FastSaying

He needed to tell her...what? That she was lovely and brave and better than anything he deserved. That he was twisted, crooked, wrong, but not so broken that he couldn't pull himself together into some semblance of a man for her. That without meaning to, he'd begun to lean on her, to look for her, to need her near. He needed to thank her for his new hat.


Leigh Bardugo

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KIM HARRISON Why could he not have chosen some other woman? Why Avelina? But he knew why. It was because she had ...
MELANIE DICKERSON ..he said, he didn't know what to do. He couldn't move forward. He thought, they should move on. He ...
CANDACE BUSHNELL ..he said, he didn't know what to do. He couldn't move forward. He thought, they should move on. He ...
CANDACE BUSHNELL He needed to gather her up, hold on to her, anything to help her stop trembling. Something was going...
TARA JANZEN His hands tightened on her shoulders as the truth washed over him. My God, she really had told him y...
CAROLYN JEWEL He had no idea how wonderful he was. How his hands were so beautiful she could hardly look at them. ...
CAMMIE MCGOVERN He took time to explain the course of the disease and he supported Karen and assured her that he wou...
JOELLYN SCHULTZ The man held himself still and turned his milk-flooded eyes on her. Fin felt something like vertigo ...
A.S. PETERSON They were talking more distantly than if they were strangers who had just met, for if they had been ...
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM One of her arms was around his waist as her eyes fluttered open. He found himself lost in limpid blu...
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He gave her the sexiest crooked smile. "Hi." He stepped into her space, both his ...
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JANE AUSTEN She had grown older. And he loved her more now than he had loved her when he understood her better, ...
MICHAEL ONDAATJE Kev wasn't certain if he was surrendering to Win or to his own passion for her. Only that there was ...
LISA KLEYPAS Yes. He saw her in his mind, exactly as she was. She bore him company with her pride, resentment, ha...
CHARLES DICKENS You're not the way everyone says you are," Kaye said, looking at him so fiercely that he couldn't me...
HOLLY BLACK He wanted her. He knew where to find her. He waited. It amused him to wait, because he knew that the...
AYN RAND He saw her right after the seventh-period bell rang. She seemed dressed for the sole purpose of blen...
FRANCINE PASCAL . . . but it was their relation, and his coming to her like that, openly, so that anyone could see, ...
VIRGINIA WOOLF The message, which one fall or another of the coin would eventually give him, was how to get himself...
PATRICIA A. MCKILLIP He had a harder time helping her out though. He was asleep while she was doing stars. Without wings,...
LAURIE FRANKEL He had a harder time helping her out though. He was asleep while she was doing stars. Without wings,...
LAURIE FRANKEL He destroyed in her the knowing, doubting, sophisticated Ella, and again and again he put her intell...
DORIS LESSING He was supposed to be the first man to tell her that she was beautiful and help her determine who sh...
ANAIS TORRES But he knew instinctively what he suggested was impossible. She'd been through so much, and held her...
JUDITH MCNAUGHT Jay showed up after school with a bouquet of flowers and an armful of DVDs, although Violet couldn�...
KIMBERLY DERTING Inside the music like this, she understood many things. She understood that Simon was a disappointed...
ELIZABETH STROUT Her innocence was maddening. She should know. She should know what her steward had done. She should ...
MARIE RUTKOSKI He was successful in removing her clothes but he was unsuccessful in his attempt to have sexual inte...
BRUCE WILLIAMSON He was too explosive for her to touch him so intimately. It would lead to the wrong things. And plac...
JENNIFER LOWERY she, with her affection and her gaiety, had been largely responsible for him having rediscovered the...
PAULO COELHO They both had a broken heart, but she turned out to be cold hearted, he didn't lose hope because tha...
DAVID BENTO GUERRA He told her that if she screamed or if she told anybody what he was doing, he was going to come back...
LT. RUBEN DIAZ He almost said to himself that he did not like her, before their conversation ended; he tried so har...
ELIZABETH GASKELL That he would love her no matter what she told him, and that he was the kind of man who loved her al...
NICHOLAS SPARKS When she was younger, she felt that he wanted to know everything about her, but she was sometimes af...
MICHAEL STEIN He wondered how it could have taken him so long to realize he cared for her, and he told her so, and...
NEIL GAIMAN If all of her was not enough for him, then let him have none of her and seek what he needed elsewher...
ROBIN HOBB Alysandir is a fine horseman," Isobella said. He was about to dismount, and she stepped upon a stool...
