Chokshi And 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

How many years had he spent believing that he was meant for more? Sometimes he thought his head was a snarl of myth and folktales, where magic coaxed ignored princes out of the shadows and gave them a crown and a legend to live in. He used to wait for the moment when magic would drape a new world over his eyes. But time turned his hopes dull and lightless. — 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

Since you can't respond yet and since you have no claws left, I will take this moment to remind you that you thought eating the demon fruit would be a bad idea. It was not. To which I say - " He drew a deep breath. " - I told you so."

"Fool," muttered the vetala.

I snarled and with one last burst of strength, swiped my paw behind Vikram's knees and sent him tumbling. He gasped.

"I will," he wheezed, rolling onto his stomach, "take your silence as a form of agreement. — 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

I'll never forget what burning roses look like. All those scarlet petals turning incandescent and furious. Like the last fl are of the sun before an eclipse swallows it from the sky. — Roshani Chokshi

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

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

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

It felt silly to say that he couldn't bear to lose her. He never had her. She was not a thing to be possessed. But her entrance in his life had conjured light. And losing the light of her would plunge him into a darkness he'd never find his way out of. — Roshani Chokshi

Vicious and sweet," said Vikram, shaking his head. "Beastly girl."
"You like me, don't lie," I teased.
"I couldn't lie if I tried," he said quietly. — 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

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

His hope was cold. Poisonous. Eclipsing. And he
fed it anyway, the way someone feeds something out of habit simply because there is nothing else in their life worth growing. — Roshani Chokshi

I take inspiration where I can, and devour it in one piece like I'm starving. Not because I think it's something fleeting that will never return but because I think the best inspiration is the kind that makes you feel urgent. Like you're racing against yourself to get a story on the page while you still remember what that magic feels like. — 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

Sometimes weakness wore the face of strength, and sometimes strength wore the face of weakness. — 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

Ever since I lost Maya in the forest, I hated magic. It swallowed
people whole the way it swallowed my sister. Instead of leaving me a body to mourn, the Otherworld had left me with a chest full of caution and a string of nightmares. — Roshani Chokshi

And in such bliss does devastation grow. — 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

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

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

As I got older, the scar reminded me of what people would choose to see if you let them. So I smiled at the attendant, and hoped that she saw a dimpled grin, and not the scar from a girl who started training with very sharp things from a very young age. — 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

The moment he touched me, my universe constricted to the space between our lips. We were a snarl of limbs and bright-burning kisses. — Roshani Chokshi

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

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. — 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

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

He had spent hours listening to how the pull of certain people would supposedly make the world stop. Now he knew it was wrong. The word hadn't stopped. The world had just started to churn and breathe and live. — Roshani Chokshi

They will only remember your impression upon their hearts and whether you filled them with glee or grief. That is your immortality." With — Roshani Chokshi

He studied it, steepling his long fingers. I groaned. Enough was enough.
"Why do you do that?"
"Do what?"
"That." I mimicked his hands, flattened my brows and tried to make my eyes look somewhat insane.
"I will have you know that it is my meditative pose."
"I will have you know that you look ridiculous."
"What about you?" he asked. He sucked in his cheeks and glowered, pointing at his face and then pointing at me. "What kind of meditative pose is that?"
"It's not a meditative pose at all," I shot back.
"My apologies. Is it your bellicose-let-me-drain-your-blood face? Could you not master an expression that looked less like an outraged cat?"
"Better than steepling my hands and looking like an overgrown spider."
"An overgrown spider who is rarely wrong."
"My bellicose-let-me-drain-your-blood face has saved your life."
"And this overgrown-spider pose is about to save yours. — Roshani Chokshi

I know emptiness. I know the taste of blood against my teeth. I know what it is to fill your belly with iron. I know hunger. I know pain. I know memories that won't stay. I know the ghost of life and the perfume of souls. — 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

Ruling Akaran is a strange task. In many ways, it is like balancing an illusion. You must separate the illusion of what you see and the reality of its consequences," he said. "Tell me, my queen, are you ready to play with fate? — Roshani Chokshi

It is nice to be nice," said Kamala with a sage nod. "And it is also nice to eat people. — Roshani Chokshi

But for the first time, I wanted to believe in the things that outlasted us: the stories that came to life in a child's head, the fear of the dark, the hunger to live. Those were the footsteps that not even Time could discover and erase, because they lived far out of reach, in the song of blood coursing through veins and in the quiet threads that made up dreams. I wanted to hold the hope of those tales within me and follow it like a lure all the way back to myself. — 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

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

Beside him, the world was a soft, pulsing and bright thing, alive with hidden angles that we could uncover one by one. It was more than magic. It was life turned relentless and astral. And I reveled in it. — Roshani Chokshi

He'd built his life on wanting the impossible - true power, recognition, a future - and now magic had found him the moment he stopped looking. It breathed life into all those old dreams, filling him with that most terrible of questions:
What if . . . — Roshani Chokshi

Beside him, Gauri looked distraught. Chivalry demanded that he
should inquire after the Princess's well- being. She caught
him looking at her and frowned:
"You're heaving like a water buffalo in its death throes."
Never mind. — Roshani Chokshi

What about a love charm, then?" persisted the owner, pushing a flower carved of pearl to me. "To awaken your lover's interest," she added with a wink.
At this, Amar walked to the table and slid the flower rather ungently back toward the owner.
"I am her husband. She needs no charm to hold my interest. — 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

A story had no owner ship. A story could break its bones, grow wings, soar out of reach and dive out of sight in the time it took just to draw breath. It meant we weren't walking a cut path. We carved it into existence with
every step. — 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

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

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

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

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

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

Have some faith."
"Between faith and distrust, which one is more likely to keep you alive?"
"And which one is more likely to let you experience living?"
I threw up my hands. "Why is everything so philosophical with you?"
He shrugged. "I like thinking. — 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

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

This was the court of Bharata, a city like a bone spur - tacked on like an afterthought. Its demons were different: harem wives with jewels in their hair hair and hate in their heart, courtiers with mouths full of lies, a father who knew me only as a colored stone around his neck. Those were the monsters I knew. My world didn't have room for more. — 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

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

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

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

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

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

No magical abilities had ever revealed themselves to me no matter how much I wished for them. But I had a vast source of will. And will was an enchantment that no being could touch because I alone could wield it. That was power. — Roshani Chokshi

Instinctively, I shoved Vikram behind me and brought out the dagger. — 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

Her power was a wrenching thing, starless black and sorrow, but my magic was something more...it was hope. — 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

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

Surviving isn't just about cutting out your heart and burning every feeling into ash. Sometimes it means taking what ever is thrown at you, beautiful or grotesque, poisonous or blissful, and carving out your life with the pieces you're given. — Roshani Chokshi

There was more she wanted to say. He could feel the words scrabbling at the clasps of her thoughts, eager to be known. Freed. But she stood there, stony- faced and impassive. And he remembered the girl he had glimpsed from the Grotto - the one who let her shoulders drop when no one looked, the one who fought every day when no one noticed. The one who had once hoped that the Night Bazaar traded on dreams. She deserved more than loneliness. — 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