Kristin Cashore Quotes & Sayings

Fire sat unbreathing. A life that was an apology for the life of his father: It was a notion she could understand, beyond words and thought. She understood it the way she understood music. — Kristin Cashore

It always struck Fire, the physical affection between these siblings, who as often as not were at each other's throats over one thing or another. She liked the way the four of them shifted and changed shape, bumping and clanging against one another, sharpening each other's edges and then smoothing them down again, and somehow always finding the way to fit together. — Kristin Cashore

[ ... ] But the world doesn't care who wins. It'll go on spinning, no matter how many people are slaughtered tomorrow. No matter if you and I are slaughtered." After a moment, he added, "I almost wish it wouldn't, if we aren't allowed to go spinning with it. — Kristin Cashore

Roan, near the standard-bearer. And that's his brother beside — Kristin Cashore

He was so physical in his arguments. He loomed and gestured, his face went dark or burned with light. His eyes blazed. And he was just as physical with his love and joy, and this was why they all fell in love with him, for in a world that was dismal he was alive and passionate, and his attentions, while they lasted, were intoxicating. — Kristin Cashore

Then she'll know I'll want to knock her senseless if she so much as looks at me. — Kristin Cashore

In the end, Leck should have stuck to his lies. For it was the truth he almost told that killed him. — Kristin Cashore

It was a hurting tune, resigned, a cry of heartache for all in the world that fell apart. As ash rose black against the brilliant sky, Fire's fiddle cried out for the dead, and for the living who stay behind to say goodbye. — Kristin Cashore

Don't you feel it, the joy of having an effect on everyone and everything simply by being? — Kristin Cashore

You don't need to be strong to drive your thumbs into a man's eyeballs," Katsa said, "but it does a lot of damage."
"That's disgusting," Bitterblue said.
"Someone your size doesn't have the luxury of fighting cleanly, Bitterblue. — Kristin Cashore

It was just that she had the need to tell him something honest, something honest and unhappy, because cheerful lies tonight were too depressing and too sharp, turning in on her like pins — Kristin Cashore

She couldn't steal herself back from Randa only to give herself away again - belong to another person, be answerable to another person, build her very being around another person. — Kristin Cashore

I must stop wishing for things to happen. Because something will happen eventually, and when it does, I'll be bound to wish it hadn't. — Kristin Cashore

Katsa didn't know how long they'd been grappling when she realized he was laughing. She understood his joy, understood it completely. She'd never had such a fight, she'd never had such an opponent. She was faster than he was offensively-much faster-but he was stronger, and it was as if he had a premonition of her every turn and strike; she'd never known a fighter so quick to defend himself. She was calling up moves she hadn't tried since she was a child, blows she'd only ever imagined having the opportunity to use. They were playing. It was a game. When he pinned her arms behind her back, grabbed her hair, and pushed her face into the dirt, she found that she was laughing as well. — Kristin Cashore

But all I feel is impatience, fury for the opposition I anticipate and the lies I'm going to have to tell to make it happen, and frustration that I can't even take a walk without them sending someone to hover. Attack me," she said.
"I beg your pardon, Lady Queen?"
"You should attack me, and we'll see what he does. He's probably quite bored
it'll be a relief to him."
"Mightn't he run me through with his sword?"
"Oh." Bitterblue chuckled. "Yes, I suppose he might. That would be a shame."
"I'm gratified that you think so," said Giddon dryly. — Kristin Cashore

What's the true reason I've decided I trust him? Certainly his Council work recommends him, his choice of friends. But isn't it just as much the timbre of his voice? I like to hear him say words. I trust the deep way he says, 'Yes, Lady Queen. — Kristin Cashore

And then, with all her might, she focused her attention on the back of Po's head and screamed his name, inside her mind. He pulled on his reins so hard that his horse screeched and staggered and almost sat down. her own horse nearly collided with his. And he looked so startled and flabbergasted
and irritated
that she couldn't help it: She exploded with laughter. — Kristin Cashore

I'm afraid of plenty of things," he said. "I just do them anyway. — Kristin Cashore

Teddy grinned again. 'Truths are dangerous,' he said.
-'Then why are you writing them in a book?'
-'To catch them between the pages,' said Teddy, 'and trap them before they disappear.'
-'If they're dangerous, why not let them disappear?'
-'Because when truths disappear, they leave behind blank spaces, and that is also dangerous. — Kristin Cashore

We need an ally of Mydogg's or Gentian's pretending to be among the most loyal allies of the king,' Brigan said. 'Shouldn't be so hard, really. If I shot an arrow out the window I'd probably hit on. — Kristin Cashore

