Kiernan Quotes & Sayings

No one we knew ever believed that there was anything between us but the sex and some virulent allure, my dirty dishwater circling the drain of you. Not a pretty comparison but maybe it's the best we'll ever deserve, either of us. — Caitlin R. Kiernan

Chance takes a deep breath, fills her lungs with all the brightness getting in through the window, filling herself with that sane and ordinary air, with what she knows is real, reality to make her brave. — Caitlin R. Kiernan

Demons never die quietly, and a week ago the storm was a proper demon, sweeping through the Caribbean after her long ocean crossing from Africa, a category five when she finally came ashore at San Juan before moving on to Santo Domingo and then Cuba and Florida. But now she's grown very old, as her kind measures age, and these are her death throes. So she holds tightly to this night, hanging on with the desperate fury of any dying thing, any dying thing that might once have thought itself invincible. — Caitlin R. Kiernan

You take my breath. Did you know that?"
Matt bit his lip and shook his head.
Kiernan leaned back enough to look into his eyes. "You're a beautiful man, Matthew Bennett," he said, voice soft but intense as he stroked him more firmly. "And someone should tell you that, every day for the rest of your life. — Diana Copland

(CBI lecture, Dublin, 2008. Speaking on the challenges presented by The Moorehawke Trilogy to the YA reader)
You can't choose any of these characters and say, 'Yes! I'm completely on your side. You are the good guy! You are the one I agree with.' Because at some stage along the way every single one of these characters will let you down. They may not want to. They may have no choice. But they will let you down. — Celine Kiernan

Yeah, that's what I saw. But I learned a long time ago that some stuff I see when I touch these things, some of it can be influence by other people who touched them before me, by what those people believed. If those beliefs are strong enough, Chance, it's like they can leave impressions behind, the same way that actual events can. — Caitlin R. Kiernan

On the ghosts in Moorehawke & Into The Grey/Taken Away:
The ghosts ... are symbolic of those unresolved moments in history that linger, and affect the next generation. Sometimes this happens without that generation ever really knowing the truth of what has come before. This is so true of war, I think, where we are often only left the stories that the previous generation wanted us to hear ... How much harder would the truth be to deny were it lingering about as an actual manifestation of the past? — Celine Kiernan

I love organization, so I split my clothes into two closets according to seasons. — Kiernan Shipka

Assassination is almost always unthinkable to moral, thinking men until after a holocaust has come and gone. — Caitlin R. Kiernan

Dancy closes her eyes, remembering all the times that have been so much worse than this, all the horror and shame and sorrow to give her strength. The burning parts of her no one and nothing can ever touch, the fire where her soul used to be. — Caitlin R. Kiernan

And all the shelves rising up around her like book-lined walls of a fortress, safe in here, always safe in here from the world, guarded by books and all the secrets inside them, all the things hardly anyone else will ever care to learn. — Caitlin R. Kiernan

You can't be just a scribe, or a wizard. Nameless God," he cried, raking a hand through his hair. "I wish they had never found you, never made you think you were the princess. Nothing else, will ever be good enough, not now. You'll never be happy. You'll throw yourself into danger, take it all on yourself, just to prove that they were all wrong about you. And I just-I just-"
And without warning, he stepped on front of me, grabbed my shoulders to stop my pacing, and kissed me. — Eilis O'Neal

Whatever they'd done to him, it had shaken something lose. "No," he repeated, calmer. "No. I'll save you for last. I owe you for what you did to me. I'll make you suffer like I did, then I'll bring you in."
And just like that, the fragile patchwork of hope shattered, stealing my breath and bleeding me dry. My hand closed around something - I had no idea what, but it was heavy. That was all I cared about. "Good," I said, resigned. I loved Kale and I'd do anything to get him back, but I wasn't stupid. "Then that gives me time."
"For what?"
I whipped the object - it turned out to be a wrench - around and slammed it into the side of Kale's head as Alex yanked up the garage door. "To knock some frigging sense into you."
I raced toward Alex as Kale went down and Kiernan burst through the door. — Jus Accardo

I've been playing since I was 5, but I wouldn't say that I'm serious about the piano. — Kiernan Shipka

