Anne Ursu Quotes & Sayings

The woods do not mean you well. — Anne Ursu

The halls were empty. Charlotte had missed the first bell and would be late, again. Her homeroom teacher would ask her for an excuse and she would say, 'Overwhelming feeling of dread.' That was going to go over nicely. — Anne Ursu

In woods where the woodsmen told lies, maybe it was the wolves who told the truth. — Anne Ursu

Ladders were not inherently dangerous, he told himself, people climbed them every day, and most of them lived. — Anne Ursu

Now she would be part girl, part hardening gray sludge. And no one would notice the difference. — Anne Ursu

Charlotte sighed inwardly. She knew her mother was serious when she started referring to shellfish. What did that mean, anyway? What's so great about the world being your oyster? Does that mean it's really hard to open, and when you do, you have something slimy and gross on the inside? — Anne Ursu

Sometimes superheroes are born, sometimes they are made. Sometimes they make themselves. Sometimes all it takes is will. — Anne Ursu

She'd read once that if you ran into a bear in the woods you should avoid eye contact and you shouldn't run away, but all she knew about wolves is that you should never tell them how to find your grandmother's house. — Anne Ursu

She wore weird baggy clothes and seemed like the sort of person who might tesser in some dark and stormy night. — Anne Ursu

Hazel should have done something - left a note, pretended she was going to go visit Jack's aunt Bernice. Something. She was so busy thinking about the one she needed to rescue she didn't think at all about the one she was leaving behind. She was supposed to take care of her mother, too. She was not supposed to be sipping honey tea with people who are just like the parents you think you are supposed to have. Her mother was what she had. — Anne Ursu

She saw signs of another village in the distance - she smelled smoke and saw the faint glow of something like civilization. But there was nothing for her there. She had to go get Jack now, and anyway, she was safer out here with the wolves. — Anne Ursu

She just eyed them coolly, as if they were nothing to her, as if their nothingness surprised and slightly repelled her. — Anne Ursu

A boy got a splinter in his eye, and his heart turned cold. Only two people noticed. One was a witch, and she took him for her own. The other was his best friend. And she went after him in ill-considered shoes, brave and completely unprepared. — Anne Ursu

She looked at her shelves, filled with books in which the bad stuff that happened to people was caused by things like witches who lured people into the woods. In a weird way, the world seemed to make more sense that way. — Anne Ursu

The words kept coming and he could not stop them, not while Callie was standing there so indecipherably, and so he was going to keep talking until he used up all the words there were and then no one would be able to talk to anyone else anymore and then all anyone would have left were one another's unintelligible faces, and maybe some weird gesturing, too, and it would be all Oscar's fault. — Anne Ursu

At each step there is a small moment of transformation that cannot be overlooked or rushed. And these moments should not be, because they are beautiful. — Anne Ursu

He squeezed Steve's shoulder possessively. Oh, Zero. He is not you, I must admit. He does not have your bravery, your nobility, your je ne sais quoi, and all he talks about is this magical place called 'Canada'. — Anne Ursu

This is what happens on journeys - the things you find are not necessarily the things you had gone looking for. — Anne Ursu

It turned out she did not need the compass. It was easy to head in the other direction from the lair of the witch. All you had to do was move away from the thing pulling at you. — Anne Ursu

Nature can destroy us in a blink. We live on only at its pleasure. — Anne Ursu

Her father said she was a princess. He did not see that she was a brave knight. — Anne Ursu

Something rose in Oscar's chest, like a flower blossoming all at once. It grew until it filled him and threatened to spill over everywhere. The words [he] spoke touched a longing so deep Oscar hadn't even known it was there. — Anne Ursu

A sick-hued darkness overtook Hazel. There was ground, somewhere, and somewhere beyond that there was a palace, and somewhere beyond that was a witch, and somewhere beyond her was a boy who did not want her to come, and she would not come, could not come, because she could not defeat the winter. She was going to collapse here. She would fail. — Anne Ursu

What are you supposed to do when something like that happens? Do you hold on or let go? — Anne Ursu

She could have taken root. She wanted to be a Rose, somebody's Rose, their Rose - and she would have been company for the flowers. She had new memories to give them, new people to tell them of, people who would help tend to them and keep them. But they warned her. They saved her.
Hazel was nobody's Rose. For better or for worse. — Anne Ursu

