Retelling Quotes

“They watch on, evil, incredibly stupid, enjoying my destruction.

'Poor Grendel's had an accident,' I whisper. 'So may you all.”
― John Champlin Gardner, Grendel

“His short black hair gleamed like a raven's feathers, off-setting his pale skin and blue eyes so deep they were violet, even in the firelight.”
― Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Thorns and Roses

“One of us will just have to stay at the cottage to keep an eye on her.' [...]
Let's see if Widow Hazel wouldn't take her in during the day, maybe teach her something useful -'
No, remember when she learned how to knit? Now we're stuck wearing these dreadful hats.'
Not so loud! She'll hear you.'
In a lower voice one of the dwarfs said, 'H.A.T.S.'
Apparently Snow White didn't know how to knit or to spell.”
― Janette Rallison, My Fair Godmother

“I did not know I was to be outdone by a little magic boy and his tricks,” he said. “I salute you, magician.” He swept her a bow from horseback.

Vasya did not return the bow. “To small minds,” she told him, spine very straight, “any skill must look like sorcery.”
― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower

“Alice: I didn't know that cheshire cats grinned. In fact, I didn't know that cats could grin.

Duchess: They can, and most of 'em do.”
― Rod Espinosa, Alice in Wonderland

“How does one say something new and not retell?”
― Dejan Stojanovic, The Sun Watches the Sun

“A few fires flickered, plumes of dark smoke marring the ruby sky.”
― Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Thorns and Roses

“Everyone knows: people who cross boarders do so for a reason.”
― M.D. Elster, Four Kings

“All this happened in much less time than it takes to tell, since I am trying to interpret for you into slow speech the instantaneous effect of visual impressions.”
― Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim

“The woman looked at her heart in all of its fragments. Its voice was clear and true as it reminded her of the injustices done to it. Nothing so forlorn and broken could lie to her — could it? However, the woman was not a rational woman, and did not heed the beings’ warning. “Strip my humanity away, that I may never again walk in the race of men,” was her one wish.”
― Esther Dalseno, Drown

“when i sleep i remember days that never were. i dream a life i never saw and which i now see he never wanted...”
― Anthony Oliveira, Dayspring

“Katherine Sharp might be the face and star of the show, but James Petruchio is the brains and heart behind the operations.”
― Kristina Stangl, My Life is a Soap Opera

“Right now, I’m seated in the middle, with two gorgeous men to my sides. In a soap opera, this would be called a love triangle.”
― Kristina Stangl, My Life is a Soap Opera

“Since when did my life turn into a soap opera? I feel like I’m watching my crazy world unfold as a third person audience member in real-time, while on the set of a dramatic television show called Love, After the Election.”
― Kristina Stangl, My Life is a Soap Opera

“You don’t always have to be the hero. Let your sidekick take the lead sometimes.”
― Kristina Stangl, My Life is a Soap Opera

“And so Asterion became the Minotaur. My mother's private constellation of shame intermingled with love and despair no longer; instead, he became my father's display of dominance to the world.”
― Jennifer Saint, Ariadne

“I can' because the Sea King will be angry if we do not do as he wishes. He will not stand for female insubordination, today of all days”
― Louise O'Neill, The Surface Breaks

“I will not weep, she thought. I will not I will not I will NOT.
I had my chance.
Laurie asked me first.
He loved me first.
But I let him go, and I don't deserve him.
I didn't want him then, and I don't want him now.
Not now. Not ever.
But Jo, of all people, knew a story when she heard one. Especially when the ending had been gotten so wrong.”
― Margaret Stohl, Jo & Laurie

“Asterion,' she told me.

'It means star.'

Asterion. A distant light in an infinity of darkness. A raging fire if you came too close. A guide that would lead my family on the path to immortality. A divine vengeance upon us all. I did not know then what he would become. But my mother held him and nursed him and named him and he knew us both. He was not yet the Minotaur. He was just a baby. He was my brother.”
― Jennifer Saint, Ariadne

“Laurie, you're hopeless.'

It was only then that she saw the twinkling in his eye and realized he was teasing her.

She blushed. 'You're teasing. You're awful. A horrible bore.'

He winked. 'At least I'm not a cabbage. At least I'm not Professor Bore.'

