Quotes from Rachel Hartman

I cannot perch among those who think I am broken. "The thing is, Mother, you weren't broken," I muttered, as if she were standing right next to me. "I am. And it was you who made me this way." Inside my head, the [memory] box twitched like a thing alive.

The twin gods, Necessity and Chance, walked among the stars. What needed to be, was; what might be, sometimes was." I

What do you call someone who thinks deeply and can't stop talking about it?" "A priest?" said Tess, mystified. "A philosopher?

But I've been called: I've got to go. You know what that's like. You answered the call of your boots.' 'That was a joke!' said Tess, unexpectedly offended.

Since we're being literal now, have you felt clear and sensible at other times during your travels?' The question startled Tess into thinking. 'While turning hay. Swimming in the river, crawling through caves… once I was lying under a cattle guard, eating bread, and the sky was blue and there was a bee—' She cut off, embarrassed. It was hard to explain about the bee.

Playing flute was the one thing I knew could make people see a human, not a monster.

I hate this plan!" the surveyor was shouting. "The road was perfectly straight. This is a pimple in the face of my road!" "Get out your equipment and mark us a perfect semicircle," said Arnando, cool as morning dew. "Make the best of it, you geometrical tyrant.

We would plan and negotiate and build our own way forward

Thus ended Tess's short career in herpevangelism.

I reject 'poor' as the artificial creation of humans. Hunger exists, though, and a hungry creature is entitled to eat.

She couldn't explain it except with the word: there . She was there. Present in herself. She wasn't always, so it was worth remarking upon.

The future would come, full of war and uncertainty, but I would not be facing it alone. I had love and work, friends and a people. I had a place to stand.

Here there was no monster greater than the ragged mountains.

There is no pain - free path, sweet girl. Choosing is what makes like bearable.

My companions ate the bear. I found I had no appetite.

That was basic hound logic, learned from Faffy: if you ran, you were prey.

walk on, yes, but don't walk past people who need you. Uncurl yourself so you can see them and respond.

We would be going to war for peace.

Some sober part of my brain seemed to observe everything I did, clucking disdainfully, informing me that ought to be embarrassed, yet making no move

was good to see a dragon's teeth. A dragon with his mouth closed was far more likely to be working up a flame. That seemed completely obvious.

world inside myself is vaster and richer than this paltry plane, peopled with mere galaxies and gods,

This is our lot. Is that what your getting at? And one must choose to walk on, rather that petulantly sitting on one's rump and pouting?

It was a place that wasn't a place, an inside that surrounded the outside.

Around us the darkness hovered tenderly. We passed through it.