Roshani Chokshi Quotes & Sayings

Swords could also be used for freeing. You could've cut through the chain around the bird's foot and set it free. Swords could be used for killing. But it needn't be the bird. Wouldn't the more merciful choice have been to use the sword against the oppressor? — Roshani Chokshi

In the end, no one cared that her freedom didn't look like the freedom of her sisters. 16 THE GATE OF SECRET TRUTHS — Roshani Chokshi

I donned my armor, lining my eyes with kohl until they were dark as death and patting crushed rose petals on my lips until they were scarlet as blood. — Roshani Chokshi

Strange how something that only affected me was decided by you. — Roshani Chokshi

I could have been verse made flesh or compressed moonlight. Anything other than who I was now. — Roshani Chokshi

I hadn't known until now, but I saw it, felt it. I came here for her. Because it didn't matter whether I had lived in another realm for years that I thought were mere days. It didn't matter that I had tasted fairy fruit, fallen in love and broken a heart. Some bonds were impervious to all manner of experience. And the truth was that, no matter what happened, we were sisters. — Roshani Chokshi

Sing as though you're summoning the heavens; silver your voice and bare your throat. — Roshani Chokshi

I would be lying if I said I didn't feel a flicker of envy. But envy did not make one lovelier. Mother Dhina had taught me that. Beauty, coveted though it was, could not outlive you. Only actions would. I never forgot that. In the harem, I might've disliked some girls for the ugliness in their hearts, but never for the beauty of their faces. — Roshani Chokshi

All this time, he thought magic had chosen him. Maybe magic never chose. Maybe it had always been about the fit. A key latching into a hole. Maybe there had been just enough holes in him for magic to slip through and hook him like spurs into cloth. — Roshani Chokshi

When I looked up, I could imagine an existence as vast as the sky. Just as infinite. Just as unknown. — Roshani Chokshi

I know your soul. Everything else is just an ornament. — Roshani Chokshi

The sage smiled. Sometimes a smile was little more than a sliver of teeth. And sometimes a smile was a knife cutting the world in two: before and after. — Roshani Chokshi

Will we see each other again?" she asked softly.
"Yes."
Gauri fell silent. "In this life?"
I turned to face her. "What do you mean?"
"Mother Urvashi says that if I'm bad in this life then I'll come back as a goat in my next life. Which means that there is another life." Gauri didn't look at me, focusing instead on tightly twisting the hem of her gown. "So will you see me again before I'm a goat? — Roshani Chokshi

His smile banished my loneliness and limbed the hollows of my anema with starlight, pure and bright...his touch hummed in my bones like an aria -- a song to my dance, a beginning of a promise. — Roshani Chokshi

I never dared to hope for someone who challenged
and respected me, knew me at my worst and still coaxed out my best. And yet I had found that in the unlikeliest of places and most inconvenient of people. Wasn't that enough to fight for? Could I live with knowing that I'd left him standing in the shadows . . . waiting for me?
I couldn't. And that was all the answer I needed. — Roshani Chokshi

I couldn't decide whether I thought reincarnation was a scare tactic or a hopeful message. — Roshani Chokshi

Where are we going?" I asked. "The main road leads to all of the major kingdoms."
"Not all of them," said Amar. — Roshani Chokshi

What she coaxed out of me was a visceral need to live, and wasn't that what fueled immortality and made it worthwhile anyway? That there were wonders still left to be uncovered? — Roshani Chokshi

I thought you were going to stay away from me," she said.
He looked at her, this princess who seemed so dangerously sharp that he might cut himself just brushing against her shadow.
"I don't know how."
"Then don't. — Roshani Chokshi

Vikram's eyes widened. "What's this? Praise from Her Beastliness in the morning? Are you under a curse that makes you friendly before noon? If so, how do we make it permanent? — Roshani Chokshi

Vikram hated fear. He hated how it fed on him and stripped away his comfortable blindness. Fear forced him to hold up the contents of his heart to the light. — Roshani Chokshi

That was a lie. Of course I remembered. The memory pounced on me the moment I fell asleep. Fire painted my bones when I kissed him. In the back of my head, I'd felt the kind of drowsy hunger that lit up my thoughts when I first ate demon fruit. For more and less. For something impossible. — Roshani Chokshi

You know nothing about me."

