“Never repent of your own goodness, child. To stay true in the face of evil is a feat of strength.”

“You were true to her, even if she was not to you. Never repent of your own goodness, child. To stay true in the face of evil is a feat of great strength.”“Strength,” she said with a little laugh. “I gave her strength, and look what she did with it.”

“Brimstone once told me that to stay true in the face of evil is a feat of strength.”

“Your heart is not wrong. Your heart is your strength. You don't have to be ashamed.”

“Wishes are false. Hope is true. Hope makes its own magic.”

“Be your own place of safety, she told herself, straightening. No crossbar in the world could protect her from what lay ahead, and neither could a tiny knife ticked in her boot - though there her tiny knife would most certainly remain - and neither could a man, not even Akiva. She had to be her own strength, complete unto herself.”

“...singing ballads whose words had never known paper but lived only on the rasping edge of their own voices.”