"And that is how change happens. One gesture. One person. One moment at a time."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)tags: change528

"People have a habit of inventing fictions they will believe wholeheartedly in order to ignore the truth they cannot accept."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)362

"In each of us lie good and bad, light and dark, art and pain, choice and regret, cruelty and sacrifice. We’re each of us our own chiaroscuro, our own bit of illusion fighting to emerge into something solid, something real. We’ve got to forgive ourselves that. I must remember to forgive myself. Because there is a lot of grey to work with. No one can live in the light all the time."— Libba Bray296

"You can never really know someone completely. That’s why it’s the most terrifying thing in the world, really—taking someone on faith, hoping they’ll take you on faith too. It’s such a precarious balance, It’s a wonder we do it at all. And yet.."— Libba Braytags: faith, people253

"I am a jumble of passions, misgivings, and wants. It seems that I am always in a state of wishing and rarely in a state of contentment."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)245

"Shall I tell you a story? A new and terrible one? A ghost story? Are you ready? Shall I begin? Once upon a time there were four girls. One was pretty. One was clever. One charming, and one...one was mysterious. But they were all damaged, you see. Something not right about the lot of them. Bad blood. Big dreams. Oh, I left that part out. Sorry, that should have come before. They were all dreamers, these girls. One by one, night after night, the girls came together. And they sinned. Do you know what that sin was? No one? Pippa? Ann? Their sin was that they believed. Believed they could be different. Special. They believed they could change what they were--damaged, unloved. Cast-off things. They would be alive, adored, needed. Necessary. But it wasn't true. This is a ghost story remember? A tragedy. They were misled. Betrayed by their own stupid hopes. Things couldn't be different for them, because they weren't special after all. So life took them, led them, and they went along, you see? They faded before their own eyes, till they were nothing more than living ghosts, haunting each other with what could be. With what can't be. There, now. Isn't that the scariest story you've ever heard?"— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)238

"We all do things we desperately wish we could undo. Those regrets just become part of who we are, along with everything else. To spend time trying to change that, well, it's like chasing clouds."— Libba Braytags: regret225

"I know because I read...Your mind is not a cage. It's a garden. And it requires cultivating."— Libba Braytags: inspirational221

"What if evil doesn't really exist? What if evil is something dreamed up by man, and there is nothing to struggle against except out own limitations? The constant battle between our will, our desires, and our choices?"— Libba Bray (Rebel Angels)217

"It is funny how you do not miss affection until it is given, but once it is, it can never be enough; you would drown in it if possible."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)tags: gemma, libba-bray202

"Do you ever feel that way?""Lonely?"I search for the words. "Restless. As if you haven't really met yourself yet. As is you'd passed yourself once in the fog, and your heart leapt - 'Ah! There I Am! I've been missing that piece!' But it happens too fast, and then that part of you disappears into the fog again. And you spend the rest of your days looking for it."He nods, and I think he's appeasing me. I feel stupid of having said it. It's sentimental and true, and I've revealed a part of myself I shouldn't have."Do you know what I think?" Kartik says at last."What?"Sometimes, I think you can glimpse it in another."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)

"To those who will see, the world waits."— Libba Braytags: inspirational164

"When I dream, I dream of him. For several nights now he’s come to me, waving from a distant shore as if he’s been waiting patiently for me to arrive. He doesn’t utter a word, but his smile says everything: I’ve missed you."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)161

"Because you don't notice the light without a bit of shadow. Everything has both dark and light. You have to play with it till you get it exactly right."— Libba Bray157

"There are no safe choices. Only other choices. There are no safe choices

— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)tags: choice155

"I run after her, not really giving chase. I’m running because I can, because I must.Because I want to see how far I can go before I have to stop."— Libba Braytags: life146

"Power changes everything till it is difficult to say who are the heroes and who the villians."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)tags: power145

"There is an ancient tribal proverb I once heard in India. It says that before we can see properly we must first shed our tears to clear the way. "— Libba Bray132

"But we can't go back. We can only go forward."— Libba Braytags: forgiveness, life132

"We sit and listen and are enthralled anew, for good stories, it seems, never lose their magic."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)124

"Sometimes we seek that which we are not yet ready to find."— Libba Bray (Rebel Angels)tags: fantasy, young-adult114

"And for a moment, I understand that I have friends on this lonely path; that sometimes your place is not something you find, but something you have when you need it."— Libba Bray (Rebel Angels)110

"You must remember, my dear lady, the most important rule of any successful illusion: First, the people must want to believe in it."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)tags: belief, deceit105

"We're all strangers connected by what we reveal, what we share, what we take away--our stories. I guess that's what I love about books--they are thin strands of humanity that tether us to one another for a small bit of time, that make us feel less alone or even more comfortable with our aloneness, if need be."— Libba Bray104

"But aren't many gardens beautiful because they are imperfect? ...Aren't the strange, new flowers that arise by mistake or misadventure as pleasing as the well-tended and planned?"— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)100

"The trouble with morning is that it comes well before noon."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)

"I wish to live for myself. I should never want to be trapped."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)

"What happens if your choice is misguided,You must try to correct itBut what if it’s too late? What if you can’t?Then you must find a way to live with it."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)

"Why is it that some secrets can drown you while some pull you close to others in a way you never want to lose?"— Libba Bray

"It's knowing I'll never have what she has--a beauty so powerful it brings things to you. I fear I will always have to chase things I want. I'll always have to wonder whether I'm truly wanted or whether I've just been settled for."— Libba Bray

"Do you think they missed him terribly when he fell? Did God cry over his lost angel, I wonder?"— Libba Bray (Rebel Angels)

"We create the illusions we need to go on."— Libba Bray

"I do not want to pass the time. I want to grab hold of it and leave my mark upon the world."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)

"I should never be left alone with my mind for too long."— Libba Bray

"There is much asked and only so much I think I can or should answer, and so, in this post I would like to give a few thoughts on what seemed to be the overwhelming question: “WHY?”And here is the best answer I can give: Because.Because sometimes, life is damned unfair.Because sometimes, we lose people we love and it hurts deeply.Because sometimes, as the writer, you have to put your characters in harm’s way and be willing to go there if it is the right thing for your book, even if it grieves you to do it.Because sometimes there aren’t really answers to our questions except for what we discover, the meaning we assign them over time.Because acceptance is yet another of life’s “here’s a side of hurt” lessons and it is never truly acceptance unless it has cost us something to arrive there.Why, you ask? Because, I answer.Inadequate yet true."— Libba Bray

"There are no safe choices, Miss Temple. Only other choices."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)

"Reminds us that greatness lies even in the smallest of moments, in the humblest of hearts, and we shall, each of us, be called to greatness. Whether we shall rise to meet it or let it slip away is the challenge put before us all."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)

"Felicity ignores us. She walks out to them, an apparition in white and blue velvet, her head held high as they stare in awe at her, the goddess. I don't know yet what power feels like. But this is surely what it looks like, and I think I'm beginning to understand why those ancient women had to hide in caves. Why our parents and suitors want us to behave properly and predictably. It's not that they want to protect us; it's that they fear us."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)

"But...you could have whatever you wished.""Exactly," he says, nuzzling my neck."But," I say, "you could turn stones to rubies or ride in a fine gentleman's carriage."Kartik puts his hands on either side of my face. "To each his own magic," he says and kisses me again."— Libba Bray

"Eve didn't choose to eat the apple. She was tempted by the serpent.""Yes," I argue, thoughts coming out half-formed. "But...she didn't have to take a bite. She chose to."— Libba Bray