"I know your soul. Everything else is an ornament. — Roshani Chokshi

Trust is won in years. Not words. — Roshani Chokshi

Existence is the gift. Life is a choice. — Roshani Chokshi

My joy was ghostly, like something not quite realized. — Roshani Chokshi

The truth," said Amar, taking a step closer to me, "is that you look neither lovely nor demure. You look like edges and thunderstorms. And I would not have you any other way. — Roshani Chokshi

You see, a truth parted with has its own way of becoming a tale. It is told so often that it stumbles in the telling, little bits flaking off, little bits sticking on, and the years accrete and they tend to warp the truth, press it into something it was not at the beginning---not a lie, but a tale. It's easier to see the truth when you disguise it. — Roshani Chokshi

My star-touched queen," he said softly, as if he was remembering something from long ago. "I would break the world to give you what you want. — Roshani Chokshi

I would rip the stars from the sky if you wished it. Anything for you. But remember to trust me. Remember your promise. — Roshani Chokshi

Night heralded sleep and shadows, demons and dreams. But I heralded the night. — Roshani Chokshi

You're welcome, by the way, for dragging you back here. I had a couple offers to sell you and almost considered it."
"Intriguing. For how much? "
"A bag of gold, the ability to make thunderstorms go to sleep. Something else. Five goats? "
"Just five goats? I'm worth at least ten. Plus a cow. — Roshani Chokshi

Her kiss burned in his bones. And maybe it was the magic of Alaka or maybe his mind was splintering from every thing they'd gone through, but he would have sworn she tasted like cold honey and caught magic. — Roshani Chokshi

Find the one who glows, with blood on the lips and fangs in the heart. — Roshani Chokshi

And the truth was that he was not afraid of being seen for what he was. He was afraid of being seen as someone who could never be more. — Roshani Chokshi

I promised you the moon for your throne and stars to wear in your hair," said Amar, gesturing inside. "And I always keep my promises. — Roshani Chokshi

Before he came to Alaka, he dared to hope that he was meant for something more. Now he dared to hope that he could shape that meaning for himself. All this time, he had expected that magic would stitch his future together. But all magic had done was show him how to stitch it together for himself. — Roshani Chokshi

Preservation is an innocent desire. — Roshani Chokshi

An unguarded gaze can spill a thousand secrets. — Roshani Chokshi

I've always loved tales of broken lovers who roam through countrysides singing their stories of woe and separation, their honey- sweet longing for the next life when they can suddenly be re united. It makes other people happy, you see. It makes people grateful that it hasn't happened to them. — Roshani Chokshi

The problem with guilt was not how it attacks the present, but how it stained the past. Hindsight was a blemish on memory. — Roshani Chokshi

In that moment, he looked like mischief and midnight,
like a temptation that always slipped away too fast and left you at once relieved and disappointed. — Roshani Chokshi

In my experience , big words ornament bad news. — Roshani Chokshi

What was sureness and certainty? I used to hold on to certainty like a light inside me, hoping it would chase out the dark unknown. But certainty was a phantom strung together on hopes. It would lead you astray at the first chance. — Roshani Chokshi

In Bharata, I guarded myself. Weakness was a privilege. It divided you, snipped out your secrets and gave every sliver power over you. I didn't have parts to spare. Bharata called me their Jewel, and maybe I was like one. Not sparkling or precious. But a cold thing wearing a hundred faces. Like facets on a gem. One for every person. — Roshani Chokshi

I am a nightmare to most, and a dream for the broken; who am I?' and the answer to that is death." "Correct. — Roshani Chokshi

What I saw in Vikram's gaze rooted me to the spot:
understanding. Those secrets had coaxed a shadowed part of us to step into the light. Understanding felt like a hand reached for and found in the dark. No one had ever looked at me that way because no one, until now, could. — Roshani Chokshi

He stood up. In his own mind, he stepped sideways. Shifting his
thoughts. His fears were his own, weren't they? He'd spun them out
from himself. He'd forged them from every hurt and fury. Fear was a
reminder that even the insubstantial could kill. But insubstantial meant it had no shape. It couldn't be conquered or tamed or avoided. Only moved through, with force and will. Vikram crouched, his fingers splayed on the ground, his breath forming icicles in the air.
His fears bore down. Sharp. Hungry. He grinned.
I made you.
I own you.
He repeated the words like a mantra, until he found the strength to
stand . . .
And run. — Roshani Chokshi

Ah, desire. Such a poisonous thing. — Roshani Chokshi

Did you steal that fruit? " I asked.
"Of course. I want nothing more than to steal apples. I've also always manifested the ability to travel through time, and at night I turn into a beast and only your kiss can break the - "
"I get it. That's a no. — Roshani Chokshi

