Kristin Cashore Quotes

Raffin and Bann stood together, propped against the wall and against each other, half dozing. At one point, Raffin, not knowing he had one small, curious witness, gave Bann a sleepy kiss on the ear.
Bitterblue had wondered that about them. I t was nice when something in the world became clear. Especially when it was a nice thing. ~ Kristin Cashore

What man can hate or love well when he is drugged? ~ Kristin Cashore

She would thump them both, and she would apologize to neither. ~ Kristin Cashore

She groped forward, hands and feet, in search of darkness, distance and solitude. ~ Kristin Cashore

In the saddle again, Fire mulled over the commander's trust, prodding it around, like a candy in her mouth, trying to decide whether she believed it. ~ Kristin Cashore

My life is an apology for the life of my father. ~ Kristin Cashore

In the end, Leck should have stuck to his lies. For it was the truth he almost told that killed him. ~ Kristin Cashore

I'll give myself to you however you'l take me," he said, so simply that Katsa found she wasn't embarrassed. She watched his face. ~ Kristin Cashore

Part of avoiding thoughts about something was not encouraging opportunities for that something to makes itself felt. ~ Kristin Cashore

It seems to me that a fair number of people are happy to be as cruel as their power allows, ~ Kristin Cashore

There are no medicines to bring a dead thing back to life. ~ Kristin Cashore

Brigan," she said, annoyed that he had not understood.
"I'll always be beautiful. Look at me. I have one hundred and sixty two bug bites, and has it made me any less beautiful? I'm missing two fingers and I have scars all over, but does anyone care? No! It just makes me more interesting! I'll always be like this, stuck in this beautiful form, and you'll have to deal with it."
He seemed to sense that she expected a grave response, but for the moment, he was incapable. "I suppose it's a burden I must bear," he said, grinning. ~ Kristin Cashore

For now, Lady Queen," he said, "allow us to continue to obey you. But give us honorable instructions, Lady Queen," he said, turning a flushed face to hers. "Ask us to do honorable things, so that we may have the honor of obeying you. ~ Kristin Cashore

My favorite genre is Beautifully Written Books of Any Genre. Could we make that a genre? ~ Kristin Cashore

It was when she returned to him, chilled & clearheaded, that it happened. He sat against the tree, his knees bent & his head in his hands. His shoulders slumped. Tired, unhappy. Something tender caught in her breath at the sight of him. And then he raised his eyes and looked at her, and she saw what she had not seen before. She gasped.
His eyes were beautiful. His face was beautiful to her in every way, and his shoulders and hands. And his arms that hung over his knees, and his chest that was not moving, because he held his breath as he watched her. And the heart in his chest. This friend. How had she not seen this before? How had she not seen him? She was blind. And then tears choked her eyes, for she had not asked for this. She had not asked for this beautiful man before her, with something hopeful in his eyes that she did not want. ~ Kristin Cashore

That's not even a thing. ~ Kristin Cashore

I told you before, Katsa. I won't fight when you're angry. I won't solve a disagreement between us with blows." He lifted the ice and fingered his jaw. He moaned and held the ice to his face again. "What we do in the practice rooms-that's to help each other. We don't use it against each other. We're friends, Katsa. We're too dangerous to each other. And even if we weren't, it's not right. ~ Kristin Cashore

He thinks it's dangerous for us to leave each other so much freedom and make these vague plans to travel together in the future, doing Council work, with no promises. I told him I'm not going to marry you and hang on to you like a barnacle, just to keep you to myself and stop you loving anyone else.'
'It's all right, you know. Other people don't have to understand. ~ Kristin Cashore

What was the difference between a husband and a lover?
If she took Po as her husband, she would be making promises about a future she couldn't yet see. For once she became his wife, she would be his wife forever. And, no matter how much freedom Po gave her, she would always know that it was a gift. Her freedom would not be her own; it would be Po's to give or to withhold. That he never would withhold it made no difference. If it did not come from her, it was not really hers.
If Po were her lover, would she feel captured, cornered into a sense of forever? Or would she still have the freedom that sprang from herself? ~ Kristin Cashore

