Moira Young Quotes

Well, we all gotta die. You jest gotta hope you die good. ~ Moira Young

You don't fool me, he says in a low voice.
Is that right?
Yea, he says. I see it in yer eyes. All you care about's yer precious brother.
That aint true, I says.
If it'd been Emmi they took, he says, Emmi an not Lugh ... would you of gone after her?
I take in a breath to say of course I would but the look on his face stops me. there ain't no point in lyin when he already knows the truth.
He leaves go of me an steps back.
I thought so, he says. Yer sister'll be safer with me than she could ever be with you. You jest ride along on yer high horse an leave her to me. ~ Moira Young

We have a destiny, he says. Together, Saba. We're born to command, not obey. ~ Moira Young

I've climbed the high mountains an sailed the wide seas Fair faces a-plenty I've gazed on But with one glance, her beauty sent me to my knees, O hard-hearted Annie I never shall please. I've roved an I've rambled all o'er the wide world And kisses a-plenty I've tasted But it's her wine-sweet lips that I'm still dreaming of O hard-hearted Annie, cruel Annie my love. I've loved many women an wooed many girls And many soft arms have embraced me If only she'd lie with me one fleeting night With hard-hearted Annie I'd die of delight. Oh many fine beauties did beg me to stay But none until Annie did snare me Though she hurts me an shuns me an makes my heart bleed My hard-hearted Annie I never shall leave. I ~ Moira Young

The lies that lurk in the shadows of truth. ~ Moira Young

There can be beauty anywhere. Even here. An if it ain't there, you can make it yerself. ~ Moira Young

We're on our own. An I feel calm. It seems crazy ... but I'm calm. Because now I see what I gotta do. An what I ain't gotta do, which is waste time thinkin that anybody's gonna help us. That somebody's gonna come along an rescue us. I cain't count on nobody but me. ~ Moira Young

Why'd you come after me? he says. Back at Hopetown. That cellblock was on fire. You'd hafta be crazy to go in there. But you did. You risked yer life to save mine an you didn't even know me. ~ Moira Young

How did you find me? The heartstone? he says.
I look into his eyes. His silver moonlight eyes. The still calmwater heart of him.
I don't need no stone to find you. I'd find you anywhere, I says. ~ Moira Young

Some things are jest too big to fergive. ~ Moira Young

Anyways, settin so much store in one person ... it's dangerous. ~ Moira Young

What does it look like I'm doin? If yer the shy type. I'd advise you to turn around.
Oh! I turn ny back on him quick. ~ Moira Young

Yer lucky it was me you hijacked. ~ Moira Young

We don't choose the times we're born in, he says. That's the business of the stars. The only choice we got is what we do while we're here. To make it mean somethin. ~ Moira Young

If yer after a husband, forget it, he says. I seen what you did to the last one. ~ Moira Young

We ain't got time fer you to yell at me or fer me to tell you everythin that's happened, so I'm jest gonna cover the main points real quick an then I'm gonna kiss you, he says. ~ Moira Young

I know it's selfish of me to even think of sayin this. You deserve a guy who'll ... pluck the stars from the sky and lay 'em at yer feet. I'm the kinda guy who'd step on 'em on my way out the door. I ain't got nuthin to offer you. He takes my hands in his. I jest want you to know that ... How I feel about you ain't changed. No. That ain't true. It has changed. It's grown stronger. He touches my face. You run deep in me Saba. ~ Moira Young

Ever heard of the rule of three? he shouts as we run.
No!
If you save somebody's life three times, their life belongs to you. You saved my life today, that makes once. Save it twice more an I'm all yers. ~ Moira Young

No, you need to listen, she says. This ain't Silverlake, an you ain't the daddy. Out here in the real world, the person who knows what they're doin is the daddy an right now, that's me. So. Do like daddy says an shift that tasty butt of yers. Unless, of course, you want it shot off. ~ Moira Young

It'll happen if it's meant to happen, he says. It's all written in the stars. It's all fate. ~ Moira Young

Don't you dare walk away from this, Jack, don't you dare, Molly says fiercely. Most people don't ever feel what yer feeling. Be with her. An if it lasts one hour, one night, a week a month, it don't matter. Be with her, burn with her, shine with her ... fer whatever time's given to you. ~ Moira Young

I'm sorry, I says.
Fer what? he says.
Fer always bein ... you know ... so-
Ungrateful? he says.
Yeah, I says.
Ornery?
I guess so.
Rude? Pig-headed? Violent?
I ain't violent!
Oh yes, you are. Very. But I like that in a woman.
I laugh. Yer crazy, I says.
I was fine till I met you, he says. ~ Moira Young