One of my favorite apps is VSCO, which is for editing photos. I think they have great filters. And then I read the New York Times. — Kiernan Shipka

Just because something is hard to do doesn't mean you gotta do it.' Homer Simpson — Thomas Kiernan

Kiernan told me-" Tears I hadn't even felt coming on suddenly began streaming down my cheeks. I had to swallow a sob before I could continue. "He told me he was sorry for-for loving me. He was s-sorry because," a deep breath helped me regain some of my waning control, "he didn't want to hut me. His biggest fear was the pain he'd cause those he cared about after he was gone. But I think we can all agree that knowing Kiernan for even a single day was worth a lifetime of grief — Jamie Canosa

Language is a poor enough means of communication as it is. So we should use all the words we have. — Caitlin R. Kiernan

Well I was a Gerber baby, so probably that was my first money. But in cash, I used to do lemonade stands a lot. — Kiernan Shipka

Each kid got a small allowance for helping with the harvests, and Kiernan would always head straight to the tobacco shop. Not for cigarettes. At first, he even threw the cigarettes away, but later he'd save them and sell them to the older kids to get enough money for another pack.
Kiernan didn't want the smokes. He wanted the baseball cards.
When we got back to the Farm, Kiernan would sketch out a baseball diamond in the dirt and we'd stage games with the players from the cards he collected. — Rysa Walker

Kiernan leans forward. "I'm guessing that's because you can make it work, Mr. Houdini. Maybe that's how you manage . . ." He pauses when my kick lands on his shin, but finishes the sentence anyway. ". . . some of your more elaborate escapes. — Rysa Walker

I'm not sure why he's flustered until I realize there are now five of us and the table is set for four.
Pru waves her hand dismissively. "Don't bother. The dark-haired one is just my bodyguard. He can stand."
Kiernan seems entirely unfazed by the comment, but her tone pisses me off. — Rysa Walker

A phenomenon that might seem only backwards or silly when expressed at a social level becomes madness at the individual level. — Caitlin R. Kiernan

I hate a messy closet. I totally freak out when my closet is messy and I can't find anything. — Kiernan Shipka

Well, I'm expecting great things from you, young man!"
"Th-thank you, Brother Cyrus." As soon as he released my shoulders, I hurried over to the glass wall where Kiernan was sitting, frowning out at the ocean like it had done something to piss him off. — Rysa Walker

It's a myth that crazy people don't know they're crazy. Many of us are surely as capable of epiphany and introspection as anyone else, maybe more so. I suspect we spend far more time thinking about our thoughts than do sane people. — Caitlin R. Kiernan

I began to imagine orchestration where before I heard only the cacophony of randomness. Crazy people do that all the time, unless you buy into the notion that we have the ability to perceive order and connotation in ways closed off to the minds of "sane" people. I don't. Subscribe to that notion, I mean. We are not gifted. We are not magical. We are slightly or profoundly broken. — Caitlin R. Kiernan

There is no way to bring back what is lost, but maybe telling a tale of beauty is a form of mourning. — Stephen Kiernan

My life had become one long cliffhanger — Celine Kiernan

We were watching telly the night Nan burnt the house down. — Celine Kiernan

I am a huge fashion fan. It's a really cool way to express yourself. — Kiernan Shipka

I don't know if I've ever screamed or cried for a band. — Kiernan Shipka

So why didn't he vanish?" Charlayne nods toward Kiernan. "After Max took his key, he should have disappeared, right?"
"I would have," Kiernan says, "except someone was wise enough to give me a backup when I was eight. This isn't the first time it's saved me. — Rysa Walker

Kiernan, the less you know, the better. You're always telling me to just trust you and do what you're asking, and I do - "
He snorts. "When it suits you."
"Okay, but I do when it seems important. And this is really, really important. — Rysa Walker

Kiernan hoists one of the bags and slips the strap over my shoulder. I grab the other one, and soon I'm loaded like a pack mule, lugging two bulky military duffels in addition to my backpack.
Trey leans down to give me a goodbye kiss, but his lips are quivering with barely suppressed laughter.
"What?"
"You should see yourself. The toga, the sandals, and now this. You look like a short Greek Rambo."
"Athena, Goddess of Modern War," Kiernan cracks as they get into the car. And now they're both laughing.
I pull up the stable point and blink out, now completely certain that the two of them riding in the same car was a very bad idea. — Rysa Walker