He made her drunk, this man made her drunk; and every time his eyes flashed into hers she could not breathe. ~ Kristin Cashore

Watch for the blue-eyed green-eyed one," they would whisper to guests. "She killed her cousin, with one strike. Because ~ Kristin Cashore

The fellow who tends the greenhouse gardens? Trust me, Lady, you'd let him stake your tomatoes. ~ Kristin Cashore

Why does everybody throw every troublesome thing into the river? ~ Kristin Cashore

Her feeling was strange and wild, her mind a marvelous unbroken thing that Fire could touch and influence, but never truly comprehend. She belonged alone on the rocks, unconstrained, and vicious when she needed to be.
And yet there was love in the feeling of her too- constraining, in its way. This horse had no intention of leaving Fire. ~ Kristin Cashore

What was the purpose of a woman monster?
It came out in a whisper. 'What am I for? ~ Kristin Cashore

Great! He has indigestion, so let's torture him with cake. ~ Kristin Cashore

I push everyone I love away."
He shrugged.
"I don't mind you pushing me away if it means you love me, little sister. ~ Kristin Cashore

It seemed to Fire it was rarely enough one knew a person one wished to marry. How unjust then to meet that person, and be kept from it because one's bed was made of hay and not feathers. ~ Kristin Cashore

Fire supposed he needed to be there in order to give rousing speeches and lead the charge into the fray, or whatever is was commanders did in wartime. She resented his competence at something so tragic and senseless. She wished he, or somebody, would throw down his sword and say, 'Enough! This is a silly way to decide who's in charge!' And it seemed to her, as the beds in the healing room filled and emptied and filled, that these battles didn't leave much to be in charge of. The kingdom was already broken, and this war was tearing the broken pieces smaller. ~ Kristin Cashore

Always one of the trials of a new wound: old wounds like to rise up and start hurting again, too. ~ Kristin Cashore

Kasta looked from one of them to the other, the two of them shaking hands, understanding each other's concern. She didn't see where Giddon came off feeling insulted. She didn't see how Giddon had any place in it at all. Who were they, to take her fight away from her and turn it into some sort of understanding between themselves? She would knock his nose from his face. She would thump them both, and she would apologise to neither. ~ Kristin Cashore

Go safely. Go safely, she thought to him. What a silly, empty thing it was to say to anyone, anywhere. ~ Kristin Cashore

Your brand of comfort bears some similarity to your tactical offense. ~ Kristin Cashore

Her fingers flew, her fiddle was an entire orchestra, and every note beautifully brought into being struck a chord of satisfaction within her. She wondered at the unfamiliar lightness in her chest and realised she was laughing.
So great was her focus, it took her a while to register the strange expression that crept to Brocker's face as he listened, finger tapping the armrest of his chair. His eyes were fixed behind Fire and to the right, in the direction of Archer's back doorway. Fire comprehended that someone must be standing in Archer's entrance, someone Brocker watched with startled eyes.
And then everything happened at once. Fire recognised the mind in the doorway; she spun around, fiddle and bow screeching apart; she stared at Prince Brigan leaning against the door frame. ~ Kristin Cashore

You're astonishing, Fire," he'd said. "You're a constant source of wonder to me. I'm never more happy than when I've made you happy. Isn't it peculiar?" he'd said, laughing. "Do you really like it, darling? ~ Kristin Cashore

I don't think any child could see her father beginning to love someone else and not feel jealousy. ~ Kristin Cashore

Ror stood and began to stride around the room. Katsa rose woodenly, in respect for a rising king, but the queen pulled her back down. If we stood every time he marched around we'd always be standing ~ Kristin Cashore

