Shannon Hale

“...first thing is that I love you. And the second thing is that as much as I honor your former profession, I don’t think your geese care much for your betrothed and I hope they hadn’t any plans on sharing our bed.”

“I’m sorry, my lady,” said Geric, rubbing his arm. “But I failed to force an apology out of the offending goose.”

“I was sorry to lose it, and if you make me another one, I promise not to get taken captive by bandits and have to use it to save my life.”

“Will you accompany me in this dance?” he said, bowing and holding out his hand. “No, thank you.” Miri smiled. The prince frowned and looked and the chief delegate as if for assistance. Miri laughed self consciously. “I, uh, I was teasing.”

“Gerti didn’t ask for help.” Miri swallowed and tried to calm her quavering voice. “It was my fault.” “So it was. Now you all have learned that those who speak out of turn choose punishment for themselves and anyone they speak to.” “So if I speak to you, Tutor Olana, will you get the lashes?”

“Tegus, I'm leaving this book behind for you, so you will know the why of it all, and maybe you'll forgive me, or maybe you'll think me false and reprehensible. You'd be justified. I couldn't stand the thought of your reading all my words unless I knew for certain that I'd never have to face you again, so please don't look for me. If you read the book in its entirety, you'll know for truth who is Lady Saren. And I guess you'll also know that I'm a silly girl who writes down every word you said to me.”

“... until Miri could not help it any longer and she laughed out loud.The sound broke the game. Peder looked at her. He reached out, and she thought he meant to grab her straw or perhaps yank her hair as he used to when they were little. But her put his hand behind her head and, leaning forward, pulled her face to his. He kissed her. One long, slow kiss.”

“For one thing, everyone there is so clever. Do they think me dull?Perhaps I should assure them that our goats enjoyed listening to me for hours on end. I am certain their bleats meant "Do go on, Miri, darling. You are immensely entertaining."Your immensely entertaining sister,Miri”

“I am not sure I am ready to know what I think about that, so I dare not write it out.”

“Some postdivorce statistics:* James saw the children 75 percent less than before.* He missed 85 percent of their afterschool woes.* He was absent for 99 percent of their family dinners.Screw statistics. ONe hundred percent of Charlotte's marriage had ended in divorce, and for her, that was the only number that meant anything at all.”

“Even the jerks earn some of our affection. We can be glad they're gone and yet still mourn the good parts.”

“... fantasy is not practice for what is real—fantasy is the opiate of women.”

“I'm not hopeless, that's the problem. I'm too hopeful, if anything ... I'm so thick-headed it's taken me this long to give up on men, but I can't give up completely, you know? So I ... I channel all my hope into an idea, to someone who can't reject me because he isn't real!”

“Make haste” Jane added, just because she always wanted to say that.”

“I know they are naught things, but I devour novels.” (p. 57).”

“Sometimes ..." Miss Charming's voice dropped lower, and she looked Charlotte in the eye. "Sometimes my boobs kill." Charlotte's eyes wideened, her mouth agape. It wasn't until Miss Charming followed her shocking statement by rubbing her chest in discomfort that Charlotte realized " my boobs kill" meant "my boobs ache" rather than " my boobs fatally maim people." It was a natural mistake to make. After all they really were large enough to suffocate a grown man.”

“Mr. Nobley: "Then I must stay?"Miss Erstwhile: "Unless you want to risk me accusing you of ungentleman-like behavior at dinner, yes, I think you should stay. If I spend too much time alone today, I'm in real danger of doing a convincing impersonation of the madwoman in the attic." Mr. Nobley: He raised an eyebrow. "And how would that be different from-"Miss Esrtwhile: "Sit down Mr. Nobely", she said.”

“Finn, do you see the lias—whatever, the orange-haired girl?” Razo Gestured ahead. “Do you think she’s pretty?”Finn glanced Dasha’s way, then returned his attention ot his horse. “She’s all right.”“Really? Just all right?”Finn shrugged.Razo rolled his eyes. “What am I saying? He doesn’t think any girl is pretty but Enna.”“Are there any girls but Enna?” Finn called back.“There’d better be.”

“She felt really alone now. But here's the thing- suddenly she felt as though she belonged inside the aloneness, and that feeling made her whisper aloud, "I never have before. I've never felt at home with myself.”

“No, she wasn't going to go to Martin's, curse him, but she wasn't going to run back to her room either, if just to spite Mr. Nobley. The man deserved to be spited. Or spitted. Or both.”

