenario. ~ Cynthia Hand

As G's eyes adjusted to the scene before him, he saw Edward raise a ... fire poker? ... and Jane pull out ... a frying pan?
Whose cockamamie idea were these weapons? Probably Jane's. They seemed like Jane's idea of weapons. ~ Cynthia Hand

His mother had always approached his curse as if G wanted to spend his days as a quadruped. As if it were just another way for a privileged teenage boy to rebel. She often forgot that he didn't ask for this curse, and that if he could find a way to control it, he would give Billingsly's right arm for that information.
As if he could hear G's thoughts, Billingsly pulled his right arm in front of his body, and away from G's line of sight.
"In here, my lord," he said as he swung open the doors of the drawing room, using his left arm. ~ Cynthia Hand

Sorry I'm late. I had to drag some Californians out of a snowbank. ~ Cynthia Hand

But he's like a god. You worship the gods but you don't go out with them. You only like guys like that from a distance. ~ Cynthia Hand

Did Jane tell you all she knows about bears?"
"Yes," the king replied. "Don't act like food, inexplicably double your height and weight, and play dead unless it doesn't work."
"She didn't, perhaps, mention how me might kill the beast?"
"No," Edward said. "Her information was more the useless type. ~ Cynthia Hand

Crap. No one's ever called me dorkina before. Derivative of dork. Not good. ~ Cynthia Hand

There I go, Clara the parrot. I belong on a pirate's shoulder. ~ Cynthia Hand

Tucker doesn't see me right away. He smiles the way he does when he delivers the punch line for a joke, a wry, knowing little flash of teeth and dimple. I melt seeing that smile, remembering the times when it's been aimed at me. ~ Cynthia Hand

Oh, you know. I'm queen of the rumor mill. It seems like there's been a new rumor about me every week since I got here. Comes with being the new girl, I guess. Have you heard the one where I seduced the basketball coach? That's a personal favorite. ~ Cynthia Hand

Oh right. What about Wendy?" I ask
"What about her?"
"It's her birthday, too. I'm the worst friend ever. I should have sent her something. Did you exchange gifts?"
"Not yet." He turns toward me. "But she gave me the perfect gift."
The way he's looking at me sends butterflies into my stomach. "What?"
"You. ~ Cynthia Hand

Again, he thought better of this tactic.
Sweet lady, there are those of us who sleep lying down, and those of us who sleep standing up. I can do both. ~ Cynthia Hand

The worst part about her new chambers was that all these wardrobes and vanities and drapes meant there was no space--none at all--for a bookcase. Who on earth could feel comfortable enough to sleep in a room with no books? ~ Cynthia Hand

You're wrong," Lord Dudley said. "You've always been a fool."
"The fool thinks he is wise," G retorted. "But the wise man knows himself to be a fool."
That was a great line, he thought. He tried to remember where he'd stashed the quill and paper. ~ Cynthia Hand

Have a care, Sir Tucker, lest you find yourself in the stockades."
He scoffs and looks at Mr. Erikson. "She can't do that, can she? She's not the ruler of this class. Brady is."
...
"You could strip him of his title," suggests Brady, apparently not minding at all that I have usurped his throne. "Make him a serf."
"Yeah," says Christian. "Make him a serf. Being a serf blows."
As a serf, poor Christian has already been killed several times in our class. Aside from dying of the Black Plague on the first day, he's starved to death, had his hands cut off for stealing a loaf of bread, and been run down by his master's horse just for kicks. He's like Christian the fifth now. ~ Cynthia Hand

In the beginning, there's a boy standing in the trees. ~ Cynthia Hand

You figure out those things that give your life meaning, and you hold onto them. You try to stop worrying about the stuff you can't control. ~ Cynthia Hand

So much, I think then. There is still so very much to lose. ~ Cynthia Hand

This is the part where I kiss you. ~ Cynthia Hand

That's the hardest part,' he says. 'The absence of certainty.' - Tucker ~ Cynthia Hand

Armies aren't very good about carrying libraries with them. I can't imagine why. We'd fight so much less if everyone would juste sit down and read ~ Cynthia Hand