Archer, is there a servant girl in my fortress you haven't taken to bed? I announce you're leaving and within minutes two of them are at each other's throats, and another is crying her eyes out in the scullery. Honestly. You've been here all of nine days."
- Roen, "Fire ~ Kristin Cashore

Propelled by nothing more than a drab sense of duty not to die if she didn't have to, Fire turned [...] ~ Kristin Cashore

Perhaps it's the promise of your angry face that keeps me misbehaving,' he said. 'You're so beautiful when you're angry. ~ Kristin Cashore

When a monster stopped behaving like a monster, did it stop being a monster? Did it become something else? ~ Kristin Cashore

Everyone wants a bit of something beautiful. ~ Kristin Cashore

And the kings were no better to their own people than they were to each others. ~ Kristin Cashore

Thiel, tall, troubled, bewildered ~ Kristin Cashore

Truths are dangerous," he said.
"Then why are you writing them in a book?"
"To catch them between the pages," said Teddy, "and trap them before they disappear. ~ Kristin Cashore

People want incongruous, impossible things. ~ Kristin Cashore

I'm afraid of plenty of things," he said. "I just do them anyway. ~ Kristin Cashore

Something caught in her throat at this second thanks, when she'd threatened him so brutally. When you're a monster, she thought, you are thanked and praised for not behaving like a monster. She would like to restrain from cruelty and receive no admiration for it. ~ Kristin Cashore

Don't you think it's the people that make a place feel like home? ~ Kristin Cashore

You're afraid of your own anger. ~ Kristin Cashore

He considered her seriously. "Well. And that's easy," he said. "My Grace will protect me from him, And I'll protect you. You'll be safe with me, Katsa. ~ Kristin Cashore

Saf keeps a vast range of bullies on hand at all times. ~ Kristin Cashore

I told him I'm not going to marry you and hang on to you like a barnacle, just to keep you to myself and stop you loving anyone else. ~ Kristin Cashore

Ivan had contrived somehow in the dark of night to replace every watermelon in the watermelon patch with a gravestone, and every gravestone in the engraver's lot with a watermelon ~ Kristin Cashore

I'll always be beautiful. Look at me. I have one hundred and sixty-two bug bites, and has it made me any less beautiful? I'm missing two fingers and I have scars all over, but does anyone care? No! It just makes me more interesting! I'll always be like this, stuck in this beautiful form, and you'll have to deal with it. ~ Kristin Cashore

In the morning, coming awake was like drowning. ~ Kristin Cashore

She wondered if a person could be powerful, but inside be broken into pieces, and shaking, all the time. ~ Kristin Cashore

Living is too hard right now. Dying is easy. Let me die. ~ Kristin Cashore

He thinks we're made of money. ~ Kristin Cashore

Then she'll know I'll want to knock her senseless if she so much as looks at me. ~ Kristin Cashore

Madlen: 'It's a relief to me, Lady Queen, that in your own pain, you take no interest in hurting yourself.'
Bitterblue: 'Why would I? Why should I? It's foolish. I would like to kick the people who do it.'
Madlen: 'That would, perhaps, be redundant, Lady Queen. ~ Kristin Cashore

I have no doubt that you are more than capable of bringing the Monsean queen and my son and the rest of my sons and a hundred Nanderan kittens through an onslaught of howling raiders if you chose to. ~ Kristin Cashore

It's hard to wake from a nightmare when the nightmare is real. ~ Kristin Cashore

She had learned propriety, which was the same as saying she had learned to trust only herself. ~ Kristin Cashore

It was a haunting tune, unresigned, a cry of heartache for all in the world that fell apart. As ash rose black against the brilliant sky, Fire's fiddle cried out for the dead, and for the living who stay behind and say goodbye. ~ Kristin Cashore

I wish people would stop hitting Po," whispered Bitterblue.
"Well," Giddon said. "Yes. I'm hoping Skye is following my model. Punch Po; go on a long trip; feel better; come back and make up. ~ Kristin Cashore

