Kelly Barnhill Quotes & Sayings

A word, after all, is a kind of magic. It locks the substance of a thing in sound or symbol, and affixes it to the ear, or paper, or stone. Words call the world into being. That's power indeed. — Kelly Barnhill

Intelligence does not mean infallibility, nor does it mean immobility. Intelligence means the ability to learn. — Kelly Barnhill

How many feelings can one heart hold?... Infinite, Luna thought. The way the universe is infinite. It is light and dark and endless motion; it is space and time, and space within space, and time within time. And she knew: there is no limit to what the heart can carry. — Kelly Barnhill

Stories have a tendency to seep across the shining membrane walls separating the universes. They whisper and flutter like the feathers of birds, from island to mainland and back again. They fall into dreams like rain. — Kelly Barnhill

A story can tell the truth...but a story can also lie. Stories can bend and twist and obfuscate. Controlling stories is power indeed. And who could benefit most from such a power? — Kelly Barnhill

Failure was not an indication of perpetual failure - no! Instead, it was another step along the creative process: we make; we discard. By discarding, I could make again. I could do what I needed to do: write the next book. Write the right book. — Kelly Barnhill

Human babies are only tiny for an instant - their growing up is as swift as the beat of a hummingbird's wing. — Kelly Barnhill

There's no such thing as complete when it comes to stories. Stories are infinite. They are as infinite as worlds. — Kelly Barnhill

Death is always sudden," Glerk said. His eyes had begun to itch. "Even when it isn't. — Kelly Barnhill

It was a fine thing indeed, Luna thought, being eleven. She loved the symmetry of it, and the lack of symmetry. Eleven was a number that was visually even, but functionally not - it looked one way and behaved in quite another. Just like most eleven-year-olds, or so she assumed. — Kelly Barnhill

Once upon a time, something terrifying lived in the woods. Or perhaps the woods were terrifying. Or perhaps the whole world is poisoned with wickedness and lies, and it's best to learn that now.
No, Fyrian, darling. I don't believe that last bit either. — Kelly Barnhill

Hope and light and motion, her soul whispered. Hope and formation and fusion, Hope and heat and accretion. The miracle of gravity. The miracle of transformation. Each precious thing is destroyed and each precious thing is saved. Hope, hope, hope. — Kelly Barnhill

But as the years passed, Ned's silence grew and grew. It pressed upon his face and his body. It leaked into the house and spread outward into the yard. His silence had weight. It had substance and presence and teeth. — Kelly Barnhill

Not all knowledge comes from the mind. Your body, your heart, your intuition. Sometimes memories even have minds of their own. — Kelly Barnhill

There is no hope without risk. — Kelly Barnhill

There is no utter truth or utter falsehood in this world. There is only mostly. Which part of the mostly you choose to accept, well, that much is up to you. — Kelly Barnhill

The stars cut into the inky black sky, like glinting shards of glass. — Kelly Barnhill

Not every story is true. And sometimes the things that were wicked become the things that save us, and the things that were good doom us to misery and pain. — Kelly Barnhill

She needs to be educated. She needs to know the contents of those books, there. She needs to understand the movements of the stars and the origins of the universe and the requirements of kindness. She needs to know mathematics and poetry. She must ask questions. She must seek to understand. She must understand the laws of cause and effect and unintended consequences. She must learn compassion and curiosity and awe. All of these things. We have to instruct her, Glerk. All three of us. It is a great responsibility." The — Kelly Barnhill

Some of us...choose love over power. Indeed, most of us do. — Kelly Barnhill

A word is a magic thing. It holds the essence of an object or idea and pins it to the world. A word can set a universe in motion. — Kelly Barnhill

A person's soul is bigger than his body. It takes root and lives in all who love him. — Kelly Barnhill

But as she continued and finished her tale, I could tell that her heart was elsewhere, and when she excused herself to go to bed, she left without saying good night. After that, the princesses in her stories were always beautiful. Always. — Kelly Barnhill

Love transforms our fragile, cowardly hearts into hearts of stone, hearts of blade, hearts of hardest iron. Because love makes heroes of us all. — Kelly Barnhill

Memory was a slippery thing - slick moss on an unstable slope - and it was ever so easy to lose one's footing and fall — Kelly Barnhill

Sorrow is dangerous. — Kelly Barnhill

Yet was a powerful word, Ned decided. Very powerful indeed. — Kelly Barnhill

Knowledge is power, but it is a terrible power when it is hoarded and hidden. — Kelly Barnhill

And the more they asked, the more they wondered. And the more they wondered, the more they hoped. And the more they hoped, the more the clouds of sorrow lifted, drifted, and burned away in the heat of a brightening sky. — Kelly Barnhill