ELAINE COFFMAN It was possible, wasn't it, that he loved her, and that in this time of terrifying opportunity he wa...
ORSON SCOTT CARD Brigan was saying her name, and he was sending her a feeling. It was courage and strength, and somet...
KRISTIN CASHORE It was once him and her, but she lost him and thought for a long time she wanted him back more then ...
AMBER He, too, stood looking at her for a moment--and it seemed to her that it was not a look of greeting ...
AYN RAND He firmly pulled her body against his and he brushed her lips with his. Staring into her eyes, he li...
LANEY SMITH Now now,” he said, setting his hand on her shoulder. He didn’t even see her turn. One moment she...
MATT TOMERLIN The storm didn't take her, God took her, ... We could've just drowned in that boat because it was ju...
JOAN JOHNSON His agony somehow became an invisible hand, stretching out through the Force, a hand that found her,...
MATTHEW WOODRING STOVER He knew in the way that she was a part of him, the way her breathing was his breathing, and her drea...
CASSANDRA CLARE Whether or not there was room in her life for Tamani, Laurel knew that there was precious little roo...
APRILYNNE PIKE It broke his heart because she started to consider that her home. But on the other hand he knew she ...
ELEANOR POPPELL And infatuated be damned. He was near to being blinded by his attraction to her. He was in love, dam...
MARY BALOGH Everyone deserved the chance to be redeemed, and Michael had gone his whole life never having it. He...
PRISCILLA GLENN Yes, he would look for her, whether to delight in the joys of spring together or to plunge into the ...
FéLIX J. PALMA Yes; he had done it. She was in the carriage, and felt that he had placed her there, that his will a...
JANE AUSTEN She saw how he was staring at it, the bright red hue beneath her bonnet. She could not bear to see t...
CHARLOTTE FEATHERSTONE sometimes he feels a pull towards Francesca. She was the reason he came into the group. It was her m...
MELINA MARCHETTA Her room was warm and lightsome. A huge doll sat with her legs apart in the copious easy-chair besid...
JAMES JOYCE He wondered how it could have taken him so long to realize how much he cared for her, and he told he...
NEIL GAIMAN She gets a man who will love her completely and faithfully. She gets a man who will not only save he...
QUINN LOFTIS She's saying that she was raped by her father, he threatened her, he threatened her and her mother i...
MIKE WRIGHT An emotion clamped down on her heart. It squeezed her into a terrible silence. But he said nothing a...
MARIE RUTKOSKI He could not feel her near him in the darkness nor hear her voice touch his ear. He waited for some ...
JAMES JOYCE Cash looked at her, square in the eye, and his jaw twitched. She flinched, then braced herself. For ...
SUMMER HINES The disgraced Usurer Yankel D took the baby girl home that evening... He made a bed of crumpled news...
JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER And just for the record, I think he needed to be a little more assertive with the woman he loved. Th...
JANICE HANNA She was telling us that he dumped her in the garbage, that he cut her clothes off, threw her shoes, ...
DERRICK JOSEPH Evan stopped completely. He was staring at her with those intense eyes. Staring right into her. Just...
KATE BRIAN He must have longed for it so much. He must have loved her so incredibly hard. So hard that he would...
MARKUS ZUSAK He put his hands on her shoulders and kissed her full on the mouth. His skin was wet with rain. When...
CORNELIA FUNKE He made a sound like a choked laughed before he reached out and pulled her into her arms. She was aw...
CASSANDRA CLARE There was an infinitesimal pause while he watched her face, as though he half expected her to recogn...
LEE WILKINSON "Take your hair down," he croaked, his voice deep even to his own ears.
She ...
KRISTEN CASEY Slowly his resistance ebbed. She felt the change in his body, the relaxing of tension, his shoulders...
LISA KLEYPAS She shrunk into herself and waited for me to stare at her like she was gross an dirty. But I just wa...
KRISTA RITCHIE And Amnon was so vexed, that he fell sick for his sister Tamar; for she was a virgin; and Amnon thou...
BIBLE This pretty young blonde girl was screaming at her boyfriend because he text-messaged her that they ...
JOEL SCHUMACHER Kiss me again,” he challenged, only half joking.
It was so weird to hear him say that, to hea...
KIMBERLY DERTING It is not her body that he wants but it is only through her body that he can take possession of anot...
JOYCE CAROL OATES We lived with him for her first three years. He did everything for her. He walked her to sleep, he s...
HOLLY DERRICK She found out he was two-timing on her. She told me some time ago she was going to kill him. I wasn'...
BERNICE JAMISON He felt as if his heart had dried up. I needed her he thought. I needed someone like her to fill the...
HARUKI MURAKAMI When he saw her, he meant to have her. That was what he always said. He just loved my mother.
AUDREY JOHNSON But now she could not bear the way she sounded. She was not a person anyone could love.