YA heroines can choose to have sex & they can choose not to without either decision becoming the focus of their story. — Celine Kiernan

I am always texting! — Kiernan Shipka

Julia follows the beach, the sand that is so white it makes her doubt the beaches in Heaven could possibly be any whiter, the water like peacock feathers lapping at the shore, vivid green blue going hyacinth out where the sea starts getting deep. — Caitlin R. Kiernan

Any day acting is an amazing day. — Kiernan Shipka

The divine is always abominable.
Houses Under The Sea — Caitlin R. Kiernan

I'd definitely like to go to college some day. — Kiernan Shipka

I am usually at my most brutally forthright when making shit up. That's the paradox of me. — Caitlin R. Kiernan

Every month, the US is spending more on the Iraqi war than it took to reach Saturn and Titan. Mass murder is expensive, and good science is relatively cheap. — Caitlin R. Kiernan

When we've decided to tell the truth in a story, we should tell good, strong versions of it, proper versions that kids can do something with. — Celine Kiernan

I shouldn't be this tired when I try to find my way back to the tree. I'll rest for a while, and I'll drift back down to the orchard, and the stone wall. I'll lie in my bed and wait. Someone has turned the ponies out again. — Caitlin R. Kiernan

Ordinary people need to lead and not sit there and think that governments are going to spoon-feed them and look after them and look after the country, because they won't. — Ian Kiernan

That's another sort of being haunted: starting something and never finishing it. — Caitlin R. Kiernan

My style is constantly changing. — Kiernan Shipka

All too infrequently do I encounter a new voice as delightful, compelling, and intelligent as that of Molly Tanzer. — Caitlin R. Kiernan

Too often, it occurs to him that he's lived just long enough to have completely outlived the world that made sense to him, the world where he fit. He — Caitlin R. Kiernan

The first scene I ever appeared in, it was the first scene I ever shot [during my] first day on set. I walk up to my mom with a plastic bag over my head and she says that her clothes better not be on the floor, not that a plastic bag is not a safety hazard or anything. I think it's a really cute scene and also just a very vivid memory. — Kiernan Shipka

Think of it." Now he is speaking to you, no one but you. "It may not matter what we want for science, or what we think is ethical. All we must do is provide the right environment, and let the heart do what it desires. The heart wants to beat. — Stephen Kiernan

And what is life but a little row in a small boat, every moment leaving what we know, every stroke unable to see where we are headed? — Stephen P. Kiernan

I am a dead woman. Dead and insane. — Caitlin R. Kiernan

Kiernan. I had a sudden memory of the small, scuffed-up shoe I'd seen just before I fell. He must have snatched the bracelet when the crowd gathered around me. If I managed to get out, I resolved to give him every last penny I had and cover his little face with kisses. — Rysa Walker

I realize how arrogant it is to claim I can sort what is relevant from what is irrelevant. — Caitlin R. Kiernan

No sound here but the river lapping hungry at the edge of the forest, the sigh of the wind in the leaves and the rasping drone of insects. — Caitlin R. Kiernan

Kiernan spins around nervously, eyes flicking between the door we just entered and one at the other end of the room. "You forgot to mention the guards. Kind of important, Pru!"
"Why? You've got a gun. And Evie says your friend there is a baby ninja. — Rysa Walker

Aren't we the strangest amalgamation of motives and misspent dreams? — Susan Kiernan-Lewis

It is always Dark. Light only hides the Darkness. - DANIEL KIAN MC KIERNAN — Al Sarrantonio

The horse is dead," she says and squeezes Soldier's hand. "From here we walk."
"Anyone ever told you you're sort of a creepy kid?" Odd Willie asks.
"All the damn time," Emmie tells him. "I don't bother keeping count anymore. — Caitlin R. Kiernan

I love ballet. Ballet is its own being. It has its own vocabulary. I feel as if I am in a different world when I am in the ballet studio. — Kiernan Shipka