You aren't being sent on a mission that you don't have the power to accomplish. You have to find that power inside you somewhere, and you have to refine it. You were made for this purpose... ~ Cynthia Hand

I've learned that a storm isn't always just a bad weather, and a fire can be the start of something new. I've found out that there are a lot more shades of gray in this world than i ever knew about. I've learned that sometimes, when you're afraid but you kept on moving forward, that biggest kind of courage there is. And finally, I've learned that life isn't really about failure and success. It's about being present, in the moment when big things happen, when everything changes, including yourself. ~ Cynthia Hand

What's a wedding without the wedding night? Considering that their first wedding night ended with a heap of horse dung in the corner of their room, it wasn't difficult to hope for something better this time. ~ Cynthia Hand

He picked up his sword. "We are off, then?"
"Without hesitation," Edward said.
And for a few moments, they hesitated. Then they were off. ~ Cynthia Hand

Firstly, bears are always hungry. So when you encounter the bear, don't act like food."
"Huh?"
"I read it in a book last summer, called - "
G held up a hand. "Don't tell me the name! No time."
"Right. As I was saying, bears are always hungry. Try not to act like food."
"How does one act like food? ~ Cynthia Hand

This moment was written in the stars, and it is everything he thought it would be. ~ Cynthia Hand

My heart knows right where to go ~ Cynthia Hand

Jane couldn't seem to catch her breath. (And it wasn't just that her corset was too tight, although it was. Extremely.) ~ Cynthia Hand

Because obviously she was the most qualified for the position. At long last Edward had arrived at the enlightened state of knowing that a woman could do a job just as well as a man. Yep. That's how it happened. Edward abdicated his throne. Elizabeth would be crowned queen at Westminster Abbey that same week, and we all know she'd be the best ruler of England ever. And now history can more or less pick up along the same path where we left it. ~ Cynthia Hand

Do all of your rules pertain to books? I suppose I understand why, since your social shortcomings mean books are your closest friends." He momentarily seemed taken aback at his own rudeness.
Jane narrowed her eyes. "Are you sure your true E∂ian form isn't a jackass? ~ Cynthia Hand

Great. I've been at this school for less than five hours and I've already made two enemies simply by existing.
-Clara ~ Cynthia Hand

Who are you calling beef-witted?" she laughed at him. "Your mother was a hamster, and your father stank of elderberries!" And away they went, whirling and stabbing with their brooms, almost dancing as they moved about the field. She ~ Cynthia Hand

She'd been presented to him as the intended of Francis, the dauphin (which Edward kept thinking sounded like the word dolphin, which seemed an odd term for a prince). ~ Cynthia Hand

It's funny how when people change, you forget the way they used to be. ~ Cynthia Hand

It's like watching a train wreck, this conversation. ~ Cynthia Hand

It's stupid not to communicate what you know to the adults. They're only trying to protect us. And as far as the no-secrets zone, I can't agree to that. I don't even really know you guys, so why would I tell you my secrets? No way. ~ Cynthia Hand

Everything was falling into place. And out of place, at the same time. ~ Cynthia Hand

Dad scowls. "Phen." He says the name like it's a swear word. "Disgusting, cowardly creatures, the ambivalent. Worse than the fallen, in many ways." His eyes are so fierce it's a tad scary. "They have no conviction at all. ~ Cynthia Hand

Think about Tucker. Think about a good memory, she whispers in my mind. Remember a moment when you loved him. And just like that, I do.
"What did the fish say when it hit a concrete wall?" he asked me. We're sitting on the bank of a stream and he's tying a fly onto my fishing rod, wearing a cowboy hat and red lumberjack-style flannel shirt over a gray tee. So adorable.
"What?" I say, he grins. Unbelievable of how gorgeous he is. And that he's mine. He loves me and I love him.
"Dam!" he says. ~ Cynthia Hand