....
PETER CAREY He told her he was going to rip her laundry off and do dirty things to her, ... She asked him when h...
FRANK MINUCCI The young girl inspected her flounces and smoothed her ribbons again; and Winterbourne presently ris...
HENRY JAMES What does Éloa mean?”

He narrowed his gaze, answered her literally. “It’s the name...
SARAH MACLEAN Oh, he was so mean to her. He would mistreat her, say awful things to her and cause trouble. He was ...
JACKIE BERRY She had her own barometer for knowing when a man was getting too close: as soon as he felt comfortab...
STEPHANIE BOND How was it that he haunted her imagination so persistently? What could it be? Why did she care for w...
ELIZABETH GASKELL Many times he had tried unsuccessfully to let go his hold on her. They had many fine times together,...
F. SCOTT FITZGERALD Seven hundred years ago, Tersa had told [Daemon] the living myth was coming. Seven hundred years of ...
ANNE BISHOP She hated that will had this effect on her. Hated it. She knew better. She knew what he thought of h...
CASSANDRA CLARE How can I tell a story we already know too well? Her name was Africa. His was France. He colonized h...
REBECCA SOLNIT He's charmed by her as if she were some fairy!" continued Arabella. "See how he looks round at her, ...
THOMAS HARDY He wanted to remain with her, ... She did not want to be with him, she says, and that gave rise to h...
BARRY HAZEN I believe in you, my darling. I believe in you."
He closed his eyes.
And when he opened th...
ELIZABETH HOYT