"There is a time in every life when paths are chosen, character is forged. I could have chosen a different path. But I didn’t. I failed myself."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)

"Peace is not happenstance. It is a living fire that must be fed constantly. It must be tended to with vigilance, else it dies out."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)

"No one asks how or what I am doing. They could not care less. We’re all looking glasses, we girls, existing only to reflect their images back to them as they’d like to be seen. Hollow vessels of girls to be rinsed of our own ambitions, wants, and opinions, just waiting to be filled with the cool, tepid water of gracious compliance.A fissure forms in the vessel. I’m cracking open."— Libba Bray

"Instead, I try to adjust to the dawn, letting the tears fall where they may, beacause it is morning; it is morning and there is so much to see."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)

"How I'd love to get away from here and be someone else for a while in a place where no one knows or expects certain things from me."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)

"I wonder how many times each day she dies a little."— Libba Bray

"Heaven's brightest and best-loved angel, who was cast out for inspiring a rebellion against God. Having lost Heaven, Lucifer and his rebel angels vowed to continue fighting here on earth.""I don't understand why he had to fight. He was already in heaven.""True. But he wasn't content to serve. He wanted more.""He had all he could ask for, didn't he?" Ann asks."Exactly." Miss Moore states. "He had to ask. He was dependent upon someone else's whim. It's a terrible thing to have no power of one's own. To be denied."— Libba Bray (Rebel Angels)

"What frightens you?What makes the hair on your arms rise, your palms sweat, the breath catch in your chest like a wild thing caged?Is it the dark? A fleeting memory of a bedtime story, ghosts and goblins and witches hiding in the shadows? Is it the way the wind picks up just before a storm, the hint of wet in the air that makes you want to scurry home to the safety of your fire?Or is it something deeper, something much more frightening, a monster deep inside that you've glimpsed only in pieces, the vast unknown of your own soul where secrets gather with a terrible power, the dark inside?"— Libba Bray

"There's a lot about discovering who you are and how difficult that is. And it never stops."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)

"Oh, I've a love, a true, true love, who waits upon yon shore... and if my love won't be my love, then I will live no more..."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)

"They would place their hands together inside the circle so that they could walk in each other's dreams. It forged a bond that could not be broken. The circle represents love in eternity. For there is no beginning and no end.”— Libba Bray

"That's what living in their world is-a big lie. An illusion where everyone looks the other way and pretends that nothing unpleasant exists at all, no goblins of the dark, no ghosts of the soul."— Libba Bray

"These are hard times. The world hurts. We live in fear and forget to walk with hope. But hope has not forgotten you. So ask it to dinner. It's probably hungry and would appreciate the invitation."— Libba Bray (Going Bovine)

"If God has nothing better to do than punish schoolgirls for a bit of tomfoolery, then I've no use for God. "— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)

"I'm like everyone else in this stupid, bloody, amazing world. I'm flawed. Impossibly so. But hopeful. I'm still me."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)

"I am no longer content to be the scared, obedient schoolgirl. Who are you, a stranger, to tell me what I can and cannot do?"— Libba Bray

"People aren't always what you want them to be"— Libba Bray

"Because it is morning, it is morning, and there is so much to see."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)

"In books, the truth makes everything good and fine. The good prevail. The wicked are punished. There is happiness. But it's not like that really, is it?""No," I say. "I suppose it only makes everything known."— Libba Bray

"The night's chilly breath tickles up my neck and finds my ear, whispering secrets only the wind knows."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)

"All things are possible."— Libba Bray (Rebel Angels)

"I had thought Felicity dangerous a moment ago, when she felt powerful. I was wrong. Wounded and powerless, she is more dangerous than I could imagine."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)

"In a world like this one, only the random makes sense."— Libba Bray (Going Bovine)

"When I dream, I dream of him."— Libba Bray

"Around us the night creatures have their say. We are surrounded by a symphony of crickets and frogs. Neither of us feels the need to speak, and I suppose that is one of the qualities I find comforting in Kartik. We can be alone together."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)

"A gentle breeze catches in the branches then and I hear it, soft and low, a murmured prayer--Gem-ma, Gem-ma--and then the leaves bend down and trail delicate fingers across my cold cheeks."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)

"The world is a lie...not you and me."— Libba Bray

"What Hamlet suffers from is a lack of zombies. Let us say Rosencrantz and Guildenstern show up—Ho-HO! Now you’ve got something that stirs the, um, something that stirs things that are stirrable. BOOM! A pack of ravenous flesh-eaters breaks open their heads and sucks out their eyeballs. No need for iambic pentameter because they are grunting, groaning annihilators of humanity with no time for meter. You’re not asleep in the back of English class anymore, are you? This is what I’m talking about. Zombies. Learn it, live it, love it."— Libba Bray

"Because you can't keep up the illusion forever," I say. "No one has that much magic."— Libba Bray (Rebel Angels)

"I'm just saying it's not all sand castles and ninjas."— Libba Bray (Going Bovine)

"Corrupt my brother, will you? I'll see you in hell first, sir."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)

"In every end, there is also a beginning."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)

"If you tell them what they want to hear, they don't bother to try to see."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)

"It's possible to pretend I'm someone other than who I am, and if I pretend long enough, I can believe it."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)

"I'm sorry,' he says simply. 'People make mistakes, Gemma. We take the wrong action for the right reasons, and the right action for the wrong reasons."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)

"I shan't ever understand your willingness to lie down and die, Felicity bars. 'If you won't at least try to fight, I have no sympathy for you."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)

"A place to keep all your secrets"— Libba Bray (Rebel Angels)

"There is never any turning back Gemma. You have to go forward. Make the future yours."— Libba Bray

"True affection and love have a purity which shall always prevail over bigotry."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)

"Sometimes your place is not something you find, but something you have when you need it."— Libba Bray

"People always think they know other people, but they don’t. Not really. I mean, maybe they know things about them, like they won’t eat doughnuts or they like action movies or whatever. But they don’t know what their friends do in their rooms alone at night or what happened to them when they were kids or if they feel fucked up and sad for not reason at all."— Libba Bray

"How terrible it is to have no cares, no longings. I do not fit. I feel too deeply and want too much. As cages go, it is a gilded one, but I shall not live well in it or any cage for that matter. "— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)

"War." Gorgon spits the word. "That is what they call it to give the illusion of honor and law. It is chaos. Madness and blood and the hunger to win. It has always been thus and shall always be so."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)

"My cholera's acting up again"— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)

"There in the city's steam-and-smoke-smudged harbor is the most extraordinary sight of all: a great copper-clad lady with a torch in one hand and a book in the other. It is not a statesman or a god or a war hero who welcomes us to this new world. It is but an ordinary woman lighting the way- a lady offering us the liberty to pursue our dreams if we've the courage to begin."— Libba Bray

"How can my ankles and arms be obscene?"— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)

"And now I understand that truth casts a spell of its own, one I'm not sure of how to hold on to, though I'm desperate to try."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)

"This is the world we live in, Gemma, for better or for worse. Make of it what you can," he says, and I pull him to me."— Libba Bray

"The dark does not weep for itself because there is no light. Rather, it accepts that it is the dark."— Libba Bray (Going Bovine)

"It is a giggle full of high spirits and merry mischief, proof that we never lose our girlish selves, no matter what sort of women we become."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)

"He said to tell you to remember your heart in all things, that it is where your honor and your destiny will be found. Does it mean anything to you?'It is something he would say from time to time-that the eye could be misled, but that the heart was true."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)

