Quotes from Sharon Shinn

Amalie took his hand and spread it against her heart. Her smile was utterly tranquil. 'The world changes and the world stays the same', she told him, ... 'The old moon sets. New moon rises.

your gift is always whatever you have to offer.

The world is full of terrible lessons," he said.

Celeste leans close enough to whisper in my ear. "See? That red shirt is magic. He liked your boobs." "And here I thought it was my sparkling personality." "Boobs always make a personality more sparkling.

A truth that no one knows is still the truth.

Do you love me?" he asked. I fell silent. "For the rest of it is glitter and noise," he said. "At the heart of it all is love. You make that choice, and you go forward from there.

Sometimes we become what we see. Sometimes we take what we see and make it the model for what we refuse to become.

We cannot go backward. We cannot erase time and events. But we can go forward, hand in hand, hope in our hearts and love lighting our way.

Are you asking me if there is a god?' he said, still in that soft voice. 'All I can say is, I believe there is. I feel him when I sing. He has responded to my prayers countless times. He guides my actions and he dwells in my heart. I know he is there.

Everybody's afraid of love, because love is what hurts the most.

If there is no god, what is left but science? What is left to endow us with any grace? You can tell me the chemical makeup of my skin and my brain, but how can you explain away my soul? And if there is no god to watch over me, chastise me, grieve for me, rejoice for me, make me fear, and make me wonder, what am I but a collection of metals and liquids with nothing to celebrate about my daily living?

And you're not leaving," she said. "Promise me." It was as if she had asked him to promise to keep breathing, to notice sunshine, to permit the spinning of the earth. What choice did he have? Even if he left her, she would be camped in his heart, an insistent and willful presence. She would match her strides to his on any journey he ever took; she would lie beside him on any bed. Amalie, he said, "that's the easiest promise I've ever had to make.

A truth comes out when it must; A dream comes true when it will. Though the world turn to ash and dust A secret's a secret still.

If love makes you sad, you acquire a little depth, a little compassion. If it makes you happy, you learn how to be joyous. Every relationship should color your soul to a certain degree, don't you think? Every friendship, every love affair - each one should build up the chambers of your heart the way a sea creature builds the chamber of his shell.

I was Amazement--I was Desire--I was Ecstasy and Rapture and the slightest bit of Greed.

He leaned upon her as if there was no other support anywhere in the world, and she held him as if she would undertake no other task for all eternity.

Yes, Jenna, I love you with all my heart. And with my atoms and molecules and electrons and whatever further breakdown you require.

Love is a popular romantic notion that leads to nothing but its own brand of misery.

Only the strongest are put through the fire,' Josiah said. 'And the forge creates things of great strength and beauty.' 'Then I shall be truly glorious by the time my tenure ends.

My love for you is elemental and immutable, and it will sustain me until I die.

And if I should leave you, for any reason," he added, tightening his grip as she struggled to free her hand, "I will return to you. That is as certain as the sun rising tomorrow morning and the thunderbolt falling tomorrow night. That is as sure as the god's existence. I will come back to you, or I will find you - over and over again, as often as we are parted, until the end of the world itself.

You have not traveled enough," she said. "Or you'd know that every journey makes its own map across your heart.

So do I wish I was to be king? That is not a question I ask myself. I ask myself, Would I be a good king? Would I be quick witted and generous of spirit and full of that boundless energy? Or would I be clumsy and stupid and dulled by my own prejudices? I try to be a good man, since I am alive at all, and hope that that teaches me what I would need to know if I was ever faced with a higher challenge.

But I am king. And the well-being of my kingdom depends on my sound judgment and clear head. And those things depend on my state of happiness. And I have known for a long time that my state of happiness depends on you.