More Leigh Bardugo

They are orphans again, with no true home but each other and whatever life they can make together on...
LEIGH BARDUGO You're very welcome," she said, giving my hair a hard tug. "You should be used to being gawked at by...
LEIGH BARDUGO The heart is an arrow. It demands aim to land true.
LEIGH BARDUGO Better terrible truths than kind lies.
LEIGH BARDUGO Please, my darling Inej, treasure of my heart, won’t you do me the honor of acquiring me a new hat...
LEIGH BARDUGO I'm a business man," he'd told her. "No more, no less."
"You're a thief, Kaz."
"Isn't that...
LEIGH BARDUGO We are all someone's monster.
LEIGH BARDUGO When everyone knows you’re a monster, you needn’t waste time doing every monstrous thing.
LEIGH BARDUGO It's not natural for women to fight."
"It's not natural for someone to be as stupid as he is ta...
LEIGH BARDUGO No mourners. No funerals. Among them, it passed for 'good luck.
LEIGH BARDUGO Many boys will bring you flowers. But someday you'll meet a boy who will learn your favorite flower,...
LEIGH BARDUGO She'd hurt him, but she'd attempted everything in her power to make things right. She'd shown him in...
LEIGH BARDUGO This was his soul made flesh, the truth of him laid bare in the blazing sun, shorn of mystery and sh...
LEIGH BARDUGO Aleksander," I whispered. A boy's name, given up. Almost forgotten.
LEIGH BARDUGO Maybe love was superstition, a prayer we said to keep the truth of loneliness at bay.
LEIGH BARDUGO Why waste my anger on you when the fault is mine? I should have anticipated another betrayal from yo...
LEIGH BARDUGO I've been waiting for you a long time, Alina" He said. "You and I are going to change the world.
LEIGH BARDUGO The Darkling slumped back in his chair. “Fine,” he said with a weary shrug. “Make me your vill...
LEIGH BARDUGO Beauty was your armor. Fragile stuff, all show. But what's inside you? That's steel. It's brave and ...
LEIGH BARDUGO I took a breath. “Your highness—”
“Nikolai,” he corrected. “But I’ve also been kn...
LEIGH BARDUGO I've seen what you truly are," said the Darkling, "and I've never turned away. I never will. Can he ...
LEIGH BARDUGO Why won’t you leave me alone?” I whispered one night as he hovered behind me while I tried to wo...
LEIGH BARDUGO What is infinite? The universe and the greed of men.
LEIGH BARDUGO Of course not," said Sturmhond. "Anything worth doing always starts as a bad idea.
LEIGH BARDUGO I will strip away all that you know, all that you love, until you have no shelter but mine.
LEIGH BARDUGO Watch yourself, Nikolai,” Mal said softly. “Princes bleed just like other men.”
Nikolai p...
LEIGH BARDUGO The less you say, the more weight your words will carry.
LEIGH BARDUGO When people say impossible, they usually mean improbable.
LEIGH BARDUGO The problem with wanting," he whispered, his mouth trailing along my jaw until it hovered over my li...
LEIGH BARDUGO Yuyeh sesh. Despise your heart. Ni weh sesh. I have no heart.
LEIGH BARDUGO In this moment he was just a boy -brilliant, blessed with too much power, burdened by eternity.
LEIGH BARDUGO He leaned against the window, and the gilded frame came into sharp focus. “Do you think it would b...
LEIGH BARDUGO And there's nothing wrong with being a lizard either. Unless you were born to be a hawk.
LEIGH BARDUGO Na razrusha'ya. I am not ruined. E'ya razrushost. I am ruination.
LEIGH BARDUGO At some point, Jesper realized Kaz was gone.
"Not one for goodbyes, is he?" he muttered.
...
LEIGH BARDUGO I can’t decide if you’re crazy or stupid.”
“I have so many good qualities,” Sturmhond...
LEIGH BARDUGO Sisters in battle, I am shield and blade to you. As I breathe, your enemies will know no sanctuary. ...
LEIGH BARDUGO Inej turned to go. Kaz seized her hand, keeping it on the railing. He didn't look at her. "Stay", he...
LEIGH BARDUGO You were like a stranger, Alina. Beautiful," he said. "Terrible.
LEIGH BARDUGO They had an ordinary life, full of ordinary things-if love can ever be called that.
LEIGH BARDUGO I don't care if you danced naked on the roof of the Little Palace with him. I love you, Alina, even ...
LEIGH BARDUGO I'm sorry it took me so long to see you, Alina. But I see you now.
LEIGH BARDUGO What do you want then?"
The old answers came easily to mind. Money. Vengeance. Jordie's voic...
LEIGH BARDUGO I can hear the change in Kaz's breathing when he looks at you."
"You... you can?"
"It catc...
LEIGH BARDUGO No Mourners.
No Funerals.
LEIGH BARDUGO Stay,” she panted. Tears leaked from her eyes. “Stay till the end.”
“And after,” he ...
LEIGH BARDUGO The water hears and understands. The ice does not forgive.
LEIGH BARDUGO She'd laughed, and if he could have bottled the sound and gotten drunk on it every night, he would h...
LEIGH BARDUGO I will have you without armor, Kaz Brekker. Or I will not have you at all.
LEIGH BARDUGO Jesper knocked his head against the hull and cast his eyes heavenward. “Fine. But if Pekka Rollins...
LEIGH BARDUGO Kaz leaned back. "What's the easiest way to steal a man's wallet?"
"Knife to the throat?" asked...
LEIGH BARDUGO No, little brother. No one is stronger. You've cheated death too many times. Greed may do your biddi...
LEIGH BARDUGO I roll my eyes. "Well, if I plan on doing anything exciting I promise to give fair warning so just.....
LEIGH BARDUGO What are you smiling at?”