"You’ve been assigned an identity since birth. Then you spend the rest of your life walking around in it to see if it really fits. You try on all these different selves and abandon just as many. But really it’s about dismantling all that false armor, getting down to what’s real.-Going Bovine"— Libba Bray

"The vicar, whose name is Reverend Waite, leads us in prayers that all begin with 'O Lord' and end with our somehow not being worthy-sinners who have always been sinners and will forever more be sinners until we die. It isn't the most optimistic outlook I've ever heard but we're encouraged to keep trying anyway."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)

"Beneath the skin, there is fear. Pain. Remorse. Yearning. Desire. A fierce longing for power. All of this. We are joined. It is as if we live in the center of a great storm. Around us the world of the relams revolves like a giant kaeidoscope, images refracted again and again. So many worlds! So much to know."— Libba Bray (Rebel Angels)

"I refuse to let the past find me here."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)

"I change the world, the world changes me."— Libba Bray

"When the music is over, she keeps her head down till she finds her seat again, and I wonder how many times each day she dies a little."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)

"I'm sorry, Gemma. But we can't live in the light all of the time. You have to take whatever light you can hold into the dark with you."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)

"Did God ever cry over his lost angel, I wonder?"— Libba Bray (Rebel Angels)

"Pippa's laugh is bitter, tinged with tears. 'Ha! Why do girls think being beautiful will solve every problem? Being beautiful just creates problems. It's a misery. I wish I were someone else."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)

"When she can't bring me to heal with scolding, she bends me to shape with guilt"— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)

"The sun has blessed you," Sarita used to say. "Look how he has left his kisses on your face for all to see and be jealous."The sun loves you more," I said rubbing my hands over her dry arms, the color of an aged wine gourd, and she laughed.But this is not India and we are not prized for our freckles here. The sun is not allowed to show his love."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)

"We're like pretty horses, and just as on horses, they mean to put blinders on us so we can't look left or right but only straight ahead where they would lead."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)

"There are times when I wish I could go back and change the course of my life. Make different choices...But the past cannot be changed, and we carry our choices with us, forward, into the unknown. We can only move on. Do you remember that I told you that at Spence?"— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)

"Warning: If you are insufferable, do not walk here. We shall eat you down to the marrow."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)

"I want to ask him if it’s possible that a girl can be born unlovable, or does she just become that way?"— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)

"I know it. I know I shall make beastly mistakes, Father-""The world does not forgive mistakes so quickly, my girl." He sounds bitter and sad."If the world will not forgive me," I say softly, "I shall have to learn to forgive myself."He nods in understanding."And how will you marry? Or do you intend to marry?"I think of Kartik, and tears threaten. "I shall meet someone one day, as Mother found you."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)

"Felicity and I watch the dancers moving as one. They spin about like the earth on it's axis, enduring the dark, waiting for the sun."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)23

"Give yourself to me, Gemma, and you will never be alone again. You'll be worshiped. Adored. Loved. But you must give yourself to me- a willing sacrifice.'Tears slip down my face. 'Yes,' I murmur.Gemma, don't listen,' Circe says hoarsely, and for a moment, I don't see Eugenia; I see only the tree, the blood pumping beneath its pale skin, the bodies of the dead hanging from it like chimes.I gasp, and Eugenia is before me again. 'Yes, this is what you want, Gemma. Try as you might, you cannot kill this part of yourself. The solitude of the self taht waits just under the stairs of your soul. Always there, no matter how much you've tried to get rid of it. I understand. I do. Stay with me and never be lonely again.'Don't listen... to that... bitch,' Circe croaks, and the vines tighten around her neck.No, you're wrong,' I say to Eugenia as if coming out of a long sleep. 'You couldn't kill this part of yourself. And you couldn't accept it, either.'I'm sure I don't know what you mean.' she says, sounding uncertain for the first time.That's why they were able to take you. They found your fear.'And what, pray, was it?'Your pride. You couldn't believe you might have some of the same qualities as the creatures themselves.'I am not like them. I am their hope. I sustain them.'No. You tell yourself that. That's why CIrce told me to search my dark corners. So I wouldn't be caught off guard.'Circe laughts, a splintered cackle that finds a way under my skin.And what about you, Gemma?' Eugenia purrs. 'Have you "searched" yourself, as you say?'I've done things I'm not proud of. I've made mistakes,' I say, my voice growing stronger, my fingers feeling for the dagger again. 'But I've done good, too.'

And yet, you're alone. All that trying and still you stand apart, watching from the other side of the grass. Afraid to have what you truly want because what if it's not enough after all? What if you get it and you still feel alone and apart? So much better to wrap yourself in the longing. The yearning. The restlessness. Poor Gemma. She doesn't quite fit, does she? Poor Gemma- all alone.It's as if she's delivered a blow to my heart. My hand falters. 'I-I...'Gemma, you're not alone,' Circe gasps, and my hand touches metal.No. I'm not. I'm like everyone else in this stupid, bloody, amazing world. I'm flawed. Impossibly so. But hopeful. I'm still me.' I've got it now. Sure and strong in my grip. 'I see through you. I see the truth."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)23

"In our travels, we have come across many equations--math for understanding the universe, for making music, for mapping stars, and also for tipping, which is important. Here is our favorite equation: Us plus Them equals All of Us. It is very simple math. Try it sometime. You probably won’t even need a pencil."— Libba Bray (Going Bovine)23

"I don't think you should die until you're ready. Until you've wrung out every last bit of living you can."— Libba Bray (Going Bovine)tags: life-and-death22

"Forewarned is forearmed"— Libba Bray (Rebel Angels)22

"You can never know about about your oun destiny: are the people you meet there to play a part on your oun destiny, or do you exist just to play a role in theirs?"— Libba Bray (Going Bovine)22

"The key holds the truth"— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)22

"To each his own magic"— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)tags: kartik, magic21

"I know I've done the right thing but I couldn't feel worse about it, and I suppose that is part of what it is to lead."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)21

"My misery is reaching epidemic proportions."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)tags: humor20

"We're all damaged somehow."-A Great and Terrible Beauty"— Libba Bray20

"Fate determines your caste. You must accept it and live according to the rules."You can't really believe that!"I do believe it. That man's misfortune is that he cannot accept his caste, his fate."I know that the Indians wear their caste as a mark upon their foreheads for all to see. I know that in England, we have our own unacknowledged caste system. A laborer will never hold a seat in Parliament. Neither will a woman. I don't think I've ever questioned such things until this moment.But what about will and desire? What if someone wants to change things."Kartik keeps his eyes on the room "You cannot change your caste. You cannot go against fate."That means there is no hope of a better life. It is a trap."That is how you see it," he says softly.What do you mean?"It can be a relief to follow the path that has been laid oud for you, to know your course and play your part in it."But how can you be sure that you are following the right course? What if there is no such thing as destiny, only choice?"Then I do not choose to live without destiny," he says with a slight smile."— Libba Bray (Rebel Angels)20

"Power changes everything till it is difficult to say who are the heroes and who the villians... And magic itself is neither good nor bad; it is intent that makes it either."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)20

"But you've changed,' I whisper. 'Haven't you?'It is the scorpian's nature to sting. Just because he has no opportunity doesn't mean that he cannot."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)20

"But as soon as the thought enters my mind, another one swims in and eats the first one like a shark. Fuck that, it burps."— Libba Bray (Going Bovine)20