Love is like Death without the guarantee of its arrival. Love may not come for you, but when it does it will be just as swift and ruthless as Death and just as blind to your protestations. And just as Death will end one life and leave you with another, so will Love. — Roshani Chokshi

The Prince was staring at me strangely. No man had looked at me that way. Men had looked at me in admiration, in fear, in lust. They'd looked at me with disbelief at who I was. He looked at me with disbelief at who I could be. — Roshani Chokshi

Since that night, he needed to tell her . . . something. But what?
"Please don't die" sounded foolish. "You smell nice" sounded worse. He wasn't even sure what the right words were, but they sat on his tongue and made it impossible to speak around them. Before Alaka, he would have been content keeping what ever thorny not- feelings had reared up inside him. But Death commanded urgency. Death tore the skin off dreams and showed the bones under neath. And Vikram saw the bones
now. — Roshani Chokshi

Light refracted off crystal platters piled with blooms the bright color of new blood, and flickering diyas cast smoke against the mirrors, leaving the halls a snarl of mist and petals. I touched the sharp corners. I like the feeling of stone beneath my fingers, of something that pushed back to remind me of my own solidity. — Roshani Chokshi

Night coaxed out the stars, my jailers. — Roshani Chokshi

I loved the feeling of discovery, of not knowing how much I wanted something until I had discovered its absence. — Roshani Chokshi

His smile was disjointed, like he was out of practice. — Roshani Chokshi

A memory is a fine legacy to leave behind. — Roshani Chokshi

I wanted a love thick with time, as inscrutable as if a lathe had carved it from night and as familiar as the marrow in my bones. I wanted the impossible, which made it that much easier to push out of my mind. — Roshani Chokshi

I love you," he murmured into my hair. "You are my night and stars, the fate I would fix myself to in any life. — Roshani Chokshi

Beauty, coveted though it was, could not outlive you. Only actions would. — Roshani Chokshi

I didn't revel in death, but I didn't hate it either. Death had raised me, like an older sibling. Amidst death, I had found my bearings as a soldier. Surrounded by death, I had found my place as a leader. — Roshani Chokshi

And perhaps that in itself was the great secret---not just for legacy, but also for life. You could carry a story inside you and hold it up to the light when you needed it the most. You could peer through it, like a frame, and see how it changed your view when you looked out onto the world. — Roshani Chokshi

A story. This was the key to immortality. The things that made kings quiver and deities distrustful: Nothing but a tale. — Roshani Chokshi

Father once said the real language of diplomacy was in the space between words. — Roshani Chokshi

Memory is a riddled thing. I would caution you from making promises you cannot keep. — Roshani Chokshi

How do you feel? "
"Like I will die if I don't eat this apple."
He considered this. "Then why don't you bite it? See what happens."
"Are you mad? "
"I prefer curious. — Roshani Chokshi

True war isn't philosophical."
"All war is philosophical. That's why we call it war. Strip it of its paint and it's nothing more than murder. — Roshani Chokshi

The best motivation is love," I offered. Beside me, Kamala nodded vigorously. "And food! — Roshani Chokshi

What property is left to dreamers when every idea has been tamed and conquered? What about the poet who dreams of embracing the night sky? It's utterly impossible. And yet the thought of it sparks song and dance, poetry and philosophy. — Roshani Chokshi

The worms do not take heed of caste and rank when they feast on our ashes," the Raja said. "Your subjects will not remember you. They will not remember the shade of your eyes, the colors you favored, or the beauty of your wives. They will only remember your impression upon their hearts and whether you filled them with glee or grief. That is your immortality. — Roshani Chokshi

Enough tiny sharp jabs can cut as deeply as any knife. — Roshani Chokshi

Neither the secret whirring song of the stars nor the sonorous canticles of the earth knew the language that sprang up in the space between us. It was a dialect of heartbeats, strung together with the lilt of long suffering and the incandescent hope of an infinite future. — Roshani Chokshi

They may have covered their lips with silk, but their words were unseathed daggers. — Roshani Chokshi

Gauri laughed when he stumbled through the movements of the dance.
"You are a discredit to your title, Vikram. Fox Prince, indeed," she said. "I've never seen a clumsier fox."
"What I lack in skill, I make up for in enthusiasm."
"Do you even know how to dance?"
"Not at all," he said, spinning her in a circle.
"I can tell. Were you lulled by the music?"
"The company."
"Now you're just trying to be sly and charming."
"I am a credit to my title, after all. — Roshani Chokshi