Now we just need to find someone who is close to the king but is really a spy for Mydogg."
"That should be easy. I could probably shoot an arrow out the window and hit one. — Kristin Cashore

He leaned heavily on the desk now, as if danger had strengthened him before and its lack now made him weak. — Kristin Cashore

And she would protect him as fiercely, if it were ever his need- if a fight ever became too much for him or if he needed shelter, or food, or a fire in the rain. Or anything she could provide. She would protect him from anything. — Kristin Cashore

And the kings were no better to their own people than they were to each others. — Kristin Cashore

King Drowden has given his men instructions to infiltrate the town, bribe townspeople for the secrets of their neighbors, steal the neighbors' hidden treasures. Much more subtle than Drowden's usual smash and burn technique. We do hope Drowden isn't growing a brain. — Kristin Cashore

When she came back minutes later with a great, fat, skinned rabbit, Po had built a fire. The flames cast orange light on the horses and on himself. "It was the least I could do," Po said, drily, "and I see you've already skinned the hare. I'm beginning to think I won't have much responsibility as we travel through the forest together."
"Does it other you? You're welcome to do the hunting yourself. Perhaps I can stay by the fire and mend your socks, and scream if I hear strange noises. — Kristin Cashore

Not all sons were like their fathers. A son chose the man he would be.
Not all daughters were like their fathers. A daughter monster chose the monster she would be. — Kristin Cashore

Why would he try to ruin something so beautiful? What is the world he was trying, and failing to create?
What is the world Runnemood is trying to create? And why must they both create their worlds by destroying? — Kristin Cashore

She decided to keep her mouth shut until the map arrived, to prevent herself from betraying the stratospheric heights of her irritability. — Kristin Cashore

That's how memory works ... Things disappear without your permission, then come back again without your permission. — Kristin Cashore

Waste is criminal. I'll use the power I have to undo what Cansrel did. I'll use it to fight for the Dells. — Kristin Cashore

I know you don't want this, Katsa. But I can't help myself. The moment you came barreling into my life I was lost. I'm afraid to tell you what I wish for, for fear you'll ... oh, I don't know, throw me into the fire. Or more likely, refuse me. Or worst of all, despise me," he said, his voice breaking and his eyes dropping from her face. His face dropping into his hands. "I love you," he said. "You're more dear to my heart than I ever knew anyone could be. And I've made you cry; and there I'll stop. — Kristin Cashore

I'm not such a bad fighter myself," Skye said. Po exploded with laughter. "Oh, fight him, Katsa. Please fight him. I can't imagine a more entertaining diversion. — Kristin Cashore

There was one she kept reaching for, with a copper-red varnish, and a clarity like the point of a star, precise and loansome, reminding her, somehow, of home. This is the one, she thought to herself. — Kristin Cashore

If he touches you, I'll come in and choke him to death. — Kristin Cashore

I'm so small that my husband won't be able to find me in the bed. And when he does, he'll discover that my breasts are uneven and I'm shaped like an eggplant. — Kristin Cashore

You're astonishing, Fire," he'd said. "You're a constant source of wonder to me. I'm never more happy than when I've made you happy. Isn't it peculiar?" he'd said, laughing. "Do you really like it, darling? — Kristin Cashore

And then Holt, the Queen's Guard, placed his maps on the desk, neatly so they would not fall, tipped Thiel over one shoulder, tipped Death over the other, and stood under his load. In the astonished silence that followed, Holt lumbered toward Runnemood, who, understanding, let out a snort and stalked from the room of his own accord. Then Holt carried his outraged burdens away on either shoulder, just as they got their voices back. Bitterblue could hear them screaming their indignation all the way down the stairs. — Kristin Cashore

This is a trial about watermelons! Watermelons are invertebrate creatures!' cried Quall. — Kristin Cashore

I wouldn't force your feelings from you, if you didn't want to share them. — Kristin Cashore

Katsa hugged her for a long time, and Bitterblue understood that this was always how it would be. Katsa would come and then Katsa would go. But the hug was real, and lasting, even though it would end. The coming was as real as the going, and the coming would always be a promise. It would have to be good enough. — Kristin Cashore

Location: Amsterdam, Where Fire Is Called Vlam — Kristin Cashore

Always one of the trials of a new wound: old wounds like to rise up and start hurting again, too. — Kristin Cashore