Jack grins. Anyways, Saba likes to look at my bare chest.
Lugh looks at me. Frowns. Is that a fact? he says.
I feel myself go bright red. It is not a fact, I says. You stinker, Jack. ~ Moira Young

You got three seconds, he says, then they're comin down. He starts to count. One ... two ...
I turn and run.
I can still hear him laughin when I'm halfways back to camp. ~ Moira Young

It's always bin a bloody world, she says. Only nowadays, some people's blood is better than others. ~ Moira Young

You got no idea, do you? You got no idea how beautiful you are. ~ Moira Young

But tears don't bring back the dead. I learned that. ~ Moira Young

Bloody Jack. What is it with him? What is it about him that he seems to charm everybody an everythin that crosses his path? Ash an pretty well every other Free Hawk, my sister an now my damn crow. I swear, if there was a rock in his path that he couldn't be bothered steppin over, all he'd hafta do was give it one look an it'd roll outta the way. ~ Moira Young

You have a rare fire within you. The power to change things. The courage to act in the service of something greater than yourself. ~ Moira Young

My heart breaks. I hear it break. I feel it. ~ Moira Young

The night starts to drift in. The crimson fingers of the dyin sun bleed into gray. The first stars blink down at us. Not long to wait now. ~ Moira Young

You can trust me, he says.
You would say that. How do I know you ain't lyin?
You don't. But I ain't. ~ Moira Young

I gasp.

All around me, the dead are risin.

Another leg bone bobs to the muddy surface. Then a skull. A arm bone. They swing lazily. The current grabs 'em an carries 'em away.

Wreckers must of used the dry riverbed as a mass grave an now the heavy rain's churnin it all up.

I snatch my hands from the water, hold my arms high, outta the way. Slowly I turn in a circle, blinkin the rain away from my eyes.

Ohmigawd, I says. Ohmigawd ohmigawd ohmigawd.

The river's alive with dead men's bones. It's thick with 'em.

My breath's comin shallow an fast.

I feel somethin touch me. I make myself look down. A skellenton's wrapped itself around my chest. The skull grins up at me.

I shove it away. But when I pull my hands up agin, the whole top half of the skellenton comes with 'em. I'm stuck in the ribcage. The skull's right in my face.

I scream. Shake myself loose. Scramble to git away. Lose my footin.

I fall. I go unner.

An the current sweeps me away. ~ Moira Young

Like what you see, Angel? He says
I step to the fence. Hook my hands into the links, next to his. I lean in close. He's got tiny white lines around his eyes from squintin. Or maybe smilin. He smells of warm dust an sage.
You ain't my type, I says ~ Moira Young

They call me the Angel of Death. ~ Moira Young

He's seen enough to know that you can't kill all the badness in the world. You cut it down in front of you only to find that it's standing right behind you. ~ Moira Young

I never knew. Didn't know everythin could be fine one moment an then the next moment so bad that it 'ud be like the time before that moment was all a dream. ~ Moira Young

I turn to Slim. Do I smell? I says. He throws me a startled look. Uh - Ohmigawd, I do. I smell bad. How bad? Go on, you can tell me. Well, he says, you don't smell as bad as some. But you don't smell as good as some neether. I knew it, I says. What'm I gonna do? Yer askin me fer advice? He shakes his head as he says, I'd remind you that I'm wearin a lady dress with no unders. ~ Moira Young

Travelling men make wide detours just to be in the same room as her. That's the most that even the best of of them can hope for.
Molly Pratt, he says. Remind me, what's a heavenly creature like you doin in a dump like this?
Servin rotgut to scoundrels like you, she says. An if you call my place a dump again, I'll bar you. ~ Moira Young

The Free Hawks is fighters, I says.
Warriors, she says, like you. An occasional highway robbers. ~ Moira Young

Jack lifts his mug. Me an Ike do the same.
To Molly Pratt, says Jack.
Ike scowls at him. Watch yer mouth, he says.
Jeez, Ike, says Jack. All I'm sayin is ... to Molly Pratt.
Ike looks sly. Leans in an waggles his eyebrows. To Molly Pratt, he says, an her frilly red bloomers.
One helluva woman, says Jack.
One helluva pair of undies, says Ike.
Then they throw their drinks down their necks. ~ Moira Young