"For the first time, I notice the lax skin at Mrs. Nightwing's jaw, the fine down that lies upon her cheek like the imprint of a childe's hand, and I wonder what it must be like watching yourself soften under the years, unable to stop it. what it's like measuring your days in perfecting girls' curtsies and drinking nightly glasses of sherry, trying to keep up with the world as it pulls you spinning into the furure, knowing you are always one step behind it. "— Libba Bray19

"Will you punish me forever?"— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)19

"He plants his feet stubbornly, adopting what he must think is an heroic post. He's just begging for a pigeon to fly by and relieve itself."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)tags: humor18

"Or perhaps it is some combination of spirit and desire, love and hope, some alchemy that we each possess and can put to use, if we first know where to look without flinching."— Libba Bray (Rebel Angels)18

"Kartik places a sovereign in the lady's cup, and I know that it's likely all he has.Why did you do that?' I ask.He kicks a rock on the ground, balancing it nimbly between his feet like a ball. 'She needed it.'Father says it isn't good to give money to beggers. They'll only spend it unwisely on drink or other pleasures. 'She might buy ale with it.'He shrugs. 'Then she'll have ale. It isn't the pound that matters; it's the hope... I know what it's like to fight for things that others take for granted."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)tags:18

"What do you feel? I’ve never been asked this question once. None of us has. We aren’t supposed to feel. We’re British."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)tags: gemma-doyle17

"I can see his pain, see it in the way he runs his fingers through his hair, over and over, and I understand what it costs him to hide it all."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)tags: pain17

"Centuries of fighting, and for what? I say. "Today it ends. I can't live in fear any longer. I've cursed this power. I've both enjoyed and misused it. And I've hidden it away. Now I must try to wield it correctly, to marry it to a purpose and hope that is enough."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)tags: end, fight, gemma-doyle, meaning, power, rebel17

"Sheep. I'm stuck in a boarding school filled with sheep."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)tags: humor16

"It's so laughable that it's somewhere beyond comedy and right into tragedy again."— Libba Bray16

"She never utters a sound even when she's crying, and that makes me a little sad. Doesn't seem right. When you cry, people should hear you. The world should stop."— Libba Bray (Going Bovine)16

"I changed the world; the world changed me.Everything you do comes back to you. When you affect a situation, you are also affected."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)16

"But Gemma, you could change the world.""That should take far more than my power," I say."True. But change needn't happen all at once. It can be small gestures.""Moments. Do you understand?" He's looking at me differently now, though I cannot say how. I only know I need to look away...We pass by the pools, where the mud larks sift. And for only a few seconds, I let the magic loose again."Oi!By all the saints!" a boy cries from the river."Gone off the dock?" an old woman calls. The mud larks break into cackles."'S not a rock!" he shouts. He races out of the fog, cradling something in his palm. Curiosity gets the better of the others. They crowd about trying to see. In his palm is a smattering of rubies. "We're rich mates! It's a hot bath and a full belly for every one of us!"Kartik eyes me suspiciously. "That was a strange stroke of good fortune."

"Yes it was.""I don't suppose that was your doing.""I'm not sure I don't know what you mean," I say.And that is how change happens. One gesture. One person. One moment at a time."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)tags: change, gemma-doyle, kartik, luck, magic, small16

"Dude, this is a stoner conversation and we're not even high"— Libba Bray (Going Bovine)tags: humor15

"We can’t live in the light all of the time. You have to take whatever light you can hold into the dark with you."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)tags: darkness, light15

"We fall into the great continuing circle of dancers. Some leave the floor, tired but giddy; others have only just arrived. They are eager to wear their new status as ladies, to be paraded about and lauded until they see themselves with new eyes. The fathers beam at their daughters, thinking them perfect flowers in need of their protection, while the mothers watch from the margins, certain this moment is their doing. We create illusions we need to go on. And one day, when they no longer dazzle or comfort, we tear them down, brick by glittering brick, until we are left with nothing but the bright light of honesty. The light is liberating. Necessary. Terrifying. We stand naked and emptied before it. Adn when it is too much for our eyes to take, we build a new illusion to shield us from its relentless truth.But the girls! Their eyes glow with the fever dream of all they might become. They tell themselves this is the beginning of everything. And who am I to say it isn't? "— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)15

"I can't make a sound. I only nod. I've heard it said that God is in the details. It's the same with the truth. Leave out the details, the crucial heart, and you can damn someone with the bare bones of it. "— Libba Bray15

"They swoon over Tom, who preens for them, bowing, which sets them to blushing and giggling.God help us all. "— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)tags: humor14

"We're each of us our own chiaroscuro, our own bit of illusion trying to emerge into something solid, something real. We've got to forgive ourselves that. I must remember to forgive myself. Because there's an awful lot of gray to work with. No one can live in the light all the time."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)tags: forgiveness, identity, light14

"The wind picks up. It sends leaves scurrying for cover until a softer breeze blows through, settling them down again as if to say, Shhh, there, there, it's all right. One leaf still dances in the air. It spins higher and higher, defying gravity and logic, stretching for something just out of reach. It shall have to fall, of course. Eventually. But for now, I hold my breath, willing it to keep going, taking comfort in its struggle."— Libba Bray (Rebel Angels)14

"The mere suggestion of fame and fortune casts a glamour all its own. It is rather alarming how quickly people will turn someone else's fiction into fact in order to support their own fictions of themselves."

— Libba Bray (Rebel Angels)14

"And when I wake, the room is white with the morning sun. The light is so bright it hurts my eyes. But I don't dare close them. I won't. Instead, I try to adjust to the dawn, letting the tears fall where they may, because it is morning; it is morning, and there is so much to see."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)14

"Tonight, she went into the woods, and I fear she shall live in the woods of my soul for the rest of my days."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)14

"You are working up to Mr. Fantastic Fiction levels of Zombie Expert, which is like playing Guitar Hero on some level that actually melts the guitar controller, burning your fingers with searing hot plastic till you scream in pain. Only with words. And zombies."— Libba Braytags: guitar-hero, mr--fantastic-fiction, zombies13

"The ladies pass the timee with gossip and hearsay. This is what they have in place of freedom- gime and gossip. Their lives are small and careful. I do not wish to live this way. I should like to make my mark. To venture opinions that may not be polite or even correct but are mine nonetheless. If I am to be hanged for anything, I should like to feel that I go to the gallows on my own strength.-pgs 682/683"— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)13

"So, now I've been to see a drug counselor who told me I need to lay off the drugs and talk about my feelings, and a shrink who heard what I had to say and immediately put me on drugs."— Libba Bray (Going Bovine)tags: durgs, irony13

"Learn to master yourself-to understand both your fears and your desires. That's the key to magic. Then, no one shall have any hold over you. Remember... the magic (sic)... is a living thing, joined to whomever it touches and changed by them as well... You must come to know everything-even your darkest corners. Especially those...Everything has its price."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)13

"It isn't the bloody weather!"I've shocked them into silence. I should stop. Apologize for my outburst. Make amends. Blame the climate. But I cannot. Something in me has given way and it cannot be put back again. "Did you know that he had returned to the laudanum? That he couldn't give it up? That our good intentions were not nearly so powerful as his will to die?... No, Thomas. Is this the life you want for me? To be like you? To wear blinders and talk of nothing that matters and drink weak tea with other people who would do anything to hide the truth, especially from themselves?"— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)tags: gemma-doyle, life13

"Meraa mitra yahaan aaiye," he murmurs. I understand only a little Hindi, enough to know what he has said: Come here, my friend.I've never known a braver girl," he says."— Libba Bray (Rebel Angels)tags: kartik12

