Xiaohui Lu Quotes

Heart thumped from ~ Marie Lu

I keep my eyes closed as tightly as I can, but in my mind, everyone in the square looks like my father and they all have his voice. I hate you all. I imagine my hands at their throats, choking, silencing them, one by one. ~ Marie Lu

I have never known the mind of a wolf hunting a deer, but I imagine it must feel a little like this. The twisted excitement of seeing the weak and wounded cowering before you. The knowledge that, in this instant, you have the power to end its life or grant it mercy. In this moment, I am a god. ~ Marie Lu

If I've learned anything from my past and my present, it's the power of fear. You can give your subjects all the generosity in the world, and still they will demand more. But those who are afraid don't fight back. I know this well enough. ~ Marie Lu

What do you have in mind?" I put my hands in my pockets and put my arrogant mask back on. "What I've always been good at. ~ Marie Lu

The first cup moistens my lips and throat; The second cup breaks my loneliness; The third cup searches my barren entrail but to find therein some thousand volumes of odd ideographs; The fourth cup raises a slight perspiration-all the wrongs of life pass out through my pores; At the fifth cup I am purified; The sixth cup calls me to the realms of the immortals. The seventh cup-ah, but I could take no more! I only feel the breath of the cool wind that raises in my sleeves. Where is Elysium? Let me ride on this sweet breeze and waft away thither. ~ Lu Tong

Gratitude is the foundation of compassion. ~ Master Jun Hong Lu

Hideo wants me off the official games and the hunt. Zero has warned me to stay away. But I've never been good at following instructions. I'm a bounty hunter. And if my bounty's still out there somewhere, I have to finish this. ~ Marie Lu

I hereby pledge to serve the Dagger Society, to strike fear into the hearts of those who rule Kenettra, to take by death what belong to us, and to make the power of our Elites known to every man, woman, and child. Should I break my vow, let the dagger take from me what I took from the dagger. ~ Marie Lu

Dreams are the wanderings of the spirit though all nine heavens and all nine earths. ~ Lu Yen-hsun

His gaze lingers on me for a beat longer. "Have you eaten yet?"
Is he asking me to dinner? "No," I say, trying to stay casual.
He takes a dark gray peacoat off the back of a chair and pulls it on. Then he tilts his head over toward the door. "Join me. ~ Marie Lu

She smiled sadly and recited a saying: "When the guest leaves, the tea will soon get cold." I said my cup of tea would never get cold. Lu ~ Anchee Min

Everyone has, at one time or another, experienced trauma related to family, children or business. This, in fact, represents a kind of maturity. Every trauma that you have experienced reminds you that nothing in this world is perfect or permanent. ~ Master Jun Hong Lu

Imagine an iron house without windows, absolutely indestructible, with many people fast asleep inside who will soon die of suffocation. But you know since they will die in their sleep, they will not feel the pain of death. Now if you cry aloud to wake a few of the lighter sleepers, making those unfortunate few suffer the agony of irrevocable death, do you think you are doing them a good turn? ~ Lu Xun

In general, I write for ages 12 and up - although I've received emails from readers between the ages of seven and seventy. My books are science fiction. ~ Marie Lu

We determine whether a book is for boys or girls long before the reader gets a chance to decide: we package them with soldiers and ballet slippers on their covers, war machines and glittering gowns. ~ Marie Lu

They tell me that you have been crying in your sleep. Do not grieve our separation, my love, for our reunion will come just as swiftly.
-Letter from unknown prisoner, convicted of treason, to fiancee ~ Marie Lu

I've always had this interest in sibling relationships because I don't have any siblings. I'm completely a product of the one-child policy in China, so I always kind of wished that I had an older brother or a younger brother or sister just to have that bond, so I find myself constantly writing about that relationship. ~ Marie Lu

That's why I'm sorry. I'm sorry because you shouldn't have to be everything to me. I had you, but I'd forgotten that I had myself too. It's a new feeling, something I'm getting used to. ~ Marie Lu

Having a mind that cannot stay quiet, I've never been able to meditate without going stir-crazy. But give me a ball of dough and the not-so-distant dream of a piping hot cherry tart with a beautiful lattice-weave top and a generous sprinkling of confectioners sugar, and a feeling of serenity washes over me. My mind instantly hushes. ~ Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan

He tells you to play, so you play. He tells you to curtsy, so you curtsy. He tells what you are meant to do and what you are meant not to do, so you do and you dono do. He tells you not to be angry, so you smile, you turn your eyes down, you are quiet and do exactly as he says in the hopes that this is what he wants, and then one night you realize that you have given him so much of yourself that you are nothing but the curtsy and the smile and the quiet. That you are nothing. ~ Marie Lu

I laugh with him. I imagine mixing poison into his tea, then watching his face turn purple and anguished; I picture myself leaning over him, looking on patiently, with my chin resting in my hands, admiring his dying, writhing body as I count out the minutes. ~ Marie Lu

Enzo inherited a throne. Giulietta relied on her royal blood. Queen Maeve rules Beldain because she was born to it.
But true rulers are not born. We are made. ~ Marie Lu

John glances at me. "We're not going to make it." Between us, Day has faded into a semiconscious state. If the brothers continue on and I run back to fight the soldiers, I'll probably only take down a few before they overwhelm me. They'll still reach John and Day.
John stops walking, and I feel Day's weight shift over to me. "What - " I begin to say, until I see John pull the blindfold off of Day's neck. Then he turns around. My eyes widen. I know what he's going to do. "No, stay with us!"
"You need more time," John says. "They want an execution? They'll get one." He starts running away from us. Back down the hall. ~ Marie Lu

Even the illusion of June is enough to send a stabbing pain through my chest. Hell. I miss her so much. ~ Marie Lu

Keep at it, Junebug - someday, you'll shake the Republic to its very core. You'll be absolutely unforgettable. I know it. ~ Marie Lu

I saw her, once.