Nothing was more beautiful than a night sky dusted with stars. Nothing was more terrible than a night sky scrawled with a thousand destinies. Night was inevitable. Like me. — Roshani Chokshi

Relief is when you want something to stop. — Roshani Chokshi

How many times have answers been so simple and yet someone is determined to take the path of thorns instead of roses?" "It's not earned." "That's a very human thing to say." "An inclination I can't help." "It's not about things that are earned, but just things as they are. — Roshani Chokshi

Guilt accretes. It builds and builds, whittling stairways and spires in the heart until a person can carry a city of hopelessness inside them.
My guilt was building a universe. — Roshani Chokshi

I used to think fear either numbed or nudged. Now I knew fear did neither. Fear was a key that fit every person's hollow spaces---those things that kept us cold at night and that place where we retreated when no one was looking---and all it could do was unlock what was already there. — Roshani Chokshi

There is no romance in real grief. Only longing and fury. — Roshani Chokshi

This magic felt like I had glanced at my destiny
sideways, as if I had never seen it for what it was and now the hope of what I wanted most loomed bright and lurid in the corners of my heart. — Roshani Chokshi

No matter where we are, we'll always share the same sky. We can always find each other in the same constellation. — Roshani Chokshi

I will not let us be beings of regret. I know my past. What I want is my future. — Roshani Chokshi

It's only those that deserve nothing that want everything — Roshani Chokshi

Who wanted to be smiled at by the girl that trailed shadows like pets, conjured snakes and waited for Death, her bridegroom, to steal her from these walls? — Roshani Chokshi

Now she looked at him. She didn't soften. Or smile. If anything, she had become a little of the ground on which they stood. Cold and lovely. But won der poured out of her eyes. Won der and something like . . . relief. And if he thought there was fi re under his skin earlier, it was nothing compared to now. Now he had swallowed the sun. Now the world had stopped lurching forward and begun an impossible dance. — Roshani Chokshi

It is foolish to cling to ghosts or spent bones. It is better to forge ahead — Roshani Chokshi

Do not waste your life mourning the dead. — Roshani Chokshi

Then what do you want form me?"

"I want to lie beside you and know the weight of your dreams," he said, brushing his lips against my knuckles. "I want to share whole worlds with you and write your name in the stars." He moved closer and a chorus of songbirds twittered silver melodies.

"I want to measure eternity with your laughter."

Now, he stood inches from me; his rough hands encircled my waist. "Be my queen and I promise you a life where you will never be bored. I promise you more power than a hundred kings. And I promise you that we will always be equals. — Roshani Chokshi

Death might be waiting, but I was going to be a queen. would have my throne if I had to carve a path of blood and bone to get it back.
Death could wait. — Roshani Chokshi

The Night Bazaar had ensnared me. I could smell its perfume on my skin - of stories and secrets, flashing teeth and slow smiles. — Roshani Chokshi

Stop admiring the view," he said.
"Critiquing it."
"What do you find lacking? "
"Honor."
"Alas. I must have misplaced it. — Roshani Chokshi

In the face of that fear, maybe the mind couldn't help but scrape together feelings toward the only person we had a connection to. That was all it was. A consequence
of survival? — Roshani Chokshi

People always think killing requires a force: a cup of poison tipped into a mouth, a knife parting flesh from bone, a fist brought down repeatedly.
Wrong.
Here's how you kill: You stay silent, you make bargains that peel the layers off your soul one by one, you build a scaffolding of flimsy excuses and live your life on them. I may have killed to save, but I killed all the same. — Roshani Chokshi

But Vikram had seen through every facet, holding me against the light as if I truly were translucent, and instead of making me feel as if I had been looked through and found wanting, I felt . . . seen. — Roshani Chokshi

I can't believe you didn't have a real weapon on hand," I said.
"I have my mind," he said. "You should thank me."
I raised my chained hands. "I am bursting with gratitude. — Roshani Chokshi

You're certain that rakshasi fruit is out of your system?" asked Vikram.
"Yes?"
"Good." He took a deep breath. "Because, once more, I told you so."
"You do realize that I don't need the enhancements of demon fruit to knock you to the ground?"
"I do. But I concede that some bodily harm from you is inevitable. I'm just trying to minimize the damage."
"How very wise," I said, rolling my eyes. — Roshani Chokshi

Come with me and you shall be an empress with the moon for your throne and constellations to wear in your hair. Come — Roshani Chokshi

What was magic anyway, but the world beheld by someone who chose to see it differently? — Roshani Chokshi