I whirled, peering into the gloom. The Darkling’s voice se...
LEIGH BARDUGO Hope was tricky like water. Somehow it always found a way in.
LEIGH BARDUGO What is she to you anyway?"

"Here's my answer captain. She's the thing that made this all...
LEIGH BARDUGO Suffering is like anything else. Live with it long enough, you learn to like the taste.
LEIGH BARDUGO I'm the Sun Summoner. It gets dark when I say it does.
LEIGH BARDUGO Nina glanced from Inej to Kaz and saw they both wore the same expression. Nina knew that look. It ca...
LEIGH BARDUGO Crows remember human faces. They remember the people who feed them, who are kind to them. And the pe...
LEIGH BARDUGO How many times have you told me you're a monster? So be a monster. Be the thing they all fear when t...
LEIGH BARDUGO She smiled then, her cheeks red, her cheeks scattered with some kind of dust. It was a smile he thou...
LEIGH BARDUGO A gambler, a convict, a wayward son, a lost Grisha, a Suli girl who had become a killer, a boy from ...
LEIGH BARDUGO When evening fell the boy would bring the girl a glass of tea, a slice of lemon cake, an apple bloss...
LEIGH BARDUGO A wise warrior learns from her mistakes.
LEIGH BARDUGO And that was what destroyed you in the end: the longing for something you could never have.
LEIGH BARDUGO Fear is a phoenix. You can watch it burn a thousand times and still it will return.
LEIGH BARDUGO Be brutal. Be cruel. More lives will be saved in the long run.
LEIGH BARDUGO Weakness is a guise. Wear it when they need to know you're human, but never when you feel it.
LEIGH BARDUGO I hope you weren't looking to me to be the voice of reason. I keep to a strict diet of ill-advised e...
LEIGH BARDUGO We meet fear. We greet the unexpected visitor and listen to what he has to tell us. When fear arr...
LEIGH BARDUGO Maybe there were people who lived those lives. Maybe this girl was one of them. But what about the r...
LEIGH BARDUGO Have any of you wondered what I did with all the cash Pekka Rollins gave us?"
"Guns?" asked Jes...
LEIGH BARDUGO She wouldn't wish love on anyone. It was the guest you welcomed and then couldn't be rid of.
LEIGH BARDUGO I saw the prince when I was in Os Alta,” said Ekaterina. “He’s not bad looking.”
“Not...
LEIGH BARDUGO I need someone who can be invisible, who can become a ghost. Do you think you can do that?"
LEIGH BARDUGO Greed is your god, Kaz."
He almost laughed at that. "No, Inej. Greed bows to me. It is my serva...
LEIGH BARDUGO David looked at me, then, the regret plain on his face. No matter what I said, we both knew the hard...
LEIGH BARDUGO If it works, it will be plenty dramatic. And I suppose that if it doesn't work, it will be even more...
LEIGH BARDUGO Everyone okay?" Mal asked.

"Never better," said Genya shakily.