'At least that,' she said, smiling into her tea. 'Odious fellow.”
― Margaret Stohl, Jo & Laurie

“Amy sulked. 'And they're not even talking about anything. They never are. Just loads and loads of nonsense.'

Meg patted her sister's arm. 'Only they know what they're talking about, Amy, but I do believe - in their own way - it's not nonsense.'

'Shipwrecks and sunken manuscripts and Jo's Venetian?!' Amy looked at Meg, confused. 'If that's not nonsense, what is it?'

Meg circled her arm affectionately around her little sister's slender shoulders. 'He's Jo's Cherry King, don't you see?'

'I do,' said Amy. 'But does she?”
― Margaret Stohl, Jo & Laurie

“How could she not understand? First, she had believed he was in love with Meg! Next thing he knew, she would be marrying him off to Amy or some other such rot. He shuddered.”
― Margaret Stohl, Jo & Laurie

“What a bunch of rot,' Jo exclaimed, snatching the letter out of Meg's hand. 'I won't marry Jo to Laurie for anything! Especially not to please anyone!'

'Certainly not yourself,' Meg muttered.

'What?'

'Nothing, dear.”
― Margaret Stohl, Jo & Laurie

“Love was madness, was foolish, was senseless. Love was a problem, and yet somehow the loss of it was a worse one. Love made normal things, sensible things, make no sense at all.

It made Meg almost refuse a good man who loved her.

It made their mama give all their bread to the Hummels and wait forever for a chaplain husband who was practically a ghost.

It made Amy and Poppet speak in their own private language, the language of long-lost and now-reunited twins, shipwrecked together in the seas of some faraway world.

It made familiar things terrifying, and terrifying things familiar.

It burned the wings off moths, sending them headlong into the flame.

There was no escape, no recovery, no happy ending. You loved and you lost. Your heart beat and the beating left it bruised beyond recognition. You could feel it, or try not to feel it, or long for it, but you didn't get to keep it.

It didn't matter how, or even why. He loved you or he didn't. She died or she didn't. He left or he didn't.

In the end, you were always the loneliest person in the world, no matter who you were. Because that was what love was, the very raggedy edge of that feeling, the coming or the going of it. There was nothing else.

Only shadows.”
― Margaret Stohl, Jo & Laurie

“Meg watched her sister stand up straight to buck up her courage. Perhaps no one but a sister would have seen the little tremble in Jo's chin, the hurt in her eyes. Laurie certainly didn't seem to notice. Only Meg felt all the air go out of the room as she realized Jo was very close to tears - that in another minute they would have a scene on their hands, and it would all come out at last.

Instead, Jo said, 'Congratulations, Laurie. I hope you're very happy together.' And she ran up the stairs and away before he could say another word.”
― Margaret Stohl, Jo & Laurie

“There are no eyes like those in the whole world, she thought. Eyes like glaciers, like cold northern afternoons. Lapis eyes, blue-sky blue.
She hadn't known how much she loved them.
And that face.
She loved the frown. She loved the furrowed brow. She loved the one irritated eyebrow. She loved the total indifference, the moment one idea or another pushed her temporarily out of his thoughts. She loved it because she loved the sweetness, in the other moments, when he came back to her. The softening, when she came near.”
― Margaret Stohl, Jo & Laurie

“Very ursine. Yes, Mr. Bhaer, your old bore. But she returns home to see Beth before she dies, and leaves him in Manhattan. All seems ended, until Amy and Laurie return home...man and...wife.'

Jo looked at him. 'It was about art and music. And Paris. And Rome.'

'I get it." He shook his head, aghast. 'But, Jo.”
― Margaret Stohl, Jo & Laurie

“Was that it? The great risk of belonging to someone else? Someone who could hurt you. Someone who could leave you. Someone you could lose. Someone you could love, and make all those other things a thousand times worse.

Was that why receiving a heart felt like having to give her own away?”
― Margaret Stohl, Jo & Laurie

“Every cell in her body was screaming at her to flee, but every beat of her heart was telling her to stay. And now she knew. She did belong to him, because he belonged to her, and they belonged to each other. There was no wedding vow that needed to be spoken for her to understand that. Even unmarried, even under separate roofs, they belonged together. No suitable wife would ever care for him more.”
― Margaret Stohl, Jo & Laurie

“In case you haven't noticed, people tend to get killed around you.”
― Marissa Meyer, Cress