I design some of my own clothes now. — Kiernan Shipka

Listen: Love your fiction, even if you hate the act of creating that fiction, love the stories to a fault. Cry at your tragedies, laugh at your jokes, rejoice at your character's victories - or give it all up and go knit a damned sweater, instead. — Caitlin R. Kiernan

So, here are my windows, stained all with me. — Caitlin R. Kiernan

Her words, her jumbled, mad thoughts tamed or simply broken, made language, and she took another drag off the Lucky, exhaled, and read the last sentence aloud. — Caitlin R. Kiernan

Give him a crowd, a gallery worthy of his best effort, and the old warrior will put on his show ... He isn't what he use to be. But pack the stands, turn up the lights, and who is it brings down the house with his act? The Babe! — John J. Kiernan

Normal is a bitter pill that we rail against. — Caitlin R. Kiernan

Where's Kiernan?" I asked.
"He's with Brother Cyrus. Your turn."
The blood drained from my face and I stepped back, toward the wall. One of the older women, Glory, had died from a heart attack the year before. At the burial, all of the adults patted each other on the back and said she was with Brother Cyrus now.
The key suddenly felt like a lit coal in my hand, and I dropped it to the floor.
Patrick must have realized what I was thinking from my expression. "No, stupid," he said, as he bent down to pick up the key. "He's not dead. He's with Cyrus. In the future. He's fine. You'll be fine. — Rysa Walker

Chance smiled back at him, and Well, can you think of anything else I could do with my life that could ever possibly be half this splendid, half this important? I'm learning to read, Deke, and not just the handful of things men have been around long enough to write down. The history of the whole damned planet is written in rocks, just lying there waiting for us to learn how to read it. — Caitlin R. Kiernan

He said he doesn' have it. Pick on someone your own size." You could really hear the Irish in Kiernan's voice back then. I mean, you can still hear it, but it's more of a lilt when he's older. Back then, it was a full-on brogue. — Rysa Walker

I am a part of everything that I have read. — John Kiernan

Art should never be a slave to commerce, but for all working artists that's exactly what it must be. — Caitlin R. Kiernan

Kiernan and baseball - it's like waving a carrot in front of a mule. Put tickets to a ballgame in front of Kiernan's face and he'll follow you pretty much wherever you want to go. After that first game we attended in 1905, it didn't take much for me to convince him to see another game in 1912, and then one in 1924, and so on. — Rysa Walker

A YA heroine does not have to pick up a weapon nor wear men's clothing to be equal to her male counterparts. — Celine Kiernan

I inspect everything more closely, and there is about every surface - the river, the forest, the bark of the trees, the underbrush between them, even my own skin - there is about it all the unmistakable texture of linen stretched and framed. And this is when I feel the camel's hair brush and the oil paint dabbing tenderly, meticulously, at the space below my navel. — Caitlin R. Kiernan

No story has a beginning, and no story has an end. Beginnings and endings may be conceived to serve a purpose, to serve a momentary and transient intent, but they are, in their fundamental nature, arbitrary and exist solely as a convenient construct in the minds of man. Lives are messy, and when we set out to relate them, or parts of them, we cannot ever discern precise and objective moments when any given event began. All beginnings are arbitrary. — Caitlin R. Kiernan

You see, I've read Mr. Grumbine's treatise on auras, and while it does depend on the shade, a green aura can be a mark of deception or dishonesty."
I shoot Kiernan a smug glance. While I'm certain this aura stuff is total bunk, he and Prudence both see the light as green. "Does this Mr. Grumbine say anything about blue auras?"
"Again, it depends on the shade. But it's usually associated with truth. — Rysa Walker

A female character can: Like babies, Be devoted to her lover, Cry, Be gentle, Be scared, Be uncertain, Take advice, and still be a YA heroine — Celine Kiernan

(on teaching writing)
So many writers come to class with one question dominant in their mind, 'How do I make a living from this?' It's a fair enough question and one I always try to answer well - but it saddens me that it so often overshadows the more relevant questions of 'why am I writing' and 'what am I saying' and 'how do I keep it honest. — Celine Kiernan