David raised hi...
LEIGH BARDUGO You cannot make this kind of decision," he said. "Go off with someone you barely know. You're sevent...
LEIGH BARDUGO Sure we do," said Theo, swatting at a branch. "We get to the spring, Alia gets cured. We argue over ...
LEIGH BARDUGO The Darkling just stared out into the waves. I considered shoving him over the railing. Sure, he was...
LEIGH BARDUGO Wylan looked as if he was ready to wet himself. Helvar appeared grim as always. Jesper just grinned ...
LEIGH BARDUGO I miss a good cup of tea, dancing, boys- definitely not rain."
"We dance," Diana protested.
LEIGH BARDUGO Maybe your tutors didn't cover this lesson, but you do not argue with a man covered in blood and a k...
LEIGH BARDUGO Some people see a magic trick and say, "Impossible!" They clap their hands, turn over their money, a...
LEIGH BARDUGO I’m going to get my money, Kaz vowed. And I’m going to get my girl.
LEIGH BARDUGO Don’t worry, Da. People point guns at each other all the time in Ketterdam. It’s basically a han...
LEIGH BARDUGO Meeting you was a disaster.”
She raised a brow. “Thank you.”
Djel, he was terrible a...
LEIGH BARDUGO Scheming face,” Inej murmured.
Jesper nodded. “Definitely.
LEIGH BARDUGO Has anyone noticed this whole city is looking for us, mad at us, or wants to kill us?"
"So?" sa...
LEIGH BARDUGO I want you to stay. I want you to … I want you.” “You want me.” She turned the words over. G...
LEIGH BARDUGO I don't like this."
"To be fair, Matthias, you don't like much.
LEIGH BARDUGO Sometimes scientific discoveries are like that […]. Once people know something is possible, the pa...
LEIGH BARDUGO I think the hard work of writing is just how long a book is terrible before it's good.
LEIGH BARDUGO Don't argue. Never deign to deny. Meet insults with laughter.
LEIGH BARDUGO The storm has brought Ulla to the cold shelter of the northern islands, to the darkened caves and fl...
LEIGH BARDUGO What god do you serve? Inej had asked him. Whichever will grant me good fortune. Fortunate people di...
LEIGH BARDUGO Too much champagne?”
“Maybe.”
“Silly girl,” she said, looping her arm through ...
LEIGH BARDUGO When we get our money, you can burn kruge to keep you warm."
"I'm going to pay someone to burn ...
LEIGH BARDUGO You know I can do it, Kaz, and you know I'm not going to refuse. So why ask?"
" Because I've...
LEIGH BARDUGO I don't want your prayers, he said.
What do you want, then?
The old answers came easily to...
LEIGH BARDUGO But hope rises like water trapped by a dam, higher and higher, in increments that mean nothing until...
LEIGH BARDUGO You see, some people are born with a piece of night inside, and that hollow place can never be fille...
LEIGH BARDUGO This goes to show you that sometimes the unseen is not to be feared and that those meant to love us ...
LEIGH BARDUGO A thousand desperate wishes have been spoken on these shores, and in the end they were all the same:...
LEIGH BARDUGO He saw her draw closer in the mirror. Her black hair was an ink splash against the white tile walls....
LEIGH BARDUGO His knuckles brushed against her skin and lightning cracked through him, left him paralyzed, rooted ...
LEIGH BARDUGO Ketterdam is made of monsters. I just happen to have the longest teeth.
LEIGH BARDUGO When had she stopped being a child? The first time a guy whistled at her out of a car window when sh...
LEIGH BARDUGO But when someone does wrong, when we make mistakes, we don’t say we’re sorry. We promise to make...
LEIGH BARDUGO Nina, you taught me to be something better. They could be taught, too.
LEIGH BARDUGO I like to have powerful enemies. Makes me feel important.
LEIGH BARDUGO Kaz had always kept himself at a remove from everyone. They’d wanted camaraderie, friendship, but ...
LEIGH BARDUGO The world was made of miracles, unexpected earthquakes, storms that came from nowhere and might resh...
LEIGH BARDUGO It's always been this way. There were rumors about me even before I was born. It's why my mother nev...
LEIGH BARDUGO I shouldn't have lost my temper that way. It just pricks his pride, makes him dig in his heels."
LEIGH BARDUGO I have loved you all my life, Mal," I whispered through my tears. "There is no end to our story.
LEIGH BARDUGO I thought the love I'd had for him belonged to the past, to the foolish, lonely girl I never wanted ...
LEIGH BARDUGO Why can a Grisha possess but one amplifier? I will answer this question instead: What is infinite? T...
LEIGH BARDUGO No mourners, no funerals. Another way of saying good luck. But it was something more. A dark wink to...
LEIGH BARDUGO Trevlig långresa ner', sa hon innan hon hoppade upp på räcket och gled iväg som en klick smör i...
LEIGH BARDUGO A different kind of knight, one who'd chosen to protect the girl the world wanted to destroy; one bo...
LEIGH BARDUGO I am done being careful. I am done being quiet. Let them see me angry. Let them hear me wail at the ...
LEIGH BARDUGO Stay,” she panted. Tears leaked from her eyes. “Stay till the end.”
“And after,” he ...
LEIGH BARDUGO Alone in the gloom, surrounded by books, it was hard not to feel overwhelmed.
LEIGH BARDUGO Yes, supermodels have the power to make you buy things you don't need and feel terrible about yourse...
LEIGH BARDUGO Speak, she begged silently. Give me a reason to stay. For all his selfishness and cruelty, Kaz was s...
LEIGH BARDUGO Sometimes when we find love we pretend it away, or ignore it, or tell ourselves we're imagining it. ...
LEIGH BARDUGO There is something more powerful than any army. Something strong enough to topple kings, and even Da...
LEIGH BARDUGO I didn't think he was in love with me and I had no idea what I felt for him, but he wanted me, and m...
LEIGH BARDUGO You live in a single moment. I live in a thousand.
LEIGH BARDUGO When had she stopped being a child? The first time a guy had whistled at her out of a car window whe...
LEIGH BARDUGO What about the nobodies and the nothings, the invisible girls? We learn to hold our heads as if we w...
LEIGH BARDUGO You're shaking."