Friends don't owe ... Friends don't repay. ~ Moira Young

I'm alert, full of purpose, free. An few the first time in a long time, I can breathe. ~ Moira Young

There are some people, she says, not many, who have within them the power to change things. The courage to act in the service of somethin greater than themselves. ~ Moira Young

Before I know what he's up to, he grabs my hand.
Hey! I try to pull it away but he holds it even tighter.
Saba, he says, I dunno what happy star sent you lookin fer me but I'm mighty thankful it did. If you hadn't of turned up, I'd be dead by now. ~ Moira Young

I'm a fever in your blood now, Saba. As you are in mine. ~ Moira Young

You couldn't find nobody more pig-headed if you tried, he says. An she's always thinkin she knows best, even when she don't, especially when she don't. She's prickly and stubborn an everythin you'd put at the bottom of a list if you was makin a... a list of that kind. Which I aint. I didn't.
But? says Molly.
But ohmigawd Molly, she shines so bright, he says. The fire of life burns so strong in her. I never realized till I met her... I bin cold my whole life, Moll.
I know, she says softly.
It's jest that... aw, hell. She thinks I'm a better man than I really am.
Well, yer a better man than you think you are. ~ Moira Young

The Sword the burning decieved rising the science fiction the betrayed the spy the souls ~ Moira Young

Saba! I'm afeared! cries Emmi.
If you are, you ain't no sister of mine! I shout. Come at me agin!
I ain't afeared of nuthin! She yells.
That's more like it. ~ Moira Young

I never knew that missin somebody could hurt, I says. But it does. Deep inside. Like it's in my bones. We ain't never bin apart till now. Never. I dunno how to be without him. It's like ... I ain't nuthin. ~ Moira Young

Did you know, he says, every time you make somethin, any time you make anythin, a little bit of yer spirit goes into it? ~ Moira Young

Then Jack. Tellin me, farewell not goodbye, I'll see you out west an – oh, by the way – yer in my blood, Saba. ~ Moira Young

I drop back a bit. I listen while they chatter on an Lugh makes us laugh. He always does.
We're together agin.
Lugh goes first, always first, an I follow on behind.
An that's fine.
That's right.
That's how it's meant to be.
Lugh turns around. Smiles.
Hey, he says, what're you doin back there? I ain't got a clue where we're goin. Git on up here an lead the way.
So I do. ~ Moira Young

The mask's back in place. The heard-it-all smile. The seen-it-all eyes. ~ Moira Young

Maybe I did mean to kill myself. I didn't think it outright but ... maybe the truth is, I didn't
I don't
much care one way or th'other. ~ Moira Young

Jack nudges our pile of clothes with his foot. Grins. Well, ain't this an innerestin sitchation? he says. Two girls naked in the water an me with all their clothes. ~ Moira Young

Until next time, DeMalo says softly. ~ Moira Young

Jest becuz I'm nine, don't mean I'm a stupid little kid. ~ Moira Young

I push him off, sit up an start puttin my clothes to rights. He's made a heroic effort to undress me.
You work fast, I says.
Yer a moving target, I hafts. Here, he says, lemme help.
I button, he unbuttons. I tuck, he untucks.
I slap his hand. I'll do it myself, I says. ~ Moira Young

I'm gonna hafta kiss you, Jack, I says.
I wish you would, he says. ~ Moira Young

Move fast, travel light, an never tell 'em your real name. ~ Moira Young

Don't give in to fear. Be strong, like i know you are. An never give up, d'you unnerstand, never. No matter what happens.
I stare at him.
I won't, I says. I ain't no quitter, Pa.
That's my girl. ~ Moira Young

I weep fer the livin. I weep fer the dead. I weep fer the yet to be born. ~ Moira Young

Slim throws me a startled look. I aim my bolt shooter at him. Who am I, you sonofabitch?
Helluva time for a identity crisis, he says. ~ Moira Young

I think of what we might say. Him to me. Me to him. I ain't no soft girl. I don't know no soft words. Be with me, Jack. That's what I'll say. Burn with me. Shine with me. ~ Moira Young

Lugh shines like the sun.
That must of made it easy fer them to find him.
All they had to do was follow his light. ~ Moira Young

His Chosen Ones. What a lie. They're slaves too. You jest cain't see their chains. ~ Moira Young

