“It is very easy to convince yourself that you have done something correctly if you never pay attention to what else you might have done in the first place. (Satomi from Picking Bones From Ash)”

“My mother always told me that there is only one way a woman can be truly safe in this world. And that is to be fiercely, inarguably, and masterfully talented. This is different than being intelligent or even educated. (Satomi from Picking Bones From Ash)”

“…you look like a loved person. It always shows on people’s faces. The ones who discover love when they are much older always look startled. The loved ones expect it from other people.”

“You must not become a silly creature ... relying on other people to tell you what is valuable and what is not...the most important thing in life is to be able to see things as they really are.”

“ I would not have believed it, either. No human has ever come back from being made Pri-ya, and, although I am pleased that you have recovered from what was done to you, I am not pleased that I must now compete for you with no glamour, without the glory of my birthright. They were Unseelie, MacKayla, the foulest of the foul, the darkest of my race, the abominations. I am Seelie, and we are vastly different. I had hoped that one day, when you trusted me, you would let me share with you the ecstasy of being one like me. With no pain, MacKayla, and no price. Now that can never be. You have no idea how exquisite the experience might have been and now never will. ”

“...I’m sorry for everything I’ve done to you Layla. But you should know there will never be anyone else for me. Aslong as you’re walking this earth, the shattered pieces of my wasted heart will love you forever. You’re my girl Layla.”

“Crowds have one expression, cruel and fixed. You let yourself be trapped by a look. You let yourself be carried off and shut away in a place of silence. There your eyes may be ripped out, your tongue cut off, and your fingers hammered until the little bones splinter. The walls are splashed with thick clots of blood. Words are the worst kind of dog, they drag us along despite ourselves to somewhere we didn't want to go, they obsess us, they don't let us have a moment's rest, a moment's rest.But before that? Before that is another place altogether. Memory blanks things out methodically. It has several floors, sealed off from one another and there is no passage joining them. One of them is hell. When you fall in, at the very instant you lose your footing, you forget everything, even what light is like. But once you are back in the world you retain only a faint memory of being shut up. It resonates like the dull echo of pain.”