People feared snowstorms once. Hazel read about this all the time. Pioneers opened their front doors and saw they'd been entombed in snow overnight. They walked across malevolent swirling whiteness and did not know if they would survive. Nature can destroy us in a blink. We live on only at its pleasure.
That was what looking at the witch was like. — Anne Ursu

You can't just kill a swan and wrap yourself in its skin, you know. It takes something from you. In her case it took the thing that she wanted most. — Anne Ursu

She understood. They were plastic flowers of words - but they looked nice on the surface. — Anne Ursu

That was the point where she was supposed to sound tough, like she was someone to be reckoned with, like she was the sort of person witches should listen to. Was this really her plan? She sounded like a child. — Anne Ursu

I think if you'll look around, my boy,' he said gently, 'you'll find that no one is quite right. But we all do the best we can. — Anne Ursu

Someone who thinks of possessing a fountain made of a winged baby with water shooting out of its mouth must not have too many troubles. — Anne Ursu

Hazel had read enough books to know that a line like this one is the line down which your life breaks in two. And you have to think very carefully about whether you want to cross it, because once you do it's very hard to get back to the world you left behind. And sometimes you break a barrier that no one knew existed, and then everything you knew before crossing the line is gone.
But sometimes you have a friend to rescue. And so you take a deep breath and then step over the line and into the darkness ahead. — Anne Ursu

Something was wrong with him - and down deep he'd known his whole life. Maybe the wards had even said something. (You are not right, boy.) Maybe the other children had. (What's wrong with you?) Maybe it had happened while he watched one child after another walk off with a family from the Eastern Villages, with a merchant or a farmer. (You know no one will ever take you, right?) Maybe he'd even said it to himself. — Anne Ursu

He lifted his hand to knock, but then he stopped. He could go neither forward nor back, so he simply stayed that way - hand frozen in the air. — Anne Ursu

Hazel wanted to ask him what he was thinking, what he was feeling, if he was regretting the witch or was just too tired to think, if he was embarrassed that the princess had rescued the knight or if he didn't mind so much now that it had happened, if he remembered everything that had passed, if he was mad at himself for going with the witch, if his warm blood was winning the battle against the water in his veins; she wanted to reach out and grab the things in his mind and heart and hold them so they could examine them together, but they were not hers to take. — Anne Ursu

He could still escape - the fear was in front of him, and all he had to do was wrench free and run in the other direction. But he kept walking forward, straight into its embrace. — Anne Ursu

They were princesses once, charged with saving the kingdom from a dragon, and whoever could defeat it would be queen. Daisy used strength, Amelia wits, and Isabelle fell in love with the dragon, because that's the sort of girl she was. She rid the kingdom of the dragon, and then made it its king. — Anne Ursu

School was very easy, it turned out, if you just disconnected your heart. — Anne Ursu

You see," the lord explained, "everyone else has them. You wouldn't want your child to be the only one who had flaws. What would it be like for them? — Anne Ursu

This was not [him]. It was a thing, with all the [him]-ness gone from it. Death takes the person and leaves his shell behind, like a hollowed-out tree. — Anne Ursu

She had believed that because someone needed saving they were savable. — Anne Ursu

She did not know how to react, for when your heart has been poisoned and someone picks a dandelion for you - because it is bright and yellow and you seem like you could use something like that - all you can do is contemplate the funny ways of weeds. — Anne Ursu

It snowed right before Jack stopped talking to Hazel, fluffy white flakes big enough to show their crystal architecture, like perfect geometric poems. — Anne Ursu

But I can tell you this," he continued. "The white witch doesn't feel things the way we do, do you understand? She's all ice. That is her whole point."
A palace of ice and a heart to match. "I don't understand. Why would people go looking for her? Why would they want to go with her?"
Ben sat back. He looked at Hazel searchingly, sadly. His shoulders rose and fell. "Sometimes," he said slowly, "it seems like it would be easier to give yourself to the ice. — Anne Ursu

There is something in the magic we have that is greater than the magic we can do. — Anne Ursu

He's gone now. He did something terrible, but ... he did good things, too. And he kept us well. And it's all right if you are sad. — Anne Ursu

The water was holding [him] close and telling him beautiful lies, and since it was the end, he chose to believe them. — Anne Ursu

There is a way the truth hits you, both hard and gentle at the same time. It punches you in the stomach as it puts its loving arm around your shoulder. Yes, I am terrible to behold, the truth says. But you suspected it all along, didn't you? And isn't better, now that you know? Now, at least, it all makes sense. — Anne Ursu