“Charlotte wondered if she would have recognized the crazy much earlier if he looked more like Steve Buscemi then Mr. Medieval Hotness.”

“Look no farther than your hand,Make a choice and take a stand.”

“Finn always called it Enna's Stream. He tended to refer to most anything as belonging to her--Enna's Meadow, Enna's Mountain. When he referred to Yasid as Enna's Kingdom, she said, "Isn't that your heart?"Finn smiled and kissed her hand. Isi rolled her eyes."Oh you two are impossible."Enna laughed. "This coming from the girl who calls her husband 'sweet little bunny boy'?"Isi blushed. "That was just once.”

“No chance she'd allow any man to see her naked besides the one who'd gotten her pregnant four times. You broke it, you bought it, baby.”

“You'd eat a plate, and call it pleasantly crunchy.”

“Her smile was peculiar - it made her nose wrinkle, not as though she smelled something unpleasant, but more that she was so amused, her whole face wanted to be a part of the smile.”

“I couldn’t remember the last time I had stayed up into the squeaky hours of the night because I couldn’t put a book down, and that was a tragedy.”

“Come on, she willed through the care window. Come on, change me. I dare you.”

“Miss Hayes, have you stopped to consider that you might have this all backward? That in fact you are my fantasy?”

“Time is a wind that keeps blowing in my face and mumbling words that don't make sense.”

“Some people are born with the first word of a language resting on their tongue though it may take some time before they can taste it.”

“It doesn't seem to matter what we think...The prince will come up here and look at us as if we're barrels in a trader's wagon. And if I'm salt pork and he doesn't care for salt pork, then there's nothing I can do.”

“We know it's all just daydreaming... But sometimes, it'd be nice just to hold something real in your hands that felt like a measure of your worth.”

“There's nothing more aggravating in the world than the midnight sniffling of the person you've decided to hate.”

“The rewrites are a struggle right now. Sometimes I wish writing a book could just be easy for me at last. But when I think about it practically, I am glad it's a struggle. I am (as usual) attempting to write a book that's too hard for me. I'm telling a story I'm not smart enough to tell. The risk of failure is huge. But I prefer it this way. I'm forced to learn, forced to smarten myself up, forced to wrestle. And if it works, then I'll have written something that is better than I am.”

“I'll be lucky if I can do as well as you when all this's done, just a bit out of breath, a bit bruised and scratched, a bit wiser and sadder for it all.”

“Guilt is the hyena that'll lunge from behind and hamstring you.”

“And new, too. Remade. Ready to move again. Listening was the start, she decided. Doing was the next step.”

“I wonder if everyone who faces death hurts like this. It's as though for the first time I realize how much just being alive makes my body ache. But I don't want that ache to stop.”

“Oh, but I like my geese. Like cats, they can't be told what to do, and like dogs, they're loyal, and like people, they talk every chance they get.”

“Why was the judgement of the disapproving so valuable? Who said that their good opinions tended to be any more rational than those of generally pleasant people?”

“Why was the judgment of the disapproving so valuable? Who said that their good opinions tended to be any more rational than those of generally pleasant people?”

“Sometimes one does not mean to fall in love. Sometimes it just happens”

“She knew it! Charlotte just knew it! And now her daughter was boyfriend-less! Yes! Wait-no! Oh no, poor Lu.”

“Rock Canyon OB-GYN: We're GYNO-MITE!”

“The woman gestured to a seat and put on a patient face. An impatient sort of patient face, like an impatient face dressing up as a patient one for Halloween.”

“A heart is a heart in a child or a man.”

“Well do I remember the first night we met, how you questioned my opinion that first impressions are perfect. You were right to do so, of course, but even then I suspected what I've come to believe most passionately these past weeks: from that first moment, I knew you were a dangerous woman, and I was in great peril of falling in love."She thought she should say something witty here. She said, "Really?”

“I think you just complimented me," said Jane. "You should take better care next time."The music had started, the couples had begun a promenade, but Mr. Nobley paused to hold Jane's arm and whisper, "Jane Erstwhile, if I never had to speak with another human being but you, I would die a happy man. I would that these people, the music, the food and foolishness all disappeared and left us alone. I would never tire of looking at you or listening to you." He took a breath. "There. That compliment was on purpose. I swear I will never idly compliment you again."Jane's mouth was dry. All she could think to say was, "But... but surely you wouldn't banish all the food."He considered, then nodded once. "Right. We will keep the food. We will have a picnic."And he spun her into the middle of the dance.”

“Figure out what is real for you. No use leaning on someone else's story all your life.”