Shipka Kiernan Quotes

I am always texting! ~ Kiernan Shipka

I don't know if I've ever screamed or cried for a band. ~ Kiernan Shipka

Well I was a Gerber baby, so probably that was my first money. But in cash, I used to do lemonade stands a lot. ~ Kiernan Shipka

I certainly know quite a few kid actors, but I'm not really friends with them. They're all very nice people, but I just don't run in the same circles. ~ Kiernan Shipka

Some things are worth the splurge. ~ Kiernan Shipka

Kissing is much easier than smoking, ~ Kiernan Shipka

I do listen to some music, but I don't technically have one band I'm absolutely hooked on. ~ Kiernan Shipka

There's nothing wrong with a lisp. ~ Kiernan Shipka

I really get a chance to be a normal kid. ~ Kiernan Shipka

I design some of my own clothes now. ~ Kiernan Shipka

I've been playing since I was 5, but I wouldn't say that I'm serious about the piano. ~ Kiernan Shipka

The first scene I ever appeared in, it was the first scene I ever shot [during my] first day on set. I walk up to my mom with a plastic bag over my head and she says that her clothes better not be on the floor, not that a plastic bag is not a safety hazard or anything. I think it's a really cute scene and also just a very vivid memory. ~ Kiernan Shipka

I am a huge fashion fan. It's a really cool way to express yourself. ~ Kiernan Shipka

I'd definitely like to go to college some day. ~ Kiernan Shipka

I'm such a theater geek. ~ Kiernan Shipka

I always try to read at night, because it gets me kind of tired. ~ Kiernan Shipka

I love ballet. Ballet is its own being. It has its own vocabulary. I feel as if I am in a different world when I am in the ballet studio. ~ Kiernan Shipka

My style is constantly changing. ~ Kiernan Shipka

I do lots of activities. I hang out with friends. ~ Kiernan Shipka

Kiernan. I had a sudden memory of the small, scuffed-up shoe I'd seen just before I fell. He must have snatched the bracelet when the crowd gathered around me. If I managed to get out, I resolved to give him every last penny I had and cover his little face with kisses. ~ Rysa Walker

Every month, the US is spending more on the Iraqi war than it took to reach Saturn and Titan. Mass murder is expensive, and good science is relatively cheap. ~ Caitlin R. Kiernan

Think of it." Now he is speaking to you, no one but you. "It may not matter what we want for science, or what we think is ethical. All we must do is provide the right environment, and let the heart do what it desires. The heart wants to beat. ~ Stephen Kiernan

And all the shelves rising up around her like book-lined walls of a fortress, safe in here, always safe in here from the world, guarded by books and all the secrets inside them, all the things hardly anyone else will ever care to learn. ~ Caitlin R. Kiernan

Chance smiled back at him, and Well, can you think of anything else I could do with my life that could ever possibly be half this splendid, half this important? I'm learning to read, Deke, and not just the handful of things men have been around long enough to write down. The history of the whole damned planet is written in rocks, just lying there waiting for us to learn how to read it. ~ Caitlin R. Kiernan

I'd feel a lot better about this if that spell had worked," Kiernan hissed.
"Don't tell me that I'm going to have to drag you along," I whispered back. "This is a real adventure, Kiernan. Just think, if we manage to get out of all this without being killed or imprisoned, you'll have such stories to tell the ladies at court."
"Are you sure that this isn't blasphemy? We're going to desecrate the grave of the Nameless God's chosen ones."
"We aren't going to desecrate it," I insisted. "We're just going to look around it. And besides, since when have you worried about blasphemy?"
He snorted, but softly. "Let's go, then. ~ Eilis O'Neal

The long nub end of afternoon spent at her keyboard, her hands moving so much slower than her racing mind, The frustrating lag between her thoughts and the hunt and peck; a hot flood of ideas where there had been months of trickling, uncertain sentences, and Sadie trying to keep up with herself, wishing she'd taken typing in high school, scared that this inspiration would grow restless, impatient with her, and slink back to whatever hole it crawled out of. ~ Caitlin R. Kiernan

Back home, the dank and mildewstinking halls of Quinlan Castle, and she pauses on the concrete front steps to shake the rain off Jerome's happy yellow umbrella, flaps it open and closed, open and closed, making a furious noise like the death throes of a giant bat or a pterodactyl, spraying a thousand droplets across the steps and the sidewalk. ~ Caitlin R. Kiernan

And it means snapshots, because that's what all stories I write come down to; each is a snapshot of who I was during however many days and weeks it was written. A fictional reflection of my mind fossilized, set in paper and ink, instead of stone. Memorialized, for better or worse. This is who I was, and this, and this, and this, and that, and most times I look back and wince. I'm rarely kind to who I was. But other times, looking back is bittersweet. Sometimes, I'm even grateful to the me of then who left a snapshot for the me of now. Maybe I should let go and join those who pretend the past is past, but it's a falsehood I've never learned to spin. ~ Caitlin R. Kiernan