"One day, as Sarita tended to the wash, Gemma played in the garden. She was a knight, you see, with a sword fashioned out of wood. Most formidable, she was, though I didn't quite know how formidable. As I sat in my study, I heard screaming from outside. I ran to see what the commotion was. Sarita called to me, wide-eyed with fear, "Oh, Mr. Doyle, look- over there!" The tiger had entered the garden and was making his way toward where our Gemma frolicked with her wooden sword. Beside me, our house servant, Raj, drew his blade so stealthily it seemed to simply appear in his hand by magic. But Sarita stayed his hand. "If you run for him with your life, you will provoke the tiger," she advised. "We must wait."...I must tell you that it was the longest moment of my life. No one dared move. No one dared draw a breath. And all the while, Gemma played on, taking no notice until the great cat was upon her. She stood and faced him. They stared at one another as if each wondered what to make of the other, as if they sensed a kindred spirit. At last, Gemma placed her sword upon the ground. "Dear tiger," she said. "You may pass if you are peaceful." The tiger looked at the sword and back at Gemma, and without a sound, it passed on, dissappearing into the jungle."..."The tiger had gone. He did not come around a gain. But I was a man possessed. The tiger had come too close, you see. I no longer felt safe. I hired the best tracker in Bombay. We hunted for days, tracking the tiger to the mountains there. We found him taking water from a small watering hole. He looked up but he did not charge. He took no notice of us at all but continued to drink. "Sahib, let us go," the boy said. "This tiger means you no harm." He was right, of course. But we had come all that way. The gun was in my hand. The tiger was before us. I took aim and shot it dead on the spot. I sold the tiger's skin for a fortune to a man in Bombay, and he called me brave for it. But it was not courage that brought me to that; it was fear..."But you," he says, smiling with a mix of sadness and pride, "you faced the tiger and survived."..."The time has come for me to face my tiger, to look him in the eye and see which of us survives." - Mr. Doyle"— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)tags: fear, gemma-doyle, love, tiger12

"We don't look at each other anymore. Not really. Not since I pulled him from that opium den. Now when I look at him, I see the addict. And when he looks at me, he sees what he would rather not remember. I wish I could be his adored little girl again, sitting at his side."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)12

"Sometimes I see things, I think. Out of the corner of my eye, taunting me, and then it’s gone. And dreams. Such horrible dreams. What if something terrible happened to me? What if i am damaged?'The rain is a cool kiss on my sleeve as I link my arm with hers. 'We’re all damaged somehow."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)tags: damaged12

"I know you adore Father, but he isn't the white knight you imagine him to be. He never was. True, he's charming and loving in his way. But he's selfish. He's a limited man determined to bring about his own end-""But-"Tom grabs both my hands in his and gives them a small squeeze. "Gemma, you can't save him. Why can't you accept that?"I see my reflection on the surface of the Thames. My face is a watery outline, all blurred edges with nothing settled."Because if I let go of that" - I swallow hard, once, twice - "then I have to accept that I am alone."The ship's horn howls again as it slips out toward sea. Tom's reflection appears beside mine, just as uncertain."We're every one of us alone in this world, Gemma." He doesn't say it bitterly. "But you have company, if you want."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)tags: alone, gemma-doyle12

"Don't you? if you keep them from the magic, they will never know what their lives could be.'They will remain protected,' Asha insists.No, 'I say. 'Only untested."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)12

"The face staring back at me isn't beautiful but she isn't something that would scare the horses, either."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)tags: humor12

"And yet, you're still alone. All that trying and still you stand apart, watching from the other side of the glass. Afraid to have what you truly want because what if it's not enough after all? So much better to wrap yourself up in the longing. The yearning. The restlessness. Poor Gemma. She doesn't quite fit, does she? Poor Gemma--all alone."— Libba Bray11

"No person has ever held all the power. There must be a balance between chaos and order, dark and light. With the Temple magic bound to you, the realms are no longer in balance. The power could change you... and you could change the magic."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)11

"I can be whatever.You can be whatever.We can be whatever.Whatever, together."— Libba Bray (Going Bovine)11

"They don't know what they're in for at Spence, getting me, a ghost of a girl who'll nod and smile and take her tea but who isn't really here."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)11

"Did you hear? You are free."Yessss. Choice. It is a fine thing. And I choose to take you back, Most High."— Libba Bray (Rebel Angels)11

"Simon, would you still care for me if you discovered I was not who I say I am?"What do you mean?"I mean would you still care for me, no matter what you came to know?"What a thing to ponder. I don't know what to say."The answer is no. He does not need to say it.With a sigh, Simon digs at the fire with the iron poker. Bits of the charred log fall away, revealing the angry insides. they flare orange for a moment, then quiet down again. After three tries, he gives up.I'm afraid this fire's had it."I can see a few embers remaining. "No, I think not. If..."He sighs, and it says everything."— Libba Bray (Rebel Angels)11

"No? Part girl, part wolf? Do they lick their butter knives?"— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)11

"Tell my brother to remember his heart in all things. That is where his honor and his destiny will be found. Tell him."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)11

"You and I, we must carry on, Gemma. I cannot afford the luxury of love. I must marry well. And now I must look after you. It is my duty.""If you wish to suffer, you do so of your own free will, not on my behalf. Or Father's or Grandmama's or anyone's. You are a fine physician, Thomas. Why is that not enough?""Because it isn't," he says with a rare candor. "Only this and the hope of nothing more? A quiet respectability with no true greatness or heroism in it, with only my reputation to recommend me. So you see, Gemma, you are not the only one who cannot rule her own life."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)

tags: bitter, control, gemma-doyle, life, love, responsibility, thomas-doyle, yearn11

"Please do not strain yourself, Miss Doyle. I won't have my girls going cross-eyed in the name of art."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)tags: humor11

"We create the illusions we need to go on. And one day, when they no longer dazzle or comfort, we tear them down, brick by glittering brick, until we are left with nothing but the bright light of honesty. The light is liberating. Necessary. Terrifying. We stand naked and emptied before it. And when it is too much for our eyes to take, we build a new illusion to shield us from its relentless truth."— Libba Braytags: illusions11

"You can never really know someone completely. That's why it's the most terrifying thing in the world, really-taking someone on faith, hoping they'll take you on faith too. It's such a precarious balance, it's a wonder we even do it at all"— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)10

"I don't know. Sometimes, I feel nothing, and I'm so afraid. Afraid I'll stop feeling anything at all. I'll just slip away inside myself...I just need to feel something" A Great and Terrible Beauty, Page 177, by"— Libba Bray10

"She was chosen,' Mae insists.No, you're wrong,' I say. 'She was only a girl.'...She was gone for some time. You were the only force that kept her from turning completely. That's magic. Perhaps the most powerful I've seen.'-In response to Felicity's love for Pippa keeping her from turning into a Winterland creature."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)10

"You can never know about destiny: are the people you meet there to play a part on your destiny, or do you exist just to play a role in theirs?"— Libba Bray (Going Bovine)10

"She shrieks above the din. "If you wish a battle, I shall give it. I am the last of my kind. I shall not lie down without a fight."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)tags: desperate, fight, gemma-doyle, gorgon10

"She wants me to take what magic I have left and blot every memory of this evening from their minds. To make them forget so that they can carry on as before. There will always be Cecilys, Marthas, and Elizabeths of the world-those who cannot bear the burden of truth. They will drink their tea. Weigh their words. Wear hats against the sun. Squeeze their minds into corsets, lest some errant thought should escape and ruin the smooth illusion they hold of themselves and the world as they like it.It is a luxury, this forgetting. No one will come to take away the things I wish I had not seen, the things I wish I did not know. I shall have to live with them.I wrench away from her grip. 'Why should I?'I do it anyways. Once I am certain the girls are asleep, I creep into their rooms, one by one, and lay my hands across their furrowed brows, which wear the trouble of all they've wittnessed. I watch while those brows ease into smooth, blank canvases beneath my fingers. It is a form of healing, and I am suprised by how much it heals me to do it. When the girls awake, they will remember as strange dream of magic and blood and curious creatures and perhaps a teacher they knew whose name will not spring to their lips. They might strain to remember it for a moment, but then they will tell themselves it was only a dream best forgotten.