An when Ike walks through that door- after I finish kissin him to death- I'm gonna tie him to that chair an never let him go, cux life's too gawdamn short an it's about time I start takin my own advice. I might need yer help, of course, but I'm sure you won't mind, seein how-
Molly! Jack grabs her hand. Stop, Molly, please. Dammit Moll. Ike ain't gonna walk through the door.
She goes still. Very still. Her smile fades. Please don't say it, she whispers.
He can't bear to. But he has to. Ike's dead, he says. He's dead, Molly. I'm sorry. ~ Moira Young

He turns around, all impatient. Now what? I wanna say something to you. I wanna say ... I dunno ... more. I could bust apart with all I'm feelin inside of me right now. What with fightin off the hellwurms an gittin my shoulder tore open, an how I felt when I woke up an seen you an, now, here I am, being so close to findin Lugh an I dunno what's gonna happen an
Jack's lookin at me, frowning. What's the matter with you, Saba? he says. I grab his face an kiss him on the lips. ~ Moira Young

We like to think we're in charge of our own lives, but we ain't. ~ Moira Young

I ain't no soft girl. I don't know no soft words. ~ Moira Young

I hold up the heartstone. It's burnin hot now. He's on th'other side. The sound of a heartbeat. In my head, all around me, everywhere. So loud. ~ Moira Young

I close my eyes. My bones sob. Throb. I'm so weary with tryin to hold myself together. Tryin to hold back the darkness. ~ Moira Young

No, I says, He stole it agin. He's a thief an a menace an I'm gonna trade him in fer a umberella. ~ Moira Young

I grab his face an' kiss him on the lips. Then I step back. We stare at each other. All the air gits sucked outta the tunnel. The heartstone burns into my skin. The blood pounds in my ears.
Yer timin stinks, he says. ~ Moira Young

Believe it or not, missy, back in my salad days, I was what we called a gay blade, he says. Had a fine manly figger. I had dash an charm an ... oh, I was devilish handsome, no word of a lie. Females flocked to me, helpless moths to my deadly flame.
There you go, says Em. You jest need to scrub up some. ~ Moira Young

What happens to you changes you. Fer good or ill, yer changed ferever. There ain't no goin back. No matter how many tears you cry. ~ Moira Young

There's some wounds that run too deep to be seen. They're the most dangerous. ~ Moira Young

Yer timin stinks, he says. ~ Moira Young

Love makes you weak. ~ Moira Young

Whatever it is, I sure didn't go lookin fer it.
You don't hafta, she says. If it's meant to be, it'll find you. We like to think we're in charge of our own lives, but we ain't. Not really. ~ Moira Young

Feeling sorrow is fine, he says. It's right. But you need to use those feelings, channel them into action. Just as you did with your brother. You have such strength, such courage, such power within you. ~ Moira Young

Whatever's broke, he says, I can fix it. I'll fix it all. I promise. ~ Moira Young

As most young candidates for the pains and penalties of whaling stop at this same New Bedford, thence to embark on their voyage, it may as well be related that I, for one, had no idea of so doing. For my mind was made up to sail in no other than a Nantucket craft, because there was a fine, boisterous something about everything connected with that famous old island, which amazingly pleased me. Besides though New Bedford has of late been gradually monopolizing the business of whaling, and though in this matter poor old Nantucket is now much behind her, yet Nantucket was her great original - the Tyre of this Carthage; - the place where the first dead American whale was stranded. Where else but from Nantucket did those aboriginal whalemen, the Red-Men, first sally out in canoes to give chase to the Leviathan? And where but from Nantucket, too, did that first adventurous little sloop put forth, partly laden with imported cobblestones - so goes the story - to throw at the whales, in order to discover when they were nigh enough to risk a harpoon from the bowsprit? ~ Herman Melville

Because it is psychological. I see the boys in the park, the young boys, smoking and playing basketball when they should be in school. I couldn't understand why when I first arrived. Now, I am starting to see. It is because they have been told in school, in their community, on the street, that they are nothing, and so they have started to believe it. Once that happens, it is over. You can't be a man, a husband, a father. You can't do anything, once you start to believe that. ~ Sun Yung Shin

Patience is the virtue that forges great men. ~ Chris Vincent

It's a shame watching life shrivel up into nothing. Makes you remember to appreciate what you've got. Anybody can tell you Ed started breaking the day Emma died. ~ John Northcutt Young

Wherever there are beginners and experts, old and young, there is some kind of learning going on, some kind of teaching. We are all pupils and we are all teachers. ~ Gilbert Highet

As I celebrate life, I can't help but think how young my mom was when she died of a heart attack at 53. My mom didn't get to meet her grandchildren, but I'm determined to watch mine grow up. ~ Andie MacDowell