"I'm not used to people trying to kill me."

"Really? I hardly...
LEIGH BARDUGO It's probably for the best, I told myself. How would I have said goodbye to Mal anyway? Thanks fo...
LEIGH BARDUGO Mal,"I whispered into the night.
"What?"
"Thanks for finding me."
"Always.
LEIGH BARDUGO I'm not like you, Mal. I never really fit in the way you did. I never really belonged anywhere."
LEIGH BARDUGO The moment our lips met, I knew with pure and piercing certainty that I would have waited for him fo...
LEIGH BARDUGO I missed you every hour. And you know what the worst part was? It caught me completely by surprise. ...
LEIGH BARDUGO She would have her ship and he would have his city.
LEIGH BARDUGO You’ll get what’s coming to you some day, Brekker.” “I will,” said Kaz, “if there’s an...
LEIGH BARDUGO A liar, a thief, and utterly without conscience. But he'll keep to any deal you strike with him.
LEIGH BARDUGO Everything is a negotiation with you, Brekker. You probably bartered your way out of the womb.
LEIGH BARDUGO You can't spend his money if you're dead."

"I'll acquire expensive habits in the afterli...
LEIGH BARDUGO You'll get what's coming to you some day, Brekker."
"I will," said Kaz, "if there's any justice...
LEIGH BARDUGO Usually people don't start hating each other until a week into the job, but you two have a head star...
LEIGH BARDUGO He was going to break my legs ,” she said, her chin held high, the barest quaver in her voice. “...
LEIGH BARDUGO This action will have no echo.
LEIGH BARDUGO Any other impossible feats you'd like us to accomplish?"

