Anne Ursu Quotes

She understood. They were plastic flowers of words—but they looked nice on the surface.

In woods where the woodsmen told lies, maybe it was the wolves who told the truth.

This is what it is to live in the world. You have to give yourself over to the cold, at least a little bit.

Sometimes superheroes are born, sometimes they are made. Sometimes they make themselves. Sometimes all it takes is will.

Kids can handle a lot more than you think they can. It's when they get to be grown up that you have to start worrying.

It snowed right before Jack stopped talking to Hazel, fluffy white flakes big enough to show their crystal architecture, like perfect geometric poems.

Her father said she was a princess. He did not see that she was a brave knight.

What are you supposed to do when something like that happens? Do you hold on or let go?

They said words they did not mean, and their conversations seemed to follow all kinds of rules—rules that no one has ever explained to Oscar.

She just eyed them coolly, as if they were nothing to her, as if their nothingness surprised and slightly repelled her.

He could still escape—the fear was in front of him, and all he had to do was wrench free and run in the other direction. But he kept walking forward, straight into its embrace.

It was a beautiful lie that they had all been telling themselves—that you could have magic without monsters.

Someone who thinks of possessing a fountain made of a winged baby with water shooting out of its mouth must not have too many troubles.

This was not [him]. It was a thing, with all the [him]-ness gone from it. Death takes the person and leaves his shell behind, like a hollowed-out tree.

He's gone now. He did something terrible, but...he did good things, too. And he kept us well. And it's all right if you are sad.

At each step there is a small moment of transformation that cannot be overlooked or rushed. And these moments should not be, because they are beautiful.

His words sounded foolish to his own ears. He was not impressive. He was small like the world.