Russian literature saved my soul. When I was a young girl in school and I asked what is good and what is evil, no one in that corrupt system could show me. ~ Irina Ratushinskaya

I like em young, dumb, and hung. Reign the Radiant ~ Kresley Cole

For the limited 'ordinary' person there is, for example, nothing easier to imagine himself to be unusual and original person, and to take enjoyment in this without hesitation. Some of our young ladies need only have their hair cut short, put on some blue spectacles and call themselves nihilists in order to be instantly persuaded that, having donned the spectacles, they have at once begun to possess their own 'convictions'. Some men need only feel a drop of some universally human and good-natured feeling within their hearts in order to be instantly persuaded that no one feels as they do, that they are in the vanguard of public enlightenment. Others need only accept some idea by word of mouth or read a page of something without beginning or end in order to instantly believe that this 'their own idea' and has been conceived within their own brains. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

A children's author on a soapbox is not a pleasant sight but I have become drawn into issues, slightly unwillingly, relating to young people, literacy and youth justice: just look at the number of young people we have locked up in prison, and the uselessness of it. ~ Anthony Horowitz

I believe that there is a very strong chance that we will see that young people will be put into mandatory service. And the real concerns is that there are provisions for what I would call re-education camps for young people, where young people have to go and get trained in a philosophy that the government puts forward and then they have to go to work in some of these politically correct forums. ~ Michele Bachmann

There's no need to get that way. It's your own thoughts that keep you young, Dick. And age hasn't anything to do with it. It's a question of your state of mind." "I don't care about all that. Oh! Jake - if I could live tremendously, and then die." "What do you call 'tremendously'?" "I don't know - but there are a whole lot of things I want to know and to feel. They won't ever happen though. Fate'll be against me." "Don't talk like a fool. There isn't such a thing as Fate. Everything depends on yourself," he said. "Everything?" "Yes." "I wish I could ~ Daphne Du Maurier

Oh no," she breathed. "Not the Highwoods." She called after the coach as it rumbled off into the distance. "Mrs. Highwood, wait! Come back. I can explain everything. Don't leave!"
"They seem to have already left."
She turned on Bram, flashing him an angry blue glare. The force of it pushed against his sternum. Not nearly sufficient to move him, but enough to leave an impression.
"I do hope you're happy, sir. If tormenting innocent sheep and blowing ruts in our road weren't enough mischief for you today, you've ruined a young woman's future."
"Ruined?" Bram wasn't in the habit of ruining young ladies-that was his cousin's specialty-but if he ever decided to take up the sport, he'd employ a different technique. He edged closer, lowering his voice. "Really, it was just a little kiss. Or is this about your frock?"
His gaze dipped. Her frock had caught the worst of their encounter. Grass and dirt streaked the yards of shell-pink muslin. A torn flounce drooped to the ground, limp as a forgotten handkerchief. Her neckline had likewise strayed. He wondered if she knew her left breast was one exhortation away from popping free of her bodice altogether. He wondered if he should stop staring at it.
No, he decided. He would do her a favor by staring at it, calling her attention to what needed to be repaired. Indeed. Staring at her half-exposed, emotion-flushed breast was his solemn duty, and Bram was never one to shirk responsibility.
"Ahem." She crosse ~ Tessa Dare

And when the mood took her to fall for the handsome young lawyer Will Bankhead, she happily threw over the man to whom she was already engaged. ~ Judith Mackrell

When I was a young man, I shined the shoes of Louis Armstrong and Louis Jordan! Music was just everywhere like that. And in my family, everyone could play something, and if they couldn't play, they could sing. ~ Chuck Brown

One of the less apparent but most profound consequences of domestic electric lighting was the encouragement of reading at home. Increased reading broadened knowledge, stirred new interests, and created a more sophisticated society, especially away from centers of culture, which in turn increased demand for electricity. Persons who had trouble reading by dim fire- or candlelight, and especially young children who could not be left alone to regulate gaslights, could easily and safely read by electric light. Partly for this reason, the Muncie, Indiana, public library loaned out eight times as many books per inhabitant in 1925 as it had in 1890. The cartoon symbol of a light bulb being switched on over someone's head as they achieved new insight was firmly grounded in reality. ~ David E. Kyvig

I find my room claustrophobic. It is small, but that's not what I mean. It's claustrophobic because I feel like I've been trapped here for so long, this floor forming the centre stage from where my life story is playing out. ~ Ali Pantony