So what'd we miss?" Jade pulled a chair from the next table and wedged it between Kale and Dax.
"We were just about to vote you off the island," I said, stirring my coffee.
"You've got my vote," Kiernan said enthusiastically, glaring at Jade. — Jus Accardo

Ghosts are those memories that are too strong to be forgotten for good, echoing across the years and refusing to be obliterated by time. — Caitlin R. Kiernan

What makes us brave isn't lacking the good sence to be afraid; it's looking back at what we've lived through and seeing if we've faced it well. — Caitlin R. Kiernan

Simple, easy actions can protect the health of our water resources and help save drinking water supplies. There is not one individual who cannot help to make a difference to the health of the environment — Ian Kiernan

Interview on The Skiffy and Fanty Show 2010. In response to query that young adults may not be open to the nuances/realism in Moorehawke:

'(In fact)young adult readers seem to (be very inclined)to reading the (Moorehawke) books thematically. Some (not all) adult reviewers ... tend to be very plot oriented. Because the books are a slow release of information and very character driven ... (they) don't reward impatient reading ... but young adults seem to be very patient readers. They're very analytical as well. I get very analytical responses from my young adult readers. — Celine Kiernan

A dictator decrees," she later wrote, "a president asks Congress for permission to organize. — Denise Kiernan

Hold out for the best there is, Kiernan. You should have it. Make sure that there's fire. Maybe there'll be ice, too, but hold out for the extremes, for the best, the brightest. Don't accept anything lukewarm. Because you're fire and ice, and you're the brightest and the best, Kiernan. — Heather Graham

That tug against my heart, the painless, invisible cord trying to pull me forward, rips something from me like the shirt being torn from my back, and I scream as part of me is left behind. — Celine Kiernan

Originality is the most deadly mirage in all of art. You can chase it from now until doomsday, and you'll only find yourself lost and dying of thirst. — Caitlin R. Kiernan

I'd feel a lot better about this if that spell had worked," Kiernan hissed.
"Don't tell me that I'm going to have to drag you along," I whispered back. "This is a real adventure, Kiernan. Just think, if we manage to get out of all this without being killed or imprisoned, you'll have such stories to tell the ladies at court."
"Are you sure that this isn't blasphemy? We're going to desecrate the grave of the Nameless God's chosen ones."
"We aren't going to desecrate it," I insisted. "We're just going to look around it. And besides, since when have you worried about blasphemy?"
He snorted, but softly. "Let's go, then. — Eilis O'Neal

YA heroines can have romances that are subplots: can have goals other than getting/keeping a man: can put their lovers second. JUST LIKE YAheroes DO! — Celine Kiernan

I do listen to some music, but I don't technically have one band I'm absolutely hooked on. — Kiernan Shipka

The long nub end of afternoon spent at her keyboard, her hands moving so much slower than her racing mind, The frustrating lag between her thoughts and the hunt and peck; a hot flood of ideas where there had been months of trickling, uncertain sentences, and Sadie trying to keep up with herself, wishing she'd taken typing in high school, scared that this inspiration would grow restless, impatient with her, and slink back to whatever hole it crawled out of. — Caitlin R. Kiernan

A book may only be judged for what it is, not what you'd like it to be. — Caitlin R. Kiernan

... but that was a long time ago, a long story everyone's tired of repeating, or a short story simply not worth repeating again. — Caitlin R. Kiernan

I always try to read at night, because it gets me kind of tired. — Kiernan Shipka

The writing of a novel or short story or poem or whatever should elevate the audience, not drag the writer down to some level beneath herself. And she - the author - should fight always to prevent that dragging down, especially when the only possible benefit of allowing it to happen is monetary. — Caitlin R. Kiernan

I do lots of activities. I hang out with friends. — Kiernan Shipka

Things settled into a lazy pattern. School, chores, and long hours down by the river. Kiernan talked about the books he read sometimes, even loaned me a few. But I liked it better when he read to me or just told me the stories. The words were more real that way, more exciting. Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer, Ragged Dick, and all the others seemed flat and dull on the page, but Kiernan was good at making them come alive. — Rysa Walker

Some things are worth the splurge. — Kiernan Shipka