Shannon Hale

“I couldn't see what was real until time had washed away everything else.”

“Don't beat yourself up," said Charlotte. "True love can be so easily mistaken for other things-friendship, humane concern, indigestion...”

“Over there!" "Where?" Enna asked in mock panic "Do you see something?”

“I'm going to find whoever is responsible for me sleeping out side with outside without pillows and kick them in the shins!-Enna”

“We found it!" Charlotte yelled, as they ran back through the house. "We found it, we found it!"Eddie, Mr. Mallery, and Colonel Andrews came from separate directions, converging in the front hall. Miss Charming was hopping up and down, her bosom nearly rising to slap her own forehead.”

“A few minutes later, Miss Charming gasped. But then, Miss Charming gasped a lot. She gasped when someone shut a door too loudly; she gasped when there were sausages for breakfast. She sometimes gasped and then coughed, as if she'd meant to cough from the beginning and gotten the two confused.”

“This was the part where Charlotte, heroine, remembered she was a twenty-first-century woman and a mother. This was Charlotte saying, Hell no!”

“But, how do you know if an ending is truly good for the characters unless you've traveled with them through every page?”

“It was a pleasure, Enna, Finn, tree rat.""Did she just call you tree rat?”

“Razo was sorely tempted to assert that all was true and he'd lost his horns and tail in a tragic childhood accident”

“You've been quiet lately...but it's not so much the quiet as something inside the quiet.”

“I heard a tale once,' said Isi, 'of the gifts of language. Do you know it? How in faraway places, there are people who can speak with birds or horses or rain, and some when they speak to other people have the unnatural power to persuade, their every word a kind of magic? Once in Ingridan I heard Sileph speak and wondered if he had not just walked out of that old tale.' Enna's skin tingled with an icy chill. Isi was trying to tell her something - Sileph had the gift of people-speaking. A dangerous gift, Isi had said once. When one with this gift speaks, it's not easy to resist the power of their persuasion. It's difficult not to adore them.”

“Contemplations on the bellyWhen pregnant with our first, Dean and I attended a child birth class. There were about 15 other couples, all 6-8 months pregnant, just like us. As an introduction, the teacher asked us to each share what had been our favorite part of pregnancy and least favorite part. I was surprised by how many of the men and women there couldn't name a favorite part. When it was my turn, I said, "My least favorite has been the nausea, and my favorite is the belly."We were sitting in the back of the room, so it was noticeable when several heads turned to get a look at me. Dean then spoke. "Yeah, my least favorite is that she was sick, and my favorite is the belly too."Now nearly every head turned to gander incredulously at the freaky couple who actually liked the belly. Dean and I laughed about it later, but we were sincere. The belly is cool. It is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World, an unmistakable sign of what's going on inside, the wigwam for our little squirmer, the mark of my undeniable superpower of baby-making. I loved the belly and its freaky awesomeness, and especially the flutters, kicks, and bumps from within.Twins belly is a whole new species. I marvel at the amazing uterus within and skin without with their unceasing ability to stretch (Reed Richards would be impressed). I still have great admiration for the belly, but I also fear it. Sometimes I wonder if I should build a shrine to it, light some incense, offer up gifts in an attempt both to honor it and avoid its wrath. It does seem more like a mythic monstrosity you'd be wise not to awaken than a bulbous appendage. It had NEEDS. It has DEMANDS. It will not be taken lightly (believe me, there's nothing light about it). I must give it its own throne, lying sideways atop a cushion, or it will CRUSH MY ORGANS. This belly is its own creature, is subject to different laws of growth and gravity. No, it's not a cute belly, not a benevolent belly. It would have tea with Fin Fang Foom; it would shake hands with Cthulhu. It's no wonder I'm so restless at night, having to sleep with one eye open. Nevertheless, I honor you, belly, and the work you do to protect and grow my two precious daughters inside. Truly, they must be even more powerful than you to keep you enslaved to their needs. It's quite clear that out of all of us, I'm certainly not the one in control. I am here to do your bidding, belly and babies. I am your humble servant.”

“Geric," she called.He turned back around."What kind of flowers were they?""I don't rightly know," he said. He made faltering gestures with his hands, forming their size and shape from the air. "They were yellow, and smallish, and had lots of petals.""Thank you," she said. "They were beautiful.”

“Uge, save me from the sauce of their loveyness-rasoForest Born”

“A heart's a heart, in a child or a man. You are tougher than you feel right now. Your roots are deep, your canopy's spread wide. You're going to show everyone what it means to be a king.”

“I'm the sheen on water, Rin thought. I'm a looking glass. I'm not real.”

“Soon the trees affected not only her mood but her understanding. Each year a trunk put on a new ring of growth, and within those rings she found the tree's own story. She listened to the scent of it, the feel, the sound, and her mind gave it words- soil, water, sap, light...and before, night and rain, dry and sun, wind and night...the drowsy stillness of leaves in a rainfall, the sparkling eagerness of leaves in the sun, and always the pulling up of the branches, the tugging down of the roots, the forever growing in tow directions, joing sky and soil, and a center to keep it strong...-Rin, Forest Born”

“For Colin Firth:You're a really great guy, but I'm married, so I think we should just be friends.”

