Bitter blue 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

Brian, could you attempt, at least, to make yourself presentable? I know this is a war, but the rest of us are trying to pretend it’s a party.

— Kristin Cashore

Brian was saying her name, and he was sending her a feeling. It was courage and strength, and something else too, as if he were standing with her, as if he'd taken her within himself, letting her rest her entire body for a moment on his backbone, her mind in his mind, her heart in the fire of his. The fire of Brian's heart was astounding. Fire understood, and almost could not believe, that the feeling he was sending her was love.

— Kristin Cashore

But everyone has some kind of power to hurt people.

— Kristin Cashore

But she remembered having told Archer once that you could not measure love on a scale of degrees, and now she understood that it was the same with pain. Pain might escalate upward and, just when you thought you'd reached your limit, begin to spread sideways, and spill out, and touch other people, and mix with their pain. And grow larger, but somehow less oppressive. She had thought herself trapped in a place outside the ordinary feeling lives of people; she had not noticed how many people were trapped in that place with her.

— Kristin Cashore

But that's how memory works," Bitter blue said quietly. "Things disappear without your permission, then come back again without your permission." And sometimes they came back incomplete and warped.

— Kristin Cashore

Circumstances don't always align themselves with human intention.

— Kristin Cashore

Could you attempt, at least, to make yourself presentable? I know this is a war, but the rest of us are trying to pretend it's a party.

— Kristin Cashore

Did you ever love someone," Lucy says, "and know they love you, and you're attracted to them, and you know they're attracted to you, and so many things are exactly right, but it doesn't matter, because the few things that are wrong are completely, totally fucked?

— Kristin Cashore

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

— Kristin Cashore