Why are you still here?" she asked. "Shouldn't you be in a cave somewhere inspiring people? ~ Kristin Cashore

I don't understand your book. Isn't every book a book of words? ~ Kristin Cashore

Some people had too much power and too much cruelty to live. Some people were too horrible, no matter if you loved them; no matter that you had to make yourself terrible too, in order to stop them. Some things just had to be done.
I forgive myself, thought Fire. Today, I forgive myself. ~ Kristin Cashore

Katsa didn't think a person should thank her for not causing pain. Causing joy was worthy of thanks, and causing pain worthy of disgust. Causing neither was neither, it was nothing, and nothing didn't warrant thanks. ~ Kristin Cashore

Mercy was more frightening than murder, because it was harder. ~ Kristin Cashore

He held up a finger and went to the hallway, where he tripped over Blotchy, and then over the two monster cats madly pursuing Blotchy. Swearing, he leaned over the landing and called to the guard that unless the kingdom fell to war or his daughter was dying, he better not be interrupted until further notice. ~ Kristin Cashore

Location: Amsterdam, Where Fire Is Called Vlam ~ Kristin Cashore

You don't need to be strong to drive your thumbs into a man's eyeballs," Katsa said, "but it does a lot of damage."
"That's disgusting," Bitterblue said.
"Someone your size doesn't have the luxury of fighting cleanly, Bitterblue. ~ Kristin Cashore

I don't know how it'll be between us Thiel. I don't know how we'll learn to trust each other again, and I know you're not well enough to help me with every matter I face. But I miss you and I'd like to try again. ~ Kristin Cashore

Could she be his lover and still belong to herself? ~ Kristin Cashore

Raffin appeared again, a floor above her, on the balconied passageway that ran past his workrooms. He leaned over the railing and called down to her. "Kat!"
"What is it?"
"You look lost . Have you forgotten the way to your rooms?"
"I'm stalling."
"How long will you be? I'd like to show you a couple of my new discoveries."
"I've been told to make myself pretty for dinner."
He grinned. "Well in that case, you'll be ages."
His face dissolved into laughter, and she tore a button from one of her bags an hurled it at him. He squealed and dropped to the floor, and the button hit the wall right where he'd been standing. When he peeked back over the railing, she stood in the courtyard with her hands on her hips, grinning. "I missed on purpose," she said.
"Show off! Come if you have time." He waved, and turned into his rooms. ~ Kristin Cashore

Ideas were growing in all directions and dimensions; they were becoming a sculpture, or a castle. And then everyone left her, to return to their own affairs; and she was alone, and empty and unbelieving again. ~ Kristin Cashore

We're going to win this war, you know, now that our army's together. But the world doesn't care who wins. It'll go on spinning, no matter how many people are slaughtered." After a moment, he added. "I almost wish it wouldn't, if we aren't allowed to go on spinning with it. ~ Kristin Cashore

Raff, what have you done to yourself? Your hair is positively blue. ~ Kristin Cashore

I'm mostly unflappable, but you've flapped me, monster lady. ~ Kristin Cashore

I'd thought once, actually, of taking your mind, if you asked. I'd thought I could help you fall asleep at night."
He opened his mouth to say something. Shut it again. His face closed for a moment, his unreadable mask falling into place. He spoke softly. "But that wouldn't be fair; for after I slept you'd be left awake, with no one to help you sleep. ~ Kristin Cashore

The thing about learning that someone isn't who they said they were is that you start to wonder if you ever really had a relationship with them in the first place. You try to picture them, and instead, there's this empty space. The only thing you're sure of is that they were a person who lied. ~ Kristin Cashore

You look - crazed."
"It's an artist thing," Jane says. "Don't worry about it. ~ Kristin Cashore

She had thought herself trapped in a place outside the ordinary feeling lives of people; she had not noticed how many other people were trapped in that same place. ~ Kristin Cashore