When you were dying, Edward quickly discovered, people would let you do pretty much whatever you wanted. So he made some new unofficial decrees:
1. The king was allowed to sleep in as long as he wished.
2. The king no longer had to wear seven layers of elaborate, jewel-encrusted clothing. Or silly hats with feathers. Or pants that resembled pumpkins. Or tights. From now on, unless it was a special occasion, he was fine in just a simple shirt and trousers.
3. Dessert was to be served first. Blackberry pie, preferably. With whipped cream.
4. The king would no longer be taking part in any more dreary studies. His fine tutors had filled his head with enough history, politics and philosophy to last him two lifetimes, and as he was unlikely to get even half of one lifetime, there was no need for study. No more lessons, he decided. No more books. No more tutors' dirty looks.
5. The king was now going to reside in the top of the southeast turret, where he could sit in the window ledge and gaze out at the river for as long as he liked.
6. No one at court would be allowed to say the following words or phrases: affliction, illness,
malady, sickness, disease, disorder, ailment, infirmity, convalescence, indisposition, malaise,
plight, plague, poor health, failing health, what's going around, or your condition. Most of all, no one was allowed to say the word dying.
And finally (and perhaps most importantly, for the sake of our story)
7. ~ Cynthia Hand

I am not dead" argued Edward. "There are nefarious villains who would have you believe I died. But any accounts of my demise have been grossly exaggerated, I assure you, for here I am, very much alive. ~ Cynthia Hand

Hey, you feel like driving today?" he asks. "I don't want to walk to the bus stop. It's too cold."
"You feel like dying today?"
"Sure. I like risking my life. Keeps things in perspective. ~ Cynthia Hand

So what's the big emergency?" Jeffrey says. He jogs down the aisle of the Pink Garter toward where Christian and I are sitting, waiting for Angela, who uncharacteristically late. "I thought we weren't going to meet this week because we like, you know, spent all weekend together. I'm kind of sick of you people."
"Glad to see that you decided to grace us with your presence, anyway," Christian says. ~ Cynthia Hand

This man, this impostor of a man, can kill my body but he can't touch my soul. ~ Cynthia Hand

It's all me, the human part, the angel part. I love Tucker Avery. ~ Cynthia Hand

You and I have a connection that nothing, not on heaven or earth, or even hell, could ever break. If you want to talk to me, talk to me. I'll hear you ... ~ Cynthia Hand

I would lay down my life to protect you, Clara, ~ Cynthia Hand

Without stories, we're all just lonely islands...stories let us see and hear and feel what someone else does...they build bridges to the other islands. That's why stories are so important. They create true empathy. ~ Cynthia Hand

I'll never forget the way he tastes. It's not anything I can describe, a little sweet and a whole lot of spice, and it feels, in that moment, absolutely right. ~ Cynthia Hand

This was distressing development. Charlotte could contend with Jane's low opinion of herself, her unfair prejudice against the Society, her unwillingness to picture herself as respectable or wealthy. But if Jane was in love, well, that was that. Jane would not be coming to London with them or joining the Society.
Love trumped everything in a woman's life. More than ambition. Respectability. Common sense. Love, they'd both been taught, conquers all. ~ Cynthia Hand

It's quite the family reunion we're having in here. ~ Cynthia Hand

Behold, Tucker Avery, she says to me, gesturing up at him. ~ Cynthia Hand

But maybe if he got close to me I could feel something. Maybe I could cry and the ache would go away. ~ Cynthia Hand

He's like our own personal Gandalf or Dumbledore or somebody cool like that ... ~ Cynthia Hand

You think I'm pretty?" I ask.
"We need to stop talking," he says a little gruffly. "We're scaring the fish off."
"Okay, okay." I bite my lip, then smile. ~ Cynthia Hand

I sneaked out to his house a couple times in the middle of the night to watch over him while he slept, just in case, I dont know, his comic book collection decided to spontaneously combust. This was dumb and admittedly creepy in an Edward Cullen kind of way ~ Cynthia Hand

One minute you're a happy fourteen-yearold - good at everything you try, popular, fun - the next you're a freak with wings ~ Cynthia Hand

I feel like Cinderella sitting in the middle of the road with a pumpkin and a couple of mice, while Prince Charming charges off to rescue some other chick. ~ Cynthia Hand

