Victoria Schwab

“I mean, most people want to escape. Get out of their heads. Out of their lives. Stories are the easiest way to do that.”

“What are you?" she asked. "A monster," said Kell hoarsely. "You'd better let me go." The girl gave a small, mocking laugh. "Monsters don't faint in the presence of ladies." "Ladies don't dress like men and pick pockets," retorted Kell. Her smile only sharpened. "What are you really?" "Tied to your bed," said Kell matter-of-factly. "And?" His brow furrowed. "And in trouble.”

“What if I mess up?""Oh, you will. You'll mess up, you'll make mistakes, you'll break things. Some you'll be able to piece together, and others you'll lose. That's all a given. But there's only one thing you have to do for me.""What's that?""Stay alive long enough to mess up again.”

“The worse thing you can do in a fight is stop moving. When someone attacks, they create force, movement, momentum, but you'll be okay as long as you can see and feel the direction of that force and travel with it.”

“I’ve been thinking.” “A dangerous pursuit.” “Indeed.”

“Sing you a song and steal your soul.”

“She cracked a smile. "So what's your poison" He sighed dramatically, and let the truth tumble off his tongue. "Life." "Ah," she said ruefully. "That'll kill you.”

“Yeah, I mean, most people want to escape. Get out of their heads. Out of their lives. Stories are the easiest way to do that.”

“We do it, Jackson, because compassion must be louder than pride.”

“I am Sunai,” he said. “I am holy fire. And if I have to burn the world to cleanse it, so help me, I will.”

“Everything that rises will fall. Empires, societies, governments. None of them lasts forever. Why? Because even though they are the products of change, they become resistant to change. The longer a society survives, the more it clings to its power, and the more it resists progress. The more it resists progress- resists change- the more its ciizens demand it. In response, the society tighten its grip, desperate to maintain control. It's afraid of losing its hold.”

“Do you ever wonder why music brings a soul to surface? What makes beauty work as well as pain?”

“You really are like him, your father.""I can't tell whether you think that's good or bad.""What does it matter? It's simply true.”

“Don’t tell me you’re afraid of heights,” she said, shimmying along the edge.“Not heights,” he murmured. “Just falling.”

“But the fact is, dreams catch us with our armor off.”

“Doubt is like a current you have to swim against, one that saps your strength.”

“He manages a sad smile. “An omission is not the same thing as a lie, Miss Bishop. It’s a manipulation.”

“The first trick to lying is to tell the truth as often as possible. If out start lying about everything, big and small, it becomes impossible to keep things straight and you'll get caught. Once suspicion is planted it becomes exponentially harder to sell the next lie.”

“Da used to say that lies were easy, but trust was hard. Trust is like faith: it can turn people into believers, but every time it's lost, trust becomes harder and harder to win back.”

“Everything hurts. I don't know how to make it stop. It hurts when I breathe. It hurts when I think. I feel like I'm drowning, and it's my fault, and I don't know how to be okay. I don't know if I CAN be okay. I don't know if I should be allowed to be okay.”