I have done what Mrs. Nightwing said I should do. But I do not take all their memories from them. I leave them with one small token of the evening: doubt. A feeling that perhaps there is something more. It is nothing more than a seed. Whether it shall grow into something more useful, I cannot say."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)10

"Shall I tell you a story? A new and terrible one? A ghost story?"

The voice, a faint echo in the cave, belongs to Felicity. She turns around on the rock, faces us, wraps her arms across bent knees, hugging them close. "Are you ready? Shall I begin? Once upon a time there were four girls. One was pretty. One was clever. One charming, and one..." She glances at me. "One was mysterious. But they were all damaged, you see. Something not right about the lot of them. Bad blood. Big dreams. Oh, I left that part out. Sorry, that should have come before. They were all dreamers, these girls."

Felicity...," I start, because it's her and not the story that's beginning to frighten me.

You wanted a story, and I'm going to give you one." Lightning shoots across the cave walls, bathing half her face in light, the other in shadows. "One by one, night after night, the girls came together. And they sinned. Do you know what that sin was? No one? Pippa? Ann?"

Felicity." Pippa sounds anxious. "Let's go back and have a nice cup of tea. It's too cold out here."

Felicity's voice expands, fills the space around us, a bell tolling. "Their sin was that they believed. Believed they could be different. Special. They believed they could change what they were--damaged, unloved. Cast-off things. They would be alive, adored, needed. Necessary. But it wasn't true. This is a ghost story, remember? A tragedy."

The lightning's back, a big one, two, three of light that lets me see Felicity's face, slick with tears, nose running. "They were mislead. Betrayed by their own stupid hopes. Things couldn't be different for them, because they weren't special after all. So life took them, led them, and they went along, you see? They faded before their own eyes, till they were nothing more than living ghosts, haunting each other with what could be. What can't be."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)10

"Mom's crying a bit, quietly, the way she always does. She never utters a sound even when she's crying, and that makes me a little sad. Doesn't seem right. When you cry, people should hear you. The world should stop. I squeeze Mom's hand and she squeezes back. I don't say anything, but at least she knows I've heard her. (Going Bovine)"— Libba Bray9

"Wow, you're awesome and The universe loves a winner, so the universe must really love you!"— Libba Braytags: going-bovine9

"Board the cows! We've come to enslave your marigolds. "— Libba Bray (Going Bovine)tags: humor, nonsense, silly9

"I must remember to forgive myself. Because there's an awful lot of gray to work with. No one can live in the light all the time."-A Great and Terrible Beauty"— Libba Bray9

"I'd like to thank readers. Every time you open a book, it is a strike against ignorance. Unless you're reading Sarah Palin."— Libba Braytags: funny, libba-bray9

"There are always rebels and radicals, I suppose,' McCleethy allows. 'Those who live on the fringes of society. But what do they contribute to the society itself? They reap its rewards without experiencing its costs. No. I submit that loyal, hardworking citizens who push aside their own selfish desires for the good of the whole are the backbone of the world. What if we all decided to run off and live freely without thought or care for society's rules? Our civilization would crumble. There is a joy in duty and a security in knowing one's place...It is the only way."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)9

"Dammit!""What?" Gonzo sounds panicked."We're out of gas.""You're Shithenging me.""I Shithenge you not."— Libba Bray (Going Bovine)9

"She's no beauty, mate"— Libba Bray9

"Come awake, Tom. Fathers can willfully hurt their children. They can be addicts too weak to give up their vices, no matter the pain it causes. Mothers can turn you invisible with neglect. They can erase you with a denial, a refusal to see. Friends can deceive you. People lie. It is a cold, hard world. I do not blame Nell Hawkins for retreating from it into a madness of her own choosing."— Libba Bray (Rebel Angels)8

"Forget your pain. It was what I said when I took Father's hand in the drawing room yesterday, what I repeated again tonight. But I didn't mean this. I must be careful. Yet what bothers me isn't the power of the magic or how, to a person, they've all accepted it as truth. No, what unsettles me the most is how much I want to believe it too."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)8

"In a world beyond this one, that river goes on singing sweetly, enchanting uswith what we want to hear, shaping what we need to see in order to keep going. In those waters, all disappointments are forgotten, our mistakes forgiven. Gazing into them, we see a strong father. A loving mother. Warm rooms where we are sheltered, adored, wanted. And the uncertainty of our futures is nothing more than the fog of breath on a windowpane."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)8

"It is how it has always been. We will accept the legacy of our ancestors,' Asha says, smiling, and in her smile I do not see warmth or wisdom; I see fear.You're afraid of losing your hold on them,' I say coolly.I? I have no power.'Don't you? If you keep them from the magic, they will never know what their lives could be.'They will remain protected,' Asha insists.No,' I say. 'Only untested'-page 569"— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)8

"Maybe that's what real friendship is -- getting so used to people that you need to be annoyed by them."— Libba Bray (Going Bovine)8

"All morning, Spence has been a well-oiled machine of activity. Everyone doing her bit, quietly and efficiently. It's strange how deliberate people are after a death. All the indecision suddenly vanishes into clear, defined moments--changing the linens, choosing a dress or a hymn, the washing up, the muttering of prayers. All the small, simple, conscious acts of living a sudden defense against the dying we do every day."— Libba Bray8

"I will tell you the story of how we found ourselves in a realm where dreams are formed, destiny is chosen, and magic is as real as a handprint in the snow."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)8

"Sometimes when the wind blows through the leaves, it sounds like your name. It’s like a sigh then. The most beautiful sound I ever heard. A gentle breeze catches in the branches then and I hear it, soft and low, a murmured prayer – Gem-ma, Gem-ma – and then the leaves trail delicate fingers across my cold cheeks."— Libba Braytags: the-sweet-far-thing8

"Mrs. Nightwing glances at the box in my hands. She clears her throat."I understand you've decided against Mr. Middleton."...It's best to be sure, through and through," she says, keeping her eyes steadfastly on the girls running and playing on the lawn. "Else you could find yourself one day coming home to an empty house, save for a note: I've gone out. You could wait all night for him to return. Nights turn into weeks, to years. It's horrible, the waiting. You can scarcely bear it. And perhaps years later on holiday in Brighton, you see him, walking along the boardwalk as if out of some dream. No longer lost. Your heartbeat quickens. You must call out to him. Someone else calls first. A pretty young woman with a child. He stops and bends to lift the child into his arms. His child. He gives a furtive kiss to his young wife. He hands her a box of candy, which you know to be Chollier's chocolates. He and his family stroll on. Something in you falls away. You will never be as you were. What is left to you is the chance to become something new and unsure. But at least the waiting is over."— Libba Bray (Rebel Angels)8

"I am dying a thousand cruel and unusual deaths as fifty pairs of eyes take me in, size me up like something that should be hanging over a fireplace in a gentleman's den."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)8