I think I might have something for you today, he says, reaches beneath the counter, and his hand comes back with a book, clothbound cover the color of antique ivory, title and author stamped in faded gold and art deco letters. Best Ghost Stories by Algernon Blackwood, and she lifts it carefully off the countertop, picks it up the way someone else might lift a diamond necklace or a sick kitten, and opens the book to the frontispiece and title page, black-and-white photo of the author in a dapper suit, sadkind eyes and his bow tie just a little crooked. ~ Caitlin R. Kiernan

Normal is a bitter pill that we rail against. ~ Caitlin R. Kiernan

I'm not sure why he's flustered until I realize there are now five of us and the table is set for four.
Pru waves her hand dismissively. "Don't bother. The dark-haired one is just my bodyguard. He can stand."
Kiernan seems entirely unfazed by the comment, but her tone pisses me off. ~ Rysa Walker

On the Hunger Games Fan Race fail and the portrayal of POC in fantasy literature:
It is as if the POC in the text are walking around with a great big red sign over them for some editors and it reads I AM NOT A REAL CHARACTER. I AM A PROBLEM YOU MUST DEAL WITH. The white characters are permitted to saunter about with their physical descriptions hanging out all over the place, but best not make mention of dark skin or woolly/curly hair or dark eyes (Unless, of course, that character is white. None of my white-skinned dark-eyed characters had any problem being described as such. And I'm pretty sure that Sól's curly hair never gave anyone a single pause for thought.) As I said, I understand the desire not to define a POC simply by their physical attributes, and I understand cutting physical descriptions if no other character is described physically – but pussyfooting about in this manner with POC is doing nothing but white wash the characters themselves. It's already much too hard to get readers to latch onto the fact that some characters may not be caucasian, why must we dance about their physical description as if it were some kind of shameful dirty little secret. You know what it reminds me of? It reminds me of the way homosexuality used to only ever be hinted at in texts. It was up to the reader to 'read between the lines' or 'its there if you look for it' and all that total bullshit which used to be the norm. ~ Celine Kiernan

It is as though the human race is always only waiting for permission to hate. ~ Celine Kiernan

(on teaching writing)
So many writers come to class with one question dominant in their mind, 'How do I make a living from this?' It's a fair enough question and one I always try to answer well - but it saddens me that it so often overshadows the more relevant questions of 'why am I writing' and 'what am I saying' and 'how do I keep it honest. ~ Celine Kiernan

Chance takes a deep breath, fills her lungs with all the brightness getting in through the window, filling herself with that sane and ordinary air, with what she knows is real, reality to make her brave. ~ Caitlin R. Kiernan

The horse is dead," she says and squeezes Soldier's hand. "From here we walk."
"Anyone ever told you you're sort of a creepy kid?" Odd Willie asks.
"All the damn time," Emmie tells him. "I don't bother keeping count anymore. ~ Caitlin R. Kiernan

You take my breath. Did you know that?"
Matt bit his lip and shook his head.
Kiernan leaned back enough to look into his eyes. "You're a beautiful man, Matthew Bennett," he said, voice soft but intense as he stroked him more firmly. "And someone should tell you that, every day for the rest of your life. ~ Diana Copland

So what'd we miss?" Jade pulled a chair from the next table and wedged it between Kale and Dax.
"We were just about to vote you off the island," I said, stirring my coffee.
"You've got my vote," Kiernan said enthusiastically, glaring at Jade. ~ Jus Accardo

It is always Dark. Light only hides the Darkness. - DANIEL KIAN MC KIERNAN ~ Al Sarrantonio

I realize how arrogant it is to claim I can sort what is relevant from what is irrelevant. ~ Caitlin R. Kiernan

On the ghosts in Moorehawke & Into The Grey/Taken Away:
The ghosts ... are symbolic of those unresolved moments in history that linger, and affect the next generation. Sometimes this happens without that generation ever really knowing the truth of what has come before. This is so true of war, I think, where we are often only left the stories that the previous generation wanted us to hear ... How much harder would the truth be to deny were it lingering about as an actual manifestation of the past? ~ Celine Kiernan

My life had become one long cliffhanger ~ Celine Kiernan

Ghosts are those memories that are too strong to be forgotten for good, echoing across the years and refusing to be obliterated by time. ~ Caitlin R. Kiernan

Kiernan gives him a suspicious look. "You performed at the Expo?"
"Yes," Bess answers. "Along with his brother, Dash. They headlined as The Brothers Houdini on the Midway Plaisance."
"Really?" Kiernan shakes his head. "I was there as well. For the entire run. I knew every headliner on the Midway."
Houdini eyes shift slightly. "Well, we weren't exactly headliners, but yes, we did perform at the Fair. ~ Rysa Walker

And one day, if I see your smile on her face, maybe that'll keep me from feeling I've left a piece of my heart behind. ~ Rysa Walker

I pull my T-shirt over my face and am about to plunge in when it occurs to me that I'm approaching this, as Kiernan would say, far too linearly. ~ Rysa Walker

