Quotes from Libba Bray

I thought research would be more glamorous, somehow. I'd give the librarian a secret code word and he'd give me the one book I needed and whisper the necessary page numbers. Like a speakeasy. With books.

But...you could have whatever you wished. Exactly, he says, nuzzling my neck. But, I say, you could turn stones to rubies or ride in a fine gentleman's carriage. Kartik puts his hands on either side of my face. To each his own magic, he says and kisses me again.

Because 'You're perfect just the way you are,' is what your guidance counselor says. And she's an alcoholic.

I hear they feed you in Sing Sing," Evie muttered. "Three squares a day." "Evangeline," Will said with a sigh. "Charity begins at home." "So does mental illness.

You can't blame a fella for kissing the prettiest girl in New York, can you, sister?" Sam's grin was anything but apologetic. Evie brought up her knee quickly and decisively, and he dropped to the floor like a grain sack. "You can't blame a girl for her quick reflexes now, can you, pal?

Any librarian or scholar will tell you: Close is not the same as accurate.

Weren't you wearing a purity ring when we got here? Aren't you supposed to be saving yourself? Shanti asked. Yeah, Mary Lou answered. And then I thought, for what? You save leftovers. My sex is not a leftover, and it is not a Christmas present.

Did God ever cry over his lost angel, I wonder?

Naughty John, Naughty John, does his work with his apron on. Cuts your throat and takes your bones, sells 'em off for a coupla stones.

The dark does not weep for itself because there is no light. Rather, it accepts that it is the dark.

I'm just saying it's not all sand castles and ninjas.

Oh, I've a love, a true, true love, who waits upon yon shore... and if my love won't be my love, then I will live no more...

To each his own magic.

I'm a wild girl from a cursed line of women. I paw at the ground and run under the moon. I like the feel of my own body. I'm not a slut or a nympho or someone who's just asking for it. And if I talk too loud it's just that I'm trying to be heard.

I fear I will always have to chase the things I want. I'll always have to wonder whether I'm truly wanted or whether I've just been settled for.

Evie replied with an eye-roll. "Do you think you can manage to not steal anything while I'm gone?" "The only thing I'm trying to steal is your heart, doll." Sam smirked. "You're not that talented a thief, Sam Lloyd.

I refuse to let the past find me here.

You want to know what pain is? Try running out of Advil when you've got a Category Five period. I've had cramps that would make grown men beg for a bullet between the eyes. - Jennifer, Beauty Queens

How terrible it is to have no cares, no longings. I do not fit. I feel too deeply and want too much. As cages go, it is a gilded one, but I shall not live well in it or any cage, for that matter.

Eve didn't choose to eat the apple. She was tempted by the serpent. Yes, I argue, thoughts coming out half-formed. But...she didn't have to take a bite. She chose to.

I'm an oddity of one, my strangeness too complicated to explain or share.

We are a country built by immigrants, dreams, daring, and opportunity. We are a country built by the horrors of slavery and genocide, the injustice of racism and exclusion. These realities exist side by side. It is our past and our present. The future is unwritten. This is a book about ghosts. For we live in a haunted house.

Because you can't keep up the illusion forever, I say. No one has that much magic.

I'm sorry,' he says simply. 'People make mistakes, Gemma. We take the wrong action for the right reasons, and the right action for the wrong reasons.