"I've never been in love. I will die without knowing what it feels like to need to see one person's face when you go to sleep at night, to crave seeing it when you wake up. I wish I knew. "— Libba Braytags: death, heartache, love8

"Live life as if today is your last day living. :-)"— Libba Bray (Rebel Angels)8

"We're all looking glasses, we girls, existing only to reflect their images back to them as they'd like to be seen. Hollow vessels of girls to be rinsed of our own ambitions, wants, and opinions, just waiting to be filled with the cool, tepid water of gracious compliance."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)8

"Libraries are a force for good. They wear capes. They fight evil. They don’t get upset when you don’t send them a card on their birthdays. (Though they will charge you if you’re late returning a book.) They serve communities. The town without a library is a town without a soul. The library card is a passport to wonders and miracles, glimpses into other lives, religions, experiences, the hopes and dreams and strivings of ALL human beings, and it is this passport that opens our eyes and hearts to the world beyond our front doors, that is one of our best hopes against

tyranny, xenophobia, hopelessness, despair, anarchy, and ignorance. Libraries are the torch of the world, illuminating the path when it feels too dark to see. We mustn’t allow that torch to be extinguished."— Libba Braytags: libraries8

"It isn't that we do what we want. It's that we're allowed to want at all."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)7

"But the past cannot be changed, and we carry our choices with us, forward, into the unknown. We can only move on."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)tags: choices, inspiration7

"But forgiveness... I'll hold on to the fragile slice of hope and keep it close, remembering that in each of us lie good and bad, light and dark, art and pain, choice and regret, cruelty and sacrifice. We're each of us our own bit of illusion fighting to emerge into something solid, something real. We've got to forgive ourselves that. I must remember to forgive myself. Because there's an awful lot of gray to work with. No one can live in the light all the time." A Great and Terrible Beauty, Page 402, by"— Libba Bray7

"Write like it matters, and it will."— Libba Braytags: writing7

"It’s possible to pretend I’m someone other than who I am, and if I pretend long enough, I can believe it."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)7

"Spare a copper for our cause?' the girl with the coin cup asks, her voice weary.I can spare more than that,' I say. I reach into my purse and giver her what real coins I have, and then I press my hand to hers and whisper, 'Don't give up,' watching the magic spark in her eyes.The tragedy of the Beardon's Bonnet Factory!' she shouts, a fire catching. 'Six souls murdered for a profit! Will you let it stand, sir? Will you look away m'um?'Her sisters-in-arms raise their placards again. 'Fair wages, fair treatment!' they call. 'Justice!'Their voices swell into a chorus that thunders through thd dark London streets until it can no londer be ignored."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)7

"Come on, Father. Stop me. Tell me to behave, to go to hell, something, anything."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)7

"No, I call. Come back.I'm here, he says.But I can't see. It's too bright.You can't hold back the light, Gemma. I'm here. Trust me."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)7

"A hedgehog flies from the safety of a bush, startling me. It darts past us in a terrible hurry. Kartik nods toward the furry little thing. "Don't mind him. He's off to meet his lady friend.""How can you be sure?""He has on his best hedgehog suit.""Ah, I should have noticed." I say, happy to be playing this game-any game-with him. I put my hand on the tree's trunk and swing myself around it slowly, letting my body feel gravity's pull. "And why has he worn his best?""He's been away in London, you see, and now he has returned to her," Kartik continues."And what if she is angry with him for being away so long?"Kartik circles just behind me. "She will forgive him.""Will she?" I say pointedly."It is his hope that she will, for he didn't mean to upset her." Kartik answers, and I am no longer sure we speak of the hedgehog."And is he happy to see her again?""Yes," Kartik says. "He should like to stay longer, but he cannot."The bark chafes against my hand. "Why is that?""He has his reasons, and hopes his lady will understand them one day." Kartik has changed direction. He comes around the other side of the tree. We are face to face. A palm of moonglow reaches through the branches to caress his face."Oh," I say, heart beating fast."And what would the lady hedgehog say to that?" he asks. His voice soft and low."She would say..." I swallow hard.Kartik steps closer. "Yes?""She would say," I whisper, "'If you please, I am not a hedgehog. I am a woodchuck.'"A small smile plays at Kartik's lips."He is fortunate to have so witty a lady friend," he says, and I wish I could have the moment back again to play differently."— Libba Braytags: the-sweet-far-thing6

"It occurs to me that cricket is not the true sport in London - gossip is."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)tags: simon-middleton6

"Nobody Wants to be themselves. That's why there's tv. -Ephigenia, Going Bovine"— Libba Bray6

"I'm floating inside my skin. I could go on floating like this for days. Right now, the real world with its heartbreak and disappointments is just a pulse against the protective membrane we've drunk ourselves into. It's somewhere outside us, waiting." A Great and Terrible Beauty, Page 141, by"— Libba Bray6

"No one can steal our dream."-A Great and Terrible Beauty"— Libba Bray6

"Prepared to fly, even if she has to loose her legs to do it"— Libba Bray6

"They have money and position and Ann has none.It's amazing how often you can be right as long as you have those two things working in your favor."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)tags: life, money, position, truth, world6

"Thou shalt not steal. I seem to recall that being one of God’s I’d rather you didn’t lest I have to smite you into ash commandments."— Libba Braytags: a-great-and-terrible-beauty6

"Oh, hello," Dr. M says, shaking Balder's hand. "Wonderful costume. I'm a bit of a role player myself on the weekends. Tell me, where did you get the helmet?"It was forged in the North, blessed by the hands of Odin, given to me by my mother, Frigg," Balder answers.Lovely. I got mine on the Internet."— Libba Braytags: balder, bovine, bray, going, helmet, humor, libba6

"I should like to make my mark. To venture opinions that may not be polite or even correct but are mine nonetheless. If I am to be hanged for anything, I should like to feel that I go to the gallows on my own strength."— Libba Bray5

"Greatness lies in even the smallest of moments, in the humblest of hearts, and we shall, each of us, be called to greatness. Whether we shall rise to meet it or let it slip away is the challenge put before us all."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)tags: inspiration5

"It's knowing that I'll never have what she has -- a beauty so powerful it brings things to you. I fear I will always have to chase the things I want. I'll always have to wonder whether I'm truly wanted or whether I've just been settled for." A Great and Terrible Beauty, Page 211, by"— Libba Bray5

"One was pretty. One was clever. One charming, and one... One was mysterious. But they were all damaged, you see. Something not right about the lot of them. Bad blood. Big dreams. They were all dreamers, these girls....One by one, night after night, the girls came together. And they sinned. Do you know what that sin was? Their sin was that they believed. Believed they could be different. Special. They believed they could change what they were -- damaged, unloved. Cast-off things. They would be alive, adored, needed. Necessary. But it wasn't true. This is a ghost story, remember? A tragedy. ...They were misled. Betrayed by their own stupid hopes. Things couldn't be different for them, because they weren't special after all. So life took them, led them, and they went along, you see? They faded before their own eyes, till they were nothing more than living ghosts, haunting each other with what could be. What can't be. There now, isn't that the scariest story you've ever heard?" A Great and Terrible Beauty, Page 314-5, by"— Libba Bray5

"Truth casts a spell of its own."— Libba Bray5

"- So my own sister will not promote me? Speaking of which, weren't you supposed to find me a beautiful future wife with a small fortune? Have you had any success on that front?- Yes - I have warned them all."— Libba Bray (Rebel Angels)tags: humor, siblings5

"Retribution is a dog chasing its tail."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)5

"The beast attempts a beautific look that could be mistaken for a bout of painful wind."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)5

"A woman's reputation is her worth... IT is the way it is. You may hate me for saying so, but there is the truth. Do you not remember that this is how our mother died? She would still be here and Father would be well and none of this would ever have happened if she had simply lived according to the time-trusted codes of society.'Perhaps it proved impossible. Perhaps she could not fit within so tight a corset. Perhaps I am the same.'One does not have to like the rules, Gemma. But one does need to adhere to them. That is what makes civilization. Do you think I agree with every... decision made by my superiors"— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)tags: tuesdayswithmorrie5

"Because really, sometimes, the irony gods just get drunk."— Libba Bray5

"Mawah meenon ne le plus poohlala," I say with an affected bow."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)tags: gemma-doyle, the-sweet-far-thing4

"Think: who has vans, huh? Soccer moms and serial killers."— Libba Bray (Going Bovine)4

"I change the world; the world changes me.'