His words sounded foolish to his own ears. He was not impressive. He was small like the world. — Anne Ursu

Teachers loved to say people had potential; that's what teachers did to keep themselves from getting canned. What were they supposed to say-I'm sorry, your kid has no promise whatsoever? She's utterly mediocre in every way? — Anne Ursu

Kids can handle a lot more than you think they can. It's when they get to be grown up that you have to start worrying. — Anne Ursu

This is what it is to live in the world. You have to give yourself over to the cold, at least a little bit. — Anne Ursu

This morning, as Charlotte approached the brick facade of Hartnett, she found herself overcome with a great sense of dread. It hit her with a strange and sudden force, and she had an overwhelming urge to turn back, get into bed and not go out for about three weeks. She stopped in her tracks. The feeling itself was alarming to Charlotte - was she sensing something? Something dangerous? And was it something supernatural or just middle school? Sometimes it was hard to tell the difference. — Anne Ursu

Now, the world is more than it seems to be. You know this, of course, because you read stories. You understand that there is the surface and then there are all the things that glimmer and shift underneath it. And you know that not everyone believes in those things, that there are people - a great many people - who believe the world cannot be any more than what they can see with their eyes. But we know better. — Anne Ursu

Now, Hazel was not stupid. She knew that just because you see a piece of cake and a sign that says EAT ME doesn't mean you should actually do it. And just because two giant ravens point you in the direction of a path doesn't mean you should take it. But it was the only path she had. — Anne Ursu

We're starting with the villain," Martin interjected. "Because they are the most fun. — Anne Ursu

It would not hurt, after all, to walk into the woods. — Anne Ursu

She came in thinking she would rescue him, like some sort of story, like a little kid pretending to be a brave knight. He needed saving; therefore, she would save him. This was the way it used to work. It used to always be so simple, it was just the two of them and they could make shacks into palaces. But things change. — Anne Ursu

The Asterians didn't call themselves anything special, because when everyone else refers to you as the shining people, you really don't have to do it yourself. — Anne Ursu

Something stirred inside her, some urge to plunge into the new white world and see what it had to offer. It was like she'd walked out of a dusty old wardrobe and found Narnia. — Anne Ursu

He remembered that part like you'd remember a story someone told to you once, like you might nod in sympathy but it wasn't like it happened to you. — Anne Ursu

Oscar did not know what he was supposed to be feeling right now, what all the adults behind him would be expecting him to feel. He did not even know what he was, in fact, feeling. Except, whatever it was, it was a lot. Too much. More than bodies could hold. — Anne Ursu

I believe that the world isn't always what we can see ... I believe there are secrets in the woods. And I believe that goodness wins out ... So, if someone's changed overnight - by witch curse or poison apple or were-turtle - you have to show them what's good. You show them love. That works a surprising amount of the time. — Anne Ursu

She hated this place. Nothing made sense. Nothing worked as it was supposed to. She was supposed to be learning things as she went along, gaining strength for her final battle. All she was doing was losing things, one thing at a time. — Anne Ursu

Hugging himself, Oscar leaned against the pantry wall. For two days all he had wanted was for Caleb to come back, and now he was back and Oscar had made a mess of things: he had angered half the customers and confused the other half, and the coin boxes did not look as they should, and [rich, noble] people were complaining about him, and he couldn't look at anybody, and [redacted] was dead, and Oscar was odd.
'What if he doesn't keep me? — Anne Ursu

Jack believed in something - he believed in white witches and sleighs pulled by wolves, and in the world the trees obscured. He believed that there were better things in the woods. He believed in palaces of ice and hearts to match. Hazel had, too. Hazel had believed in woodsmen and magic shoes and swanskins and the easy magic of a compass. She had believed that because someone needing saving they were savable. She had believed in these things, but not anymore. And this is why she had to rescue Jack, even though he might not hear what she had to tell him. — Anne Ursu

It was not supposed to be this easy. This was to be the final confrontation. There was to be struggle, torment, despair. But the witch - who was the only person in the woods who wanted nothing - was not what Hazel had to defeat. — Anne Ursu

No one else needed to do this. No one else needed lessons on how to be a person. — Anne Ursu

If shadows were caused by the interplay between light and Life, a child's was still forming. An adult's was inextricably bound to his body, but a child had a tenuous relationship to his own permanence, and thus, his own shadow. — Anne Ursu

The boys wouldn't come to save him. Only Hazel would. And maybe that's why the boys would win. — Anne Ursu