"She passed through our village, through fields littered with dead soldiers after her forces overwhelmed the nation of Dumor. Her other Elites followed and then rows of white-robed Inquisitors, wielding the white-and-silver banners of the White Wolf. Where they went, the sky dimmed and the ground cracked - the clouds gathered behind the army as if a creature alive, black and churning in fury. As if the goddess of Death herself had come.

"She paused to look down at one of our dying soldiers. He trembled on the ground, but his eyes stayed on her. He spat something at her. She only stared back at him. I don't know what he saw in her expression, but his muscles tightened, his legs pushing against the dirt as he tried in vain to get away from her. Then the man started to scream. It is a sound I shall never forget as long as I live. She nodded to her Rainmaker, and he descended from his horse to plunge a sword through the dying soldier. Her face did not change at all. She simply rode on.

"I never saw her again. But even now, as an old man, I remember her as clearly as if she were standing before me. She was ice personified. There was once a time when darkness shrouded the world, and the darkness had a queen."

- A witness's account of Queen Adelina's siege on the nation of Dumor

The Village of Pon-de-Terre

28 Marzien, 1402 ~ Marie Lu

Walk in the light. ~ Marie Lu

The only way out is death. ~ Marie Lu

You drive me insane June. You're the scariest, most clever, bravest person I know, and sometimes I can't catch my breath because I'm trying so hard to keep up. There will never be another like you. You realize that, don't you? Billions of people will come and go in this world, but there will never be another like you. ~ Marie Lu

Tess," I say. "I'm going to head down to the water.I'll be back in a minute."
"You sure you can make it by yourself?" she asks.
"I'll be fine." I smile. "If you see me floating unconscious out to sea,though-by all means,come and get me. ~ Marie Lu

I entreat fresh visions from the painters. Be lavish with your vermilion to portray the mountains in the spring. ~ Lu Xun

And, er, these stories about you..."

"Oh, all true. Most of them. A bit of exaggeration, but mostly true."

"The one about the Citadel in Muntab and the Pash and the fish bone?"

"Oh, yes."

"But how did you get in where half a dozen armed and trained men couldn't even - ?"

"I am a little man and I carry a broom," said Lu-Tze simply. "Everyone has some mess that needs clearing up. What harm is a man with a broom?"

"What? And that was it?"

"Well, the rest was a matter of cookery, really. The Pash was not a good man, but he was a glutton for his fish pie."

"No martial arts?" said Lobsang.

"Oh, always a last resort. History needs shepherds, not butchers."

"Do you know okidoki?"

"Just a lot of bunny-hops."

"Shittake?"

"If I wanted to thrust my hand into hot sand I would go to the seaside."

"Upsidazi?"

"A waste of good bricks."

"No kando?"

"You made that one up. ~ Terry Pratchett

Money is the most important thing in the world, you know. Money can buy you happiness, and I don't care what anyone else thinks. It'll buy you relief, status, friends, safety ... all sorts of things. ~ Marie Lu

Medicine. The minutes drag on. I tuck my slingshot away and play a few rounds of Rock, Paper, Scissors with Tess. (I don't know why, but she's crazy good at this game.) ~ Marie Lu

I pat Eden's head. I'll be right back okay? Stay on the bench. Don't go anywhere. If someone tries to make you move, you scream. Got it? ~ Marie Lu

Even after all this time, I hope. ~ Marie Lu

Though science has given us many marvels, it has also spoiled many of our pleasant dreams. ~ Lu Xun

We were never meant to exist, Adelina," he says. "And we will never exist again. But we cannot take the entire world with us." He meets my gaze. "No matter how it has wronged us. ~ Marie Lu

Once upon a winter I met a man in the woods The man beckoned me over To see a satchel of goods He offered three wishes I asked for beauty, love, riches And he froze me in stone where I stood. - "The Greedy Ghost of Cypress Pass," common folk song ~ Marie Lu

This is the part that Anden doesn't understand as well as I do, even if he knows Day's past on paper - he still doesn't know Day, hasn't traveled with him and witnessed the suffering he's gone through. ~ Marie Lu

It's the duty of a Republic soldier to be loyal to the end, and I'm still a soldier. I will be one until I die. ~ Marie Lu

Forever and ever, kid, until you're sick and tired of seeing me. ~ Marie Lu

After she was gone, I sheathed her sword at my belt, draped her cloak over my shoulders, carried her heart in my arms, and, somehow, went on. ~ Marie Lu

To be without method is deplorable, but to depend entirely on method is worse. ~ Chai Lu

I am not interested in immortality but only in tea flavour. ~ Lu Tong