“She closed the book and put her cheek against it. There was still an odor of a library on it, of dust, leather, binding glue, and old paper, one book carrying the smell of hundreds.”

“I don't know how you persist in being so stubborn-""It's a superpower. I was bitten by a radioactive mule.”

“A little snark, properly directed, can change the world.”

“He would never abandon her, never leave a gaping hole, and even if he died someday, he was preserved like a lab specimen from all the alcohol he imbibed, so he wouldn't look or act much different.”

“It was karma, it was kismet, it was magic. It doesn't matter how it happened, just that it did.”

“Isi, I’m trying to say that you’ve been… no, you’re so, you’re–” He stopped."You are,” he said. His hand found hers, and he held her finger tightly, as though he did not dare to do any more than hold her one hand, and look at her, and breathe deeply.”

“Ah, now, don't cry over lost years and forgetfulness. The tales tell what they can. The rest is for us to learn..”

“...Speaking of, I've been playing with the letters - Lovers In a Very Enlightened Regard.""LIVER. Good one.""Also, how about Life Invasion Via Exceptional Respect?""Life Invasion. Like it.""Or Lovelike Intensity Via Emotional Rapport.""Doesn't that spell OLIVER?”

“Though it's still not right. I have other best friends, and this is different. Besides, Mike is my absolute best friend.""Yeah, I was going to say..." Mike nodded..."That's right, honey. Felix, you're...something different.""Amen," Mike said."You're not like a good neighbor or a companion for Saturday shopping, and certainly not like my husband. But you are something more than what the word 'friend' can contain. Mike has my heart, completely, eternally, no second thoughts." She grabbed Mike's hand. "But you have my...say, my liver."Felix frowned, pondering that. "Livers are good. Positively essential, from what I remember of biology. And good eating, if the need arises. Very well. I will be your liver...”

“You're from where?""Lay'en. It's near Salt Lake City.""Spell that for me.""Um, that would be S-A-L-T-""No, the other one. The city you're from.""Oh. L-A-Y-T-O-N.""Ah-Lay-ton."That's what I said.""No you didn't. You just said, 'Lay'en.'""So I did. But just go ahead and pronounce 'aluminum' for me, Mr. British Man. How are you going to defend that piece of insanity? Why don't you spell it and count syllables and see if your al-um-in-ium makes sense whatsoever?"He bowed his head. "Touché...”

“Thank you," Becky whispered... "I wouldn't have survived that stool. It would have been 'Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.'"With rings on your fingers and bells on your toes even, " he said."Curious that meeting you is more nursery rhyme than fairy tale. If I see a farmer's wife with a butcher's knife, I'm running and not looking back.""And I'll have no nonsense from my dish and spoon.”

“How I keep trying to force our story into a fairy tale, but from the beginning, it's been more like a nursery rhyme.""Bizarre and adorable?""Just like you.""With rings in your pockets and bells on your toes""Ooh, I should really invest in some toes bells.”

“No wolf falters before the bite So strikeNo hawk wavers before the diveJust strike”

“Just like the old adage--what you dislike most in other people is what you dislike the most in yourself--”

“I'm not bossy - I just happen to be more capable than most everyone else.”

“In some ways, I don’t feel as if I had a choice. Looking back at my childhood, even before I could read and write, I was making up stories. I love reading and I love telling stories, and the times in my life when I’ve tried to ignore that part of me, I’ve gone a little crazy. Characters start tugging on my sleeves, words start haunting me, and I feel generally unsatisfied. Really, being a writer sounds more like a mental illness than a professional choice.”

“I'm a terrible prince. I should put my kingdom first and everything else second, but your first. I want you by my side every second, but I know I would crumble if I lost you.”

“As a general rule, writing is very inconvenient.”

“Writing a first draft and reminding myself that I'm simply shoveling sand into a box so that later I can build castles.”

“Being a writer is a good, good thing.”

“The to Cathal was battered and only one wagon wide, with swells of hard earth where mud had frozen during cold ad rainy seasons. Enna tripped often, and cursed each time she tripped, until Dasha said, "Enna, you might watch your language." Enna grimaced. "I was. You should hear my thoughts.”

“...'Goose girl, may I kiss you?' She answered by... kissing him first.”

“Ease up, nasty little frigid pixies”

“Becky, are you studying conversational Yiddish?”

“Her nightmare clung to her like the smell of smoke to cloth.”

“She answered by standing and kissing him first and held his cheeks and closed her eyes and felt sure as bones and deep as blood that she had found her place.”

“He looked at her, and the clarity of his dark eyes struck her heart with a sensation of a wound touched.”

“Ani told them all...telling more than needed telling, the stories clarifying and unifying themselves in her mind as she let them spill out of her mouth.”

“Ani felt a stirring, a hope, a winged thing waking up in her chest and brushing her heart with it's feathers.”

“Rin slept inside the oak’s thought. Its own memories of weather and growth continued to hum, and like a pond, its stillness reflected back herself.”

“No more crying. It's all wetness and no comfort at all.”