Quotes from Libba Bray

I am no longer content to be the scared, obedient schoolgirl. Who are you, a stranger, to tell me what I can and cannot do?

I know it. I know I shall make beastly mistakes, Father- The world does not forgive mistakes so quickly, my girl. He sounds bitter and sad. If the world will not forgive me, I say softly, I shall have to learn to forgive myself. He nods in understanding. And how will you marry? Or do you intend to marry? I think of Kartik, and tears threaten. I shall meet someone one day, as Mother found you.

My personal motto is: WWWWD?: What Would Wonder Woman Do?

I can be whatever. You can be whatever. We can be whatever. Whatever, together.

A place to keep all your secrets

It isn't that we do what we want. It's that we're allowed to want at all.

When I dream, I dream of him.

It is a giggle full of high spirits and merry mischief, proof that we never lose our girlish selves, no matter what sort of women we become.

I know because I read. Might I suggest you try it?

Hold up. How do you accidentally have sex with somebody?" Adina scoffed. "Is she all, 'Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't see your penis there'?

Every city is a ghost. New buildings rise upon the bones of the old so that each shiny steel bean, each tower of brick carries within it the memories of what has gone before, an architectural haunting. Sometimes you can catch a glimpse of these former incarnations in the awkward angle of a street or filigreed gate, an old oak door peeking out from a new facade, the plaque commemorating the spot that was once a battleground, which became a saloon and is now a park.

My platform's called Don't Even Think About It. I go to schools and I say, 'Whatever bad thing it is you're thinking of doing, don't even think about it. 'Cause I can see into your soul, and I will hide in your closet and come for you in the night, and the last sound you ever hear will be my sharp teeth popping through the flesh of my gums, ready to eat you.' Their eyes get all big. It's awesome. I love little kids, man. They're the cutest

You can't believe how bleeding scary the sea is! There's, like, whales and storms and shit! They don't bloody tell you that!

He said to tell you to remember your heart in all things, that it is where your honor and your destiny will be found. Does it mean anything to you?' It is something he would say from time to time-that the eye could be misled, but that the heart was true.

Sometimes your place is not something you find, but something you have when you need it.

Evie didn't mind yelling, but she hated feeling judged. It got under her skin and made her feel small and ugly and unfixable.

I hate this place," Tiara whimpered. "It's super creepy. Like a haunted Chuck E. Cheese's where the games all want to kill you and you never get your pizza.

What kind of person doesn't let you have gummi bears?

Cash or check?" he said cheekily. Even the dullest Ohio girls knew that bit of lingo: Kiss now or kiss later? "Bank's closed, pal.

In books, the truth makes everything good and fine. The good prevail. The wicked are punished. There is happiness. But it's not like that really, is it? No, I say. I suppose it only makes everything known.

There was such fear in the world. But love was everywhere if you looked. It was the best thing about humans. That they could stare into the abyss and still open up their hearts. A spit in the eye to fear.

Pippa's laugh is bitter, tinged with tears. 'Ha! Why do girls think being beautiful will solve every problem? Being beautiful just creates problems. It's a misery. I wish I were someone else.

Or perhaps it is some combination of spirit and desire, love and hope, some alchemy that we each possess and can put to use, if we first know where to look without flinching.

Sometimes I see things, I think. Out of the corner of my eye, taunting me, and then it's gone. And dreams. Such horrible dreams. What if something terrible happened to me? What if I am damaged? The rain is a cool kiss on my sleeve as I link my arm with hers. We're all damaged somehow.