Everything you do comes back to you. When you affect a situation, you are also affected.~pg 280"— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)4

"The only thing I don't divulge is the truth about Mother killing little Carolina. I don't know why. Perhaps I sense he's not ready to know that just yet. Maybe he never will. People can live with only so much honesty. And sometimes, people can suprise you. I talk to my brother as I never have before, trusting in him, letting the river listen to my confessions on its path toward the sea.~pg 693"— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)4

"Our mouths and bodies speak for us in a new language as the trees shake loose a rain of petals that stick to our slickness like skins we will wear forever. And just like that, I am changed."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)tags: belief, change, love, rebirth4

"The desperation meeting the silence with its unmasked wish."— Libba Bray4

"Gemma~Was he really looking at me that way?

Kartik~What way?

Gemma~Like a piece of ripe fruit?

Katrik~You'd best be on your guard with him."— Libba Bray (Rebel Angels)4

"For all who believe that peace is not an ideal or pipe dream but anecessity. ~Libba Bray

They believe, and believing changes everything. ~Gemma, The sweet far thing, Libba Bray

Bu the past cannot be changed, and we carry our choices with us forward, into the unknown. ~Circe, The sweet far thing, Libba Bray

Stop, gemma, before you go mad.Or am I already there? ~Gemma, The sweet far thing, Libba Bray

peace is not only better than war, but infinitely more aruous. ~George Shaw"— Libba Bray3

"Beggin' your pardon, miss, but I was told you be the one to help me cross on to the next world."

"Who told you this?"

His eyes widen. "A fearsome creature with a head full of snakes!"

"You musn't fear her," I say, taking the man's hand and leading his toward the river. "She's as tame as a pussycat. She'd probably lick your hand given the chance."

"Didn't seem harmless," he whispers, shuddering.

"Yes, well, things are not always as they appear, sir, and we must learn to judge for ourselves."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)3

"Goodbye," I whisper at last, when it no longer matters and there is no one to hear it but the window."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)3

"How do people stay in love, anyway? Is it a choice? Or is it like those plants we studied in biology that mutate into something new and totally different but are still part of the same plant family?"— Libba Bray (Going Bovine)3

"Long shadows of evening creep up the walls, inching closer. Gradually, they reach fully across us, holding us in the stillness that only night can bring. In the hazy gloom of dusk, we are silhouettes of ourselves, reduced to our very essence. The night grows bolder. Unafraid, it opens its mouth and swallows us whole."— Libba Bray2

"There are no safe choices, Miss Temple. Only other choices"— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)2

"So, now I've been to a drug counselor who told me I needed to lay off drugs and talk about my feelings, and a shrink who heard what I had to say and immediately put me on drugs. Thank God I've still got some weed left."— Libba Bray (Going Bovine)2

"The best day of my life happened when I was five and almost died at Disney World. I'm sixteen now, so you can imagine that's left me with quite a few days of major suckage."— Libba Bray (Going Bovine)2

"Look, I know this seems a little half-assed...' 'No, dude. I'd be thrilled if this plan were half-assed. This is, like, no-assed.' 'You're right. It's the most no-assed thing I've ever done in my life."— Libba Bray (Going Bovine)2

"Oh shit! Can you say 'fuck' in a graveyard or will it jinx you with the undead?"— Libba Bray (Going Bovine)

"When it is time for me to visit Brigid, I find her awake in her little room. "That's awl righ', luv. I don' care to forget, if it's all the same," she says, and there are no rowan leaves at her window anymore."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)

"There is an ancient tribal proverb I once heard in India. It says that before we see properly we mus first shed our tears to clear the way.

I cry for days."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)

"Only ninnies go to Penny's."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)

"Ann turns to me. I know she's waiting for some hint of kindness-a kiss, an embrace, even a smile. But I can't muster any of it.

"You'll make a fine governess." My words are like a slap.

"I know," she answers, a slap of her own."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)

"Power changes everything till it is difficult to say who are the heroes and who the villains, and [power] itself is neither good nor bad; it is intent that makes it either."— Libba Bray

"You can never know about your own destiny: are the people youmeet there to play a part on your destiny, or do you exist just toplay a role in theirs?"— Libba Bray

"You're special.I'm special.The whole world's special, so don't you forget it.

The universe wants usAll to be happy,Full of smiles and all that stuff,All that stuffThat's happy and smiley.So get happy, happy, happy right now!Get happy, happy, happy right now!Get happy, happy, happy right now!"— Libba Bray (Going Bovine)

"The uncertainty of our future is nothing more than a fog of breath on a windowpane."

— Libba Bray

"What’s the difference between an undead and my last boyfriend? One is a soul-sucking beast from hell and the other is an undead."— Libba Bray

"Peace is not happenstance. It is a living fire that must be fed constantly. It must be tended with vigilance, else it dies out."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)

"No one asks how I am or what I am doing. They could not care less. We´re all looking glasses, we girls, existing only to reflect their images back to the as they´d like to be seen. Holow vessels of girls to be rinsed of our own ambitions, wants, and opinions, just to be filled with the cool, tepid water of gracious compliance."— Libba Bray (A Great and Terrible Beauty)

"Who the heck is Don Quick-oats?"— Libba Bray (Going Bovine)

"Gonzo narrows his eyes. 'How often do you clean that thing?' 'Every night,' the waitress answers. Her smile is strained. 'That's it? Do you know how long it takes for Listeria to grow under those hot lamps, even with ice?' Here we go. 'It can happen in just five hours. Five hours and you've got the salad bar of death!' The waitress looks confused. 'From Listerine?"— Libba Bray (Going Bovine)

"We created order out of chaos. We made beauty and shaped history. We kept the magic of the realms safe in our grasp. How has it come to this?"

"You've not kept it safe. You've kept it to yourselves."

She shakes her head to dismiss the thought. "Gemma, you may still use the power for much good. With us to help you-"

"And what, pray, have you done to better the lot of others?" I ask. "You call each other sisters, but are we not all sisters? The seamstress ruining her eyesight to keep her children in porridge? The suffragists fighting for the vote? The girls younger than I who would ask for a living wage, whose working conditions are so deplorable they were locked in a burning factory? they could make use of your precious help."

She holds her head high. "We would have done so. In time."

I snort in disgust. "It is daunting to be a woman in any world. What good does our power do us when it must be kept secret?"

"You would prefer bold voices to illusion?"

"Yes."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)

"I am not asking you to understand, Papa. I'm asking for you to accept."

"Accept what?"

Me. Accept me, Papa. "My decision to live my own life as I see fit."

It is so quiet that I suddenly wish I could take it back. Sorry, it was only a terrible joke. I should like a new dress, please."— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)