The barest smile flickered over ...
LEIGH BARDUGO He’d wanted me to believe in his ruthlessness.
Then I remembered his words from so long ago:<...
LEIGH BARDUGO She righted herself, her balance returning. Had she really thought the world didn't change? She was ...
LEIGH BARDUGO There are better things than princes.
LEIGH BARDUGO We were not made to please princes.
LEIGH BARDUGO Do you take anything seriously?”
“Not if I can help it. Makes life so tedious.
LEIGH BARDUGO You’re stupid about a lot of things, Wylan, but you are not stupid. And if I ever hear you call yo...
LEIGH BARDUGO If only you could talk to girls in equations.”
There was a long silence, and then, eyes trai...
LEIGH BARDUGO Nina might not be able to put you back, you know. Not without another dose of parem. You could be st...
LEIGH BARDUGO Just this minute, I'll settle for an apology, she decided. And I wont' board the boat without one. E...
LEIGH BARDUGO He looked down at his boots. "That berth belongs to you too. It will always be there when―if you w...
LEIGH BARDUGO I've been nothing but kind to you. I'm not some sort of monster."
"No, you're the man who sits ...
LEIGH BARDUGO People, particularly big men carrying big rifles, don't expect lip from a scrawny thing like me. The...
LEIGH BARDUGO Then the memory of the Darkling's kiss blew through me and rattled my concentration, scattering my t...
LEIGH BARDUGO C’mon,” he said. “One foot in front of the other. You know how it’s done”
“You’re...
LEIGH BARDUGO I hate hiding how much the stupid things he did hurt me, but I hated the idea of him finding out eve...
LEIGH BARDUGO I had spared the stag's life. The power of that life belonged to me as surely as it belonged to the ...
LEIGH BARDUGO Thanks for being my best friend and making my life bearable. Oh, and sorry I fell in love with y...
LEIGH BARDUGO Did you miss me, Alina? Did you miss me when you were gone?"
"Every day," I said hoarsely.
LEIGH BARDUGO Did you tell him what I showed you in the dark?
LEIGH BARDUGO Do you blame me for every mistake I made? For every girl I tumbled? For every dumb thing I've said? ...
LEIGH BARDUGO So I'm the Darkling's prisoner?"
"You're under his protection."
"What's the difference?" LEIGH BARDUGO Just you and me."
"Really?"
"It's always just you and me, Alina.
LEIGH BARDUGO A moment later the boy whispered, "I don't think you're ugly."
"Shhhh!" the girl hissed. But hi...
LEIGH BARDUGO Sturmhond had a way of talking that made me want to shoot someone. Preferably him.
LEIGH BARDUGO If it were a trick, I'd promise you safety. I'd offer you happiness. I don't know if that exists in ...
LEIGH BARDUGO The ox feels the yoke, but does the bird feel the weight of its wings?
LEIGH BARDUGO I am grateful you're alive", he said. "I am grateful that you're beside me. I am grateful that you'r...
LEIGH BARDUGO He was a wounded animal who needed to be put down. And Kaz had done it gladly, choked the life from ...
LEIGH BARDUGO I don’t hold a grudge. I cradle it. I coddle it. I feed it fine cuts of meat and send it to the be...
LEIGH BARDUGO I have been made to protect you. Even in death, I will find a way.
LEIGH BARDUGO Jesper couldn’t quite believe he was having a conversation with the Sturmhond. The privateer was a...
LEIGH BARDUGO Her heart was a river that carried her to the sea.
LEIGH BARDUGO He'd told her they would fight their way out. Knives drawn, pistols blazing. Because that's what we ...
LEIGH BARDUGO Greed may do your bidding, but death serves no man.
LEIGH BARDUGO The thought filled me with grief, grief for the dreams we'd shared, for the love I'd felt, for the h...
LEIGH BARDUGO Why do you guys say that, anyway? No mourners, no funerals? Why not just say good luck or be safe?�...
LEIGH BARDUGO He'd broken his leg dropping down from the rooftop. The bone didn't set right, and he'd limped ever ...
LEIGH BARDUGO You don’t look like a monster.”
“I’ll tell you a secret, Hanna. The really bad monster...
LEIGH BARDUGO If Ketterdam has taught me anything, it's that you can always bleed a little more.
LEIGH BARDUGO Nina Zenik, as soon as I figure out where you've put my knives, we're going to have words."
LEIGH BARDUGO Baghra," Nikolai said, "how are you this evening?"
"Still old and blind," she snarled.
"An...
LEIGH BARDUGO What you want and what the world needs are not always in accord.
LEIGH BARDUGO Fear is a powerful ally, but feed it too often, make it too strong, and it will turn on you.
LEIGH BARDUGO Pull your shirt up over your mouth,” he told Wylan.
“What?”
“Stop being dense. You...
LEIGH BARDUGO The trap is loneliness, and none of us escapes it. Not even me.
LEIGH BARDUGO I need your skills, Inej. That's not the same thing. You may be the best spider crawling around the ...
LEIGH BARDUGO Thoughts of moonlight and silken hair evaporated in a black bolt of fury. Kaz saw Inej tug on the sl...
LEIGH BARDUGO You have your own problems right now, Zenik, said a voice in her head. Stop worrying about saving th...
LEIGH BARDUGO, CROOKED KINGDOM I'm vegetarian, but I love Thanksgiving dinner: faux turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes.
LEIGH LEZARK