Quotes from Nancy Springer

The only way for me to be safe and free was to be - be what my name decreed me. Enola. Alone.

in the secret code of flowers, a rose of any sort signifies love.

the greatest harm I could possibly suffer would be to lose my liberty, to be forced into a conventional life of domestic duties and matrimony.

Three mysteries are grasped by no man: The mistletoe green between earth and sky, The sadness in a maiden's smile, The runes shaped by the changing moon.

And I ought to stop dreaming about it and start doing it. Right now.

Stop it,' he whispered. Hid lidded eyes winced. His hands faltered up to cover his face. Dusty did not stop. 'If I'd known you-if I'd known you when you were alive, I think I would have loved you, too.' Dusty, please stop.' He could barely speak. I think I do love you.' Her voice had dropped to a whisper, because it was a truth like a silver sword. 'I think I do. I cry, too.

If any decent woman's calling consisted of taking her proper place in society (husband and house, plus voice lessons and a piano in the drawing-room), then this particular woman-to-be prefers to remain indecent.

Nothing last forever except change

In the blue sky overhead, larks sang like my heart.

Grinning with delight even as my heart ached—a familiar bittersweet feeling, that of enjoying affection from afar—I watched until they all went inside, the cab and the barouche drove away, and it became apparent that the moment of drama was over.

My dear sister... His dear sister. Those words - how oddly they affected me

I think," he says at last, "that it is a great pity she will not trust in me.

We bastards are not to blame for any of it.

To S.H. & M.H.: Rot. E.H.

Sorrow will turn to stone unless you weep. I thought it would come before this. Weep it out.

Thread and cloth were ordinary – worse than ordinary; they were women's affairs. But letters! Letters were for lords and kings. And something in me blazed fiery jealous and joyous at the thought: Why ever should they have what I did not?

Death is a grisly King; Fate is his bride. Now quaintly I've chosen To serve at their table, To dance at their wedding…

To be a man, apparently, was to lack the ability to be a woman.

Etty saw Rowan, daughter of Robin Hood, lifting her green kirtle, her brown braid lashing like a wildcat's tail as she tried to run.