It's the last residue of our closeness with God, I reckon, the ability to see the wonder of things. ~ Celine Kiernan

I nearly miss it, given Tate's need for speed, but as we zip by the guy in the alley, I catch a brief glimpse of his face.
It's Kiernan. How did he get out before we did when he was behind us?
A few seconds after we pass, Kiernan darts out of the alley, but he can't keep up. Usain Bolt couldn't keep up with Tate. ~ Rysa Walker

There's always a siren, singing you to shipwreck. Some of us may be more susceptible than others are, but there's always a siren. It may be with us all our lives, or it may be many years or decades before we find it or it finds us. But when it does find us, if we're lucky we're Odysseus tied up to the ship's mast, hearing the song with perfect clarity, but ferried to safety by a crew whose ears have been plugged with beeswax. If we're not at all lucky, we're another sort of sailor stepping off the deck to drown in the sea. ~ Caitlin R. Kiernan

It is not the task of a writer to 'tell all,' or even to decide what to leave in, but to decide what to leave out. Whatever remains, that meager sum of this profane division, that's the bastard chimera we call a 'story.' I am not building, but cutting away. And all stories, whether advertised as truth or admitted falsehoods, are fictions, cleft from the objective facts by the aforementioned action of cutting away. A pound of flesh. A pile of sawdust. Discarded chips of Carrara marble. And what's left over.
Houses Under The Sea ~ Caitlin R. Kiernan

A phenomenon that might seem only backwards or silly when expressed at a social level becomes madness at the individual level. ~ Caitlin R. Kiernan

No strings attached," Constance said again. "Oh, there are always strings," I replied. "Whether we put them there or not. ~ Caitlin R. Kiernan

I shouldn't be this tired when I try to find my way back to the tree. I'll rest for a while, and I'll drift back down to the orchard, and the stone wall. I'll lie in my bed and wait. Someone has turned the ponies out again. ~ Caitlin R. Kiernan

YA heroines can have romances that are subplots: can have goals other than getting/keeping a man: can put their lovers second. JUST LIKE YAheroes DO! ~ Celine Kiernan

I felt his marital commitment more in that moment than I ever had before. It wasn't noisy or passionate. It was quiet, and patient, and slowly piecing itself back together. ~ Stephen P. Kiernan

There is no way to bring back what is lost, but maybe telling a tale of beauty is a form of mourning. ~ Stephen Kiernan

It turned out that between 1945 and 1947, 18 people were injected with plutonium, specifically: 11 at Rochester, New York, 3 at the University of Chicago, 3 at UC San Francisco, and 1, Ebb Cade, at Oak Ridge. Several thousand human radiation experiments were conducted between 1944 and 1974. In 1994, President Clinton appointed the Advisory Committee of Human Radiation Experiments (ACHRE) to investigate these and other experiments funded by the United States government. Their final report was published in 1996. ~ Denise Kiernan

Too often, it occurs to him that he's lived just long enough to have completely outlived the world that made sense to him, the world where he fit. He ~ Caitlin R. Kiernan

Brant."
Brant looked up and found himself facing Kiernan Kane. He frowned. "I thought I was asleep."
"You are."
"Then this is a dream?"
"It is a dream, yet it is not a dream."
Brant ground his teeth. "You annoy me even in my sleep, Minstrel. ~ Jenelle Leanne Schmidt

The manager rolls his eyes. "Sorry, miss, already picked my dozen - "
"So make it a baker's dozen," someone yells from the back.
"Bet she can't hit the bloody nail anyway. Give us somethin' to laugh at." That voice is clearly Kiernan's, and most of the men chuckle.
-
Kiernan comes back about ten minutes later and takes his seat. "Good work."
I snort. "Don't give me that. I heard you back there."
"Just seeding the crowd. A time-honored practice among showmen and politicians alike. ~ Rysa Walker

I don't like remembering the way that hurt her. Hurts her. I'm sure it still does; I'm just not around to see, and I don't like dwelling on that, either. That's only normal. Missing people you still love, and not wanting to see them in pain and angry and humiliated. ~ Caitlin R. Kiernan

Eva was only a slut. She never had the requisite motivation to be anything so useful or lucrative as a whore. ~ Caitlin R. Kiernan

Making a story from the messy thoughts and half-thoughts in her head, building a world and lives and taking them apart again, fitting the pieces together another way until it feels right, as right as she can make it feel. ~ Caitlin R. Kiernan

You're not so different from Kiernan anyway. You both have lived long enough to lose friends - too long, maybe. Perhaps that's why the Minstrel wears a mask and keeps people at arm's length: he too knows the pain of loving too much. ~ Jenelle Leanne Schmidt

I loved this place when I was a kid. I still love it, but when I was a kid I'd take the bus down here and spend all day long reading in this room. ~ Caitlin R. Kiernan

Her words, her jumbled, mad thoughts tamed or simply broken, made language, and she took another drag off the Lucky, exhaled, and read the last sentence aloud. ~ Caitlin R. Kiernan