Quotes from Sarah Zettel

I have to do more close research and fact checking for the science fiction. This is not however to say that writing good fantasy does not involve doing good research.

Mama took me in her arms and held me tight. Her embrace was hot and she smelled like sweat, dust, and grease, but I wanted her. I wanted to crawl inside her mind to find that place that let her smile and sing through the worst dust storms. If I had to be crazy, I wanted my mama's kind of crazy, because she was never afraid.

They were beautiful beyond words, beautiful beyond understanding. So beautiful, I wanted to tear out my heart and hand it over, because after seeing them, I surely wouldn't have any more use for it.

I wasn't used to looking ahead. Not like Jack. Maybe that was why he had that ready grin. I could see through the dust, but he could see through time, and he didn't even need magic to do it.

What's it like where they live?" "It's everything you want it to be.

Bullets sound like hornets when they pass too close to your head. After a while, the world closes down. You can't hear much, you can't see much, just the way ahead, the next slat, the next open gate. All you know is running; the only place that's real is away.

The man has more masks than a whole troupe of Italian players.

I wish I knew who I am," I whispered to the stars in Baya's eyes. Slowly, Baya shook his head. "Oh, Dust Girl, that's the hardest wish of all. Not even Baya can give you that one. That one you earn.

Sometimes it's not good for people to find out who you really are.

The true lady treats the whole world as her dance floor,

I'd been right about Jack Holland. He had the kind of face that could make you believe.

Now that you know the wishing ways, you'll feel the wishes around you. They'll make you itchy, 'cause you know you can do something about them, but that ain't always the best idea.

We're not in Fairyland! We're in Kansas!

I'd never have gotten this far without you," I said. Jack tipped his cap to me. My heart squirmed around to find a new position under my ribs. I closed the door fast before I could say something really stupid.

A gun is a terrible thing. It's a dark hole pointed at you, and that hole swallows up everything else in the world, your friends, your nerve, until there's nothing but you and what's waiting in that little round space of dark.

I thought maybe I could just get away from everything. But you can't get away from a thing that's your own fault.

The makers, the beautiful, the ones cast out because their light was too brilliant for the world beyond. The ones who wish true and deep with their whole hearts for more than they have. They come here, and we love them.

I reject the notion that we must tell girls that the only way to be valid human beings is to turn themselves into boys.

I reached for Jack's hand. It was cold. But then, so was mine.

There was a lot under those words. I'd go digging for it later.

This was Jonan's boat. She had helped Nan Seller dose his entire crew against the annual diarrhea outbreak known as the "winter runs

Sevarin had been dismissive about the chance of finding out anything useful from the cops, but when it came to getting information, I had an edge he didn't. Sevarin did not make a killer lasagne.

But art is supposed to enlighten, isn't it? Not just reflect? It's to show us the best of the present modeled in the best of the past.

We must be bold. Timidity will yield us nothing.