A king who's innocent
of the things of which he's guilty? — Kristin Cashore

Then come here," he said, a bit redundantly, as he had already pulled her with him into an armchair and curled her up in his arms. "Tell me what I can do to help you feel better."
Fire looked into his quiet eyes, touched his dear, familiar face, and considered the question. Well. I always like when you kiss me.
"Do you?"
You're good at it.
"Well," he said. "That's lucky, because I'll always be kissing you. — Kristin Cashore

Why does everybody throw every troublesome thing into the river? — Kristin Cashore

I told him I'm not going to marry you and hang on to you like a barnacle, just to keep you to myself and stop you loving anyone else. — Kristin Cashore

I wish people would stop hitting Po," whispered Bitterblue.
"Well," Giddon said. "Yes. I'm hoping Skye is following my model. Punch Po; go on a long trip; feel better; come back and make up. — Kristin Cashore

First, everyone's going to die. Second, love is stupid. It has nothing to do with reason. You love whomever you love. Against all reason I loved my father. Did you love yours? — Kristin Cashore

Do you understand? I don't want you to do a thing if you don't understand it. — Kristin Cashore

It was a very hard thing to have crushed the heart, and the hopes, of a friend. — Kristin Cashore

Your sadness is one of the things that makes you beautiful to me. Don't you see that? I understand it. It makes my own sadness less frightening. (Brigan) — Kristin Cashore

And of course she understood now why her body wanted to run whenever he appeared. It was a correct instinct, for there was nothing to be got from this but sadness. — Kristin Cashore

Every configuration of people is an entirely new universe unto itself. — Kristin Cashore

No man is infallible. — Kristin Cashore

She groped forward, hands and feet, in search of darkness, distance and solitude. — Kristin Cashore

Her feeling was strange and wild, her mind a marvelous unbroken thing that Fire could touch and influence, but never truly comprehend. She belonged alone on the rocks, unconstrained, and vicious when she needed to be.
And yet there was love in the feeling of her too- constraining, in its way. This horse had no intention of leaving Fire. — Kristin Cashore

And," he continued, his strange smile gleaming, "as I see it, our hearts are not so different in size. I murdered my father. You murdered yours. Is that something you did with a large heart? — Kristin Cashore

Po looked at her, but he didn't see her. His eyes snapped, silver ice and gold fire. — Kristin Cashore

For now, Lady Queen," he said, "allow us to continue to obey you. But give us honorable instructions, Lady Queen," he said, turning a flushed face to hers. "Ask us to do honorable things, so that we may have the honor of obeying you. — Kristin Cashore

There's no shame in crawling when one can't walk. — Kristin Cashore

She's sleeping now, happy as a kitten in a patch of sun. — Kristin Cashore

She didn't want to go far, just out of the trees so she could see the stars. They always eased her loneliness. She thought of them as beautiful creatures, burning and cold; each solitary, and bleak, and silent like her. — Kristin Cashore

She must learn who he was, so that she could know what do do with him. — Kristin Cashore

Katsa didn't think a person should thank her for not causing pain. Causing joy was worthy of thanks, and causing pain worthy of disgust. Causing neither was neither, it was nothing, and nothing didn't warrant thanks. — Kristin Cashore

Your brand of comfort bears some similarity to your tactical offense. — Kristin Cashore

At least her last words to him had been words of love. But she wished she'd told him just how much she loved him. How much she had to thank him for, how many good things he had done. She hadn't told him nearly enough. — Kristin Cashore

She wanted to cause him pain for taking a place in her heart she wouldn't have given him if she'd known the truth. — Kristin Cashore

Hanna's announced her intentions to marry Archer — Kristin Cashore

I'm not good at love. I'm like a barbed creature. I push everyone I love away. — Kristin Cashore

Your brothers are the foolish ones for not seeing the strength in beautiful things. — Kristin Cashore

If she was suggesting she was too wise with the weight of her experience to fall prey to infatuation - well, the disproof was sitting before her in the form of a gray-eyed prince with a thoughtful set to his mouth that she found quite distracting. — Kristin Cashore

Everyone wants a bit of something beautiful. — Kristin Cashore

Archer wouldn't consider her allowance of the guard to be evidence of the powers of rational argument. He'd take it as proof that she was in love with whichever of her guards was the most handsome. — Kristin Cashore

Death pulled Lovejoy against his chest and held him tight, gripping both cat and book as if he expected someone to try to take them from him. — Kristin Cashore

But then, it was a strange monster, for beneath its exterior it was frightened and sickened by its own violence. It chastised itself for its savagery. And sometimes it had no heart for violence and rebelled against it utterly. A — Kristin Cashore