But if you were Charlotte, and you had been feeling that life was some cosmic joke that had no punchline, and in the space of a moment you had gone from being Charlotte-without-a-kitten to being Charlotte-with-a-kitten, you too would have found it nothing short of remarkable. — Anne Ursu

Fiercely original and uncommonly lovely, The Witch's Boy is equal parts enchanting and haunting. Kelly Barnhill is master of truly potent and unruly magic; luckily for readers, she chooses to use her powers for good. — Anne Ursu

No one took her seriously because she was small and feathered, a strange little dino-bird, but she had a sickle claw and she was not afraid to use it. — Anne Ursu

Jack hesitated still, and Hazel wanted to say something comforting, give him some bright plastic flowers of words, but Jack would see them for what they were. Jack knew how to see things. — Anne Ursu

The witch raised one careful eyebrow. "I? I want nothing," she told Hazel. "Don't you see? I want nothing. — Anne Ursu

She didn't know the answer. But there had to be a way. There was always a way. — Anne Ursu

Jack was the only person she knew with an imagination, at least a real one. The only tea parties he'd have were ones in Wonderland, or the Arctic, or in the darkest reaches of space. He was the only person who saw things for what they could be instead of just what they were. He saw what lived beyond the edges of the things your eyes took in. And though they eventually grew out of Wonderland Arctic space-people tea parties, that essential thing remained the same. Hazel fit with Jack. — Anne Ursu

It was a beautiful lie that they had all been telling themselves - that you could have magic without monsters. — Anne Ursu

She'd been to Narnia, Wonderland, Hogwarts, Dictionopolis. She had tessered, fallen through the rabbit hole, crossed the ice bridge into the unknown world beyond. — Anne Ursu

Oscar leaned in, eyes wide. 'He's keeping me,' he whispered to the kitten.
Pebble chirped. Oscar's eyes flicked to the books underneath his bed. They called out to him: Misfit. Orphan. Idiot.
Oscar coughed and shifted his eyes back to Pebble. 'He thinks I can work the shop ... He said he knew I could do it.'
Wolf: He didn't see you work the shop. He doesn't know. Just wait until he hears.
'He wants me to do the best I can.'
Wolf: If only he knew how bad that was. He'll know soon.
Oscar clenched his hands into fists and squeezed his eyes shut ... 'I'm not going to disappoint him,' Oscar said. He repeated himself once more, in case the words themselves had any power. 'I'm not. — Anne Ursu

Somebody sniggered. From Somewhere int he back of the room someone else sneered, "Yeah, Hazel," which was not the greatest insult ever, but one thing Hazel had learned at her new school was when it comes to insults it's the thought that counts — Anne Ursu

They said words they did not mean, and their conversations seemed to follow all kinds of rules - rules that no one has ever explained to Oscar. — Anne Ursu

It's all going to be okay. She would like to hear that now, even if it was a lie. Because some lies are beautiful. Stories do not tell you that. — Anne Ursu

Once upon a time, there was a boy named Jack who got lost in the woods. His best friend went after him. Along the way, she had many adventures. She met woodsmen, witches, and wolves. She found her friend in the thrall of a queen who lived in a palace of ice and had a heart to match. She rescued him with the help of a magical object. And they returned home, together, and they lived on, somehow, ever after.
It went something like that, anyway. — Anne Ursu

The apprentice's name was Wolf, because sometimes the universe is an unsubtle place. — Anne Ursu

There were so many Jacks she had known, and he had known so many Hazels. And maybe she wasn't going to be able to know all the Jacks that there would be. But all the Hazels that ever would be would have Jack in them, somewhere. — Anne Ursu

She did not like seeing her loved ones like this, bent over with sorrow; everything in her wanted to cry out, to thrash and scream at the sight of it. But she knew that great grief came from great love, and that their grief was an honor to her. And she did love them so very much. — Anne Ursu

He wanted to leave his mom and her unseeing eyes. He was the invisible boy looking for the place where no one could find him, where he did not have to feel invisible anymore. — Anne Ursu

Hazel shrugged. She heard Bobby's voice in her head and wondered why it was she who was not allowed to hurt anyone. — Anne Ursu

The house felt strange. Altered. Like someone had come in during the day and shrunk all the furniture just a tiny bit. — Anne Ursu

Hazel could not explain that she had forgotten, that there was Jack and soul-sucking villains, and sometimes you are too scratchy to remember the things you are supposed to do, even if you do feel really bad about it later. — Anne Ursu