The Girl in the Tower Quotes

“Every time you take one path, you must live with the memory of the other: of a life left unchosen. Decide as seems best, one course or the other; each way will have its bitter with its sweet.”
― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower

“Witch. The word drifted across his mind. We call such women so, because we have no other name.”
― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower

“Think of me sometimes," he returned. "When the snowdrops have bloomed and the snow has melted.”
― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower

“I did not know I was lonely, she thought, until I was no longer alone.”
― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower

“I carve things of wood because things made by effort are more real than things made by wishing.”
― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower

“But yes,” he said wearily. “As I could, I loved you. Now will you go? Live.” “I, too,” she said. “In a childish way, as girls love heroes that come in the night, I loved you.”
― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower

“You cannot take vengeance on a whole people because of the doings of a few wicked men.”
― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower

“Things are or they are not, Vasya,” he interrupted. “If you want something, it means you do not have it, it means that you do not believe it is there, which means it will never be there. The fire is or it is not. That which you call magic is simply not allowing the world to be other than as you will it.”
― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower

“Every time you take one path, you must live with the memory of the other: of a life left unchosen.”
― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower

“The breath hitched in his throat. His hand caught hers, but he did not untangle her fingers. "Why are you here?" she asked him. For a moment she thought he would not answer, then he said, as though reluctant, "I heard you cry.”
― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower

“Many people say ‘Better to die’ until the time comes to do it,” Morozko returned.”
― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower

“There is no magic. Things are. Or they are not.”
― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower

“How? I am a demon and a nightmare; I die every spring, and I will live forever.”
― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower

“With that sapphire, he bound your strength to him, but the magic did what he did not intend; it made him strong but also pulled him closer and closer to mortality, so that he was hungry for life, more than a man and less a demon. So that he loved you, and did not know what to do.”
― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower

“Mornings are wiser than evenings.”
― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower

“Only boys and fools think men are first in courage. We do not bear children.”
― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower

“Has the world run dry of warriors?' She asked. 'All out of brave lords? Are they sending out maidens these days to do the work of heroes?'
'There were no heroes,' said Vasya between her teeth. 'There was only me.”
― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower

“The more one knows, the sooner one grows old,” Midnight returned cheerfully.”
― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower

“That love of maidens for monsters, that does not fade with time.” He looked weary. “But the rest—I did not count on that.”
― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower

“Live,” she said. “You said you loved me. Live.”
― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower

“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

“Close your eyes," he said into her ear. "Come with me." She did so, and suddenly she saw what he saw. She was the wind, the clouds gathering in the smoky sky, the thick snow of deep winter. She was nothing. She was everything. The power gathered somewhere in the space between them, between her flickers of awareness. There is no magic. Things are. Or they are not. She was beyond wanting anything. She didn't care whether she lived or died. She could only feel; the gathering storm, the breath of the wind.”
― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower

“I will see the world beyond this forest, and I will not count the cost.”
― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower

“Sasha looked at his sister. He had never thought of her as girlish, but the last trace of softness was gone. The quick brain, the strong limbs were there: fiercely, almost defiantly present, though concealed beneath her encumbering dress. She was more feminine than she had ever been, and less. Witch. The word drifted across his mind. We call such women so, because we have no other name.”
― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower

“That which you call magic is simply not allowing the world to be other than as you will it.”
― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower

“It is going to end, Vasya thought. One day. This world of wonders, where steam in a bathhouse can be a creature that speaks prophecy. One day, there will be only bells and processions. The chyerti will be fog and memory and stirrings in the summer barley.”
― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower

“Why carve things of wood,” she asked him, “if you can make marvelous things of ice with only your hands?” He glanced up. “I carve things of wood because things made by effort are more real than things made by wishing.”
― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower

“You cannot love and be immortal.”
― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower

“She hated him. She dreamed about him. None of it mattered. Might as well hate the sky - or desire it - and she hated that worst of all.”
― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower

“Unable to ride, he paced the winter earth, while clouds boiled up in the north and blew snow-flurries on them both. “She was supposed to go home,” he snarled to no one in particular. “She was supposed to tire of her folly, go home with her necklace, wear it, and tremble sometimes, at the memory of a frost-demon, in her impetuous youth. She was supposed to bear girl-children who might wear the necklace in turn. She was not supposed to—” Enchant you, finished the horse with some asperity, not raising her nose from the snow. Her tail lashed her flanks. Do not pretend otherwise. Or has she dragged you near enough to humanity that you have also become a hypocrite?”
― Katherine Arden, The Girl in the Tower