She couldn't have him, and there was no mistaking it. She could never be his wife. She could not steal herself back from Randa only to give herself away again- belong to another person, be answerable to another person, build her very being around another person. No matter how she loved him. — Kristin Cashore

Prince Brigan. And where's your Lady?"
"In her history lesson. She went without complaint and I've been trying to prepare myself for what it might mean. Either she's planning to bribe me about something or she's ill. — Kristin Cashore

Perhaps I can stay by the fire and mend your socks and scream if I hear any strange noises. — Kristin Cashore

Po's been sick, you know." "I'm sorry to hear that," he said, with no expression. "Don't be an ass. He's actually been quite unwell. — Kristin Cashore

They seemed no closer to the tops of the peaks that rose before them. It was only by looking back, to the forest far below, that she knew they'd climbed. — Kristin Cashore

She looked at him then, but his image blurred behind tears that swelled into her eyes. She must leave. She must leave this room, because she wanted to hit him, as she had sworn she never would do. She wanted to cause him pain for taking a place in her heart that she wouldn't have given him if she'd known the truth.
"You lied to me," she said.
She turned and ran from the room. — Kristin Cashore

A consciousness was like a face you saw once and forever recognized. — Kristin Cashore

Things don't ever stay the same. Natural beginnings come to natural or unnatural ends. — Kristin Cashore

Have you ridden over anyone you shouldn't? — Kristin Cashore

Archer, is there a servant girl in my fortress you haven't taken to bed? I announce you're leaving and within minutes two of them are at each other's throats, and another is crying her eyes out in the scullery. Honestly. You've been here all of nine days."
- Roen, "Fire — Kristin Cashore

Bitterblue had never seen a man naked, and she was curious. She decided the universe owed her a few minutes, just a few, to satisfy her curiosity. So she went to him and knelt, which shut him up. — Kristin Cashore

It's hard to wake from a nightmare when the nightmare is real. — Kristin Cashore

Then she marched to the pillows and beat them mercilessly until they lay puffed out like obedient clouds. — Kristin Cashore

It's as if when I open myself up to every perception, things create their own focus. — Kristin Cashore

A quote from 'Fire' where Fire projected a thought to her best friend Archer:
Love doesn't measure that way, she [Fire] thought to him [Archer]. And you may blame me for your feelings, but it isn't fair to blame me for how you've chosen to behave. — Kristin Cashore

Lady Katsa, is it?"
"Yes, Lord Prince."
"I've heard you have one eye green as the Middluns grasses, and the other eye blue as the sky."
"Yes, Lord Prince."
"I've heard you can kill a man with the nail of your smallest finger."
She smiled. "Yes, Lord Prince."
"Does it make it easier?"
"I don't understand you."
"To have beautiful eyes. Does it lighten the burden of your Grace, to know you have beautiful eyes? — Kristin Cashore

I told you before, Katsa. I won't fight when you're angry. I won't solve a disagreement between us with blows." He lifted the ice and fingered his jaw. He moaned and held the ice to his face again. "What we do in the practice rooms-that's to help each other. We don't use it against each other. We're friends, Katsa. We're too dangerous to each other. And even if we weren't, it's not right. — Kristin Cashore

We're going to win this war, you know, now that our army's together. But the world doesn't care who wins. It'll go on spinning, no matter how many people are slaughtered." After a moment, he added. "I almost wish it wouldn't, if we aren't allowed to go on spinning with it. — Kristin Cashore

And what was it about the dark that made her question things she'd never questioned before, in the day. — Kristin Cashore

It seemed to Fire it was rarely enough one knew a person one wished to marry. How unjust then to meet that person, and be kept from it because one's bed was made of hay and not feathers. — Kristin Cashore

Spelling bees? Spelling bees do not scare me. I competed in the National Spelling Bee twice, thank you very much. My dad competed in the National Spelling Bee. My aunt competed in the National Spelling Bee. My uncle WON the National Spelling Bee. If I can't spell it, I know someone who can. SO JUST BRING IT ON, YOU BASTARDS!! — Kristin Cashore

Well then," Roen said briskly, "are you sleeping?"
"Yes."
"Come now. A mother can tell when her son lies. Are you eating?"
"No," Brigan said gravely. "I've not eaten in two months. It's a hunger strike to protest the spring flooding in the south."
"Gracious," Roen said, reaching for the fruit bowl. "Have an apple, dear. — Kristin Cashore

Katsa and Po had their arms around each other. It was difficult to tell if they were still wrestling or if the kissing had begun. — Kristin Cashore

Propelled by nothing more than a drab sense of duty not to die if she didn't have to, Fire turned [...] — Kristin Cashore