Again, I whisper.
The corner of his mouth lifts, and then I kiss him. Not so gently this time. His hands drop from my face and grab my waist and pull me to him. A small soft groan excapes him, and that noise makes me feel absolutely crazy. I lose it. I wind my hands around his neck and kiss him without holding anything back. I can feel his heart thundering like mine, his breath coming faster, his arms tightening around me.
And then I can feel what he feels. He's waited for this moment. He loves how I feel in his arms. He loves the smell of my hair. He loves the way I looked at him just now, flushed and wanting more from him. He loves the color of my lips and now the taste of my mouth is making his knees feel weak and he doesn't want to seem weak in front of me. So i draw back, and his breath comes out in a rush. His arms drop away from me. ~ Cynthia Hand

The despair in books was a distant, safe thing. She'd thought she understood the depth of the emotion as she read through the pages of her beloved books, her life touching those of men and women long dead. She's felt for them, cried for them, tried to breathe for them when they no longer breathed. And then, she'd been able to close the book and place it on its shelf, the word trapped between the leather covers.
Oh, sometimes it had taken her hours or days to recover from a particularly emotional book, but there'd always be another to take her mind off the anguish.
There were no books here. ~ Cynthia Hand

Today it's just us and the wind. ~ Cynthia Hand

it's about family," I said to answer his question. "It's about how, even when we know it's a mistake or that things are going to end badly, we still choose to fight for the people we love. ~ Cynthia Hand

Insert the biggest, most awkward silence in the history of big awkward silences. ~ Cynthia Hand

Have a nice life, Clara," he says. "You deserve to be happy. ~ Cynthia Hand

Have fun in Idaho. Don't provoke any potato farmers," he says.
"Right. Because that would be bad ~ Cynthia Hand

I don't love or hate humans. I respect them. They shape themselves, in a way that we angels do not. They tell lies and sleep around and curse, and they try to define themselves so valiantly. Who am I? they keep asking. Why am I here? ~ Cynthia Hand

We have a different tale to tell.
Pay attention. We've tweaked minor details. We've completely rearranged major details. Some names have been changed to protect the innocent (or not-so-innocent, or simply because we thought a name was terrible and we liked another name better). And we've added a touch of magic to keep things interesting. So really anything could happen.
This is how we think Jane's story should have gone. ~ Cynthia Hand

Jane turned and craned her neck, first noting that the gentleman who stopped beside her was a well-dressed fellow. Then she finished looking up.
There it was.
The nose.
Truly, it was a great, arching eagle nose that would enter a room five whole seconds before the rest of him did. ~ Cynthia Hand

He was sitting in his favorite spot: the window ledge in one of the south turrets of Greenwich Palace, his legs dangling over the edge as he watched the comings and goings of the people in the courtyard below and listened to the steady flow of the River Thames. He thought he finally understood the Meaning of Life now, the Great Secret, which he'd boiled down to this:
Life is short, and then you die. ~ Cynthia Hand

Dearest Jane, Sorry I made you marry a horse. Your father-in-law is trying to kill me. Send help. But ~ Cynthia Hand

How's happiness class going, by the way?"
"Okay, so far."
"Are you feeling happy?" he asks with the hint of a smirk.
I shrug. "The professor says that happiness is wanting what you have."
Christian makes a thoughtful noise in the back of his throat. "I see. Happiness is wanting what you have. Well, there you go. So what's the problem, then?"
"What do you mean?"
"Why is the class only okay?"
"Oh." I bit my lip, then confess. "Every time I meditate, I start glowing. ~ Cynthia Hand

I have a sense that no matter what, no matter what darkness lies ahead, there is nothing that can overcome this power. ~ Cynthia Hand

This is isn't going to become one of those creepy situations where you show up at all hours of the night to watch me sleep, is it? he asks playfully. ~ Cynthia Hand

Hey, Carrots," he says. ~ Cynthia Hand

All the best things are like that, though, Lex, the most beautiful things. Part of the beauty comes from the fact that they're short-lived. ~ Cynthia Hand