She expected the pain, when it came. But she gasped at its sharpness; it was not like any pain she had felt before. He kissed her and slowed and would have stopped. But she laughed, and said that this one time she would consent to hurt, and bleed, at his touch. He smiled into her neck and kissed her again and she moved with him through the pain. The pain became a warmth that grew. Grew, and stopped her breath. And took her breath and her pain and her mind away from her body, so that there was nothing but her body and his body and the light and fire they made together. ~ Kristin Cashore

Children are geniuses. ~ Kristin Cashore

They sat on the outcropping of stone and at bread and fruit. Kasta watched the long grass moving around them. The wind pushed it, attacked it, struck it in one place than another. It rose and fell again. It flowed, like water.
"Is this what the sea is like?" Kasta asked, and they both turned to her, surprised. "Does the sea move the way this grass moves?"
"It's like the sea," she said.
Giddon's eyes on her were incredulous.
"What? Is it such a strange thing to say?"
"It's a strange thing for you to say." He shook his head. He gathered their bread and fruit, then rose. "The Lienid fighter is filling your mind with romantic notions. ~ Kristin Cashore

She crossed the room to him, put her arms around him, clung to him, turning her face to the side, learning all at once that it was awkward to show a person all of one's love when one's nose was broken. ~ Kristin Cashore

I thought it was supposed to be impossible to sneak up on you. Eyes of a hawk and ears of a wolf and all. ~ Kristin Cashore

It hurt her eyes, almost, Ror City; and it didn't surprise her that Po should come from a place that shone. ~ Kristin Cashore

Normal. She wasn't normal. A girl Graced with killing, a royal thug? A girl who didn't want the husbands Randa pushed on her, perfectly handsome and thoughtful men, a girl who panicked at the thought of a baby at her breast, or clinging to her ankles. ~ Kristin Cashore

Hidden yourself in a hole and dared to burden no one with your grievous friendship? I will have friends, Katsa. I will have a life, even though I carry this burden. ~ Kristin Cashore

He caught her eye. 'And? I'm jealous-minded and I sleep with too many women.'
Fire's smile grew. 'Luckily for you, I loved you long before either of those things.'
'But you don't love me as much as I love you,' he said. 'Which is what's made me this way. ~ Kristin Cashore

Madlen came to sit beside her on the bed. "Lady Queen," she said with her own particular brand of rough gentleness. "It is not the job of the child to protect her mother. It's the mother's job to protect the child. By allowing your mother to protect you, you gave her a gift. Do you understand me? ~ Kristin Cashore

Generally she avoided mirrors. It embarrassed her to lose her own breath at the sight of herself. ~ Kristin Cashore

To Garan's credit, the treatment of Dellian prisoners did change after that. One particularly laconic man, after a session in which Fire learned positively nothing, thanked her for it specifically. "Best dungeons I ever been in," he said, chewing on a toothpick.
"Wonderful," Garan grumbled when he had gone. "We'll grow a reputation for our kindness to lawbreakers. ~ Kristin Cashore

He was so physical in his arguments. He loomed and gestured, his face went dark or burned with light. His eyes blazed. And he was just as physical with his love and joy, and this was why they all fell in love with him, for in a world that was dismal he was alive and passionate, and his attentions, while they lasted, were intoxicating. ~ Kristin Cashore

She glanced up at him, and in that moment he pulled his wet shirt over his head. She forced her mind blank. Blank as a new sheet of paper, blank as a starless sky. He came to the fire and crouched before it. He rubbed the water from his bare arms and flicked it in the flames. She stared at the goose and sliced his drumstick carefully and thought of the blankest expression on the blankest face she could possibly imagine. It was a chilly evening; she thought about that. The goose would be delicious, they must eat as much of it as possible, they must not waste it; she thought about that. ~ Kristin Cashore

I'll give myself to you however you'll take me,' he said, so simply that Katsa found she wasn't embarrassed. ~ Kristin Cashore