Quotes from Robin McKinley

I don't know where to begin." "Begin in the middle and work outwards," said Hope. "Don't be stuffy.

It's funny, because I had thought, living through those first two months after the night at the lake, that the great crisis was about What I Was or Who I'd Become or What Terrible Thing Was Wrong With Me (and About to Go Wronger) and Why All Was Changed As a Result. But I was still struggling against the idea that all *was* changed.

Poor Mom. At least she was trying. I realized that I was grateful for the useless tangle, even if it was useless. Because she was doing something. She hadn't averted her eyes from the fact that I needed help. She merely had no clue how much help, or what kind.

who could scarcely remember to put one foot in front of the other when she walked; with the sudden, brutal urgency of a long and terrible wait ended.

I don't even know your name." He smiled. "I'm afraid I no longer remember it. You will have to name me. Come; introduce me to your family. I am looking forward to meeting them.

favorite comfort book since under-the-covers-with-flashlight reading at the age of eleven or twelve)

It was blissful, spending time with someone who would leave you alone. I loved him for it. And I was happy to repay in kind.

Evil is a kind of oblivion, having destroyed everything on its way there.

I was not frightened, but I was ashamed. "I'm sorry," I said. The claws retreated, and his arm dropped. "Don't be," he said. "I don't mind telling you." He looked at me. "But perhaps you mind being told.

Their delight in each other after they became the sort of lovers that minstrels make ballads about (although it was certainly unpoetic of them to be married to each other) was so apparent that it spilled over into their dealings with their people; and the court became a more joyful place than it had been for many a long royal generation.

Oh, big surprise. Something wasn't going to be easy. I tried to rouse myself, to react. I failed.

No one, mortal, immortal, or creatures beyond the knowledge of either, can belong to two worlds.

I didn't feel like reading: I didn't feel like looking at other people's imaginary lives in flat black and white from out here in my only too unimaginably life.

He was a very useful bird, because he gave Grace and Hope and me something weaker than ourselves to worry over; and he sang as though he appreciated it.

And then there's this strange vast serenity that seems to come from the fact that he doesn't feel he has to prove anything.

I have a new theory about algebra, I said. I'm going to learn it by osmosis.

I disliked promises on principle because my conscience made me keep them.

It's not silly at all. The insides of our own minds are the scariest things there are." Scarier than vampires?

he followed me with his eyes as if I wore a black hood and carried an axe, and he was next in line.

For I have been often wrong, and whilst the training of the Church has taught me to admit it, somehow I have never learnt not to be wrong in the first place.

How to tell a story—how to make it go on and on to fill the time—how to get interested in it yourself so it would be interesting to your listeners, or listener—all that came back to me

Fairy godmothers?" said the king dubiously. "We'll have a time getting that past the court council — and the bishop.

She was unambiguously herself.

Fun?" She said, exasperated. "Your attitude is perhaps a little unnecessarily vigorous," suggested Jack.