Juliet Marillier
After a while, footsteps sounded on the flagstones outside and there was a gentle tap at the door. Of course, one of them would come. So close were we, the seven of us, that no childhood injury went unnoticed, no slight, real or imagined, went unaddressed, no hurt was endured without comfort.Collection: Hurt
Why should I be polished and improved like goods for sale? I might not even want to marry! And besides, I have many skills. I can read and write and play the flute and harp. Why should I change to please some man? If he doesn’t like me the way I am, then he can get some other girl for his wife.Collection: Girl
Ask us for any help you need...Let us be strong for you.Collection: Strong
The world is simple, I think, in its essence. Life, death, love, hate. Desire, fulfillment. Magic.Collection: Hate
How could you not know?" His voice was full of wonderment. "You changed me utterly. You were like a...like a bright, wonderful bloom in a garden full of weeds. Like a graceful capital on a page of plain script, a letter decorated with the deepest, finest colors in all Erin. Like a flame, Caitrin. Like a song.Collection: Weed
I wonder how it takes you, that moment when everything turns to shadows. - Somerled.Collection: Shadow
For indeed you have a choice. You can flee and hide, and wait to be found. You can live out your days in terror, without meaning. Or you can take the harder choice, and you can save them.Collection: Found You
You may be your own best helper, if you choose the right path.Collection: May
Because if I see you defeated, then I think I will see Alban defeated, and if that happens, none of us can go on. To guard you is to guard the heart of this land of ours.Collection: Heart
Hope is such a tenuous quality. To feel it and then to be denied what one most longs for ... Better, surely, not to hope at all, than to open the heart to a hope that is impossible.Collection: Heart
I like the truth, even when it does trouble me.Collection: Doe
Third person allows a deeper exploration of the relationships between characters. We can see their misunderstandings and hear what they think about each other. We can create a more complex structure with various story threads running parallel.Collection: Running
My advice to aspiring writers of fantasy trilogies or series is that each book needs two main plots. There's the 'big story', the over-arching grand plot of the entire series, and there is the complete-in-itself, one-book plot.Collection: Book
I've loved fairytales, folklore and mythology since I was a small child, and I think it was inevitable that they would influence my style and my development of stories.Collection: Children
My daughter," I said blankly. "I see. Correct me if I am wrong, but I thought it took a man, as well as a woman, to make a child. Is this infant's father to be a crab, or a seagull maybe? Or were you planning to shipwreck some likely sailor on my doorstep, so I can make convenient use of him?Collection: Daughter
How can he do this? If you were mine, I would fight to keep you. I would die, before I let you go.Collection: Fighting
My world was changing, and I was not ready for it.Collection: World
Wake the sleeper must, and confront his fears, or risk being lost in the dark places of the mind forever.Collection: Dark
Trust can be a hard lesson; hope still more difficult.Collection: Lessons
I could not imagine living away from Sevenwaters, away from all that was so much a part of me. Maybe, if you cared enough about someone, you could do it and not feel your spirit torn in two. But the forest keeps her hold on all those who are born there, and they cannot travel far without the yearning in them to return.Collection: Two
Liadan," he said, staring intently at the ground. "Yes," I whispered. "Don't wed that man Eamonn. Tell him, if he takes you, he's a dead." --BranCollection: Men
I wish- I wish I could dry these tears, I wish I could make this better for you. But I don't know how.Collection: Wish
Good and bad; shade and sunlight, there's but a hair's breath between them. It's all one in the end.Collection: Hair
Trust is a thing you know without words.Collection: Knows
She seemed fragile like a moonflower – destined to bloom for a single lovely night, and then to fade and fall.Collection: Fall
Come, dear heart. Lean on me and let us walk this path together.Collection: Heart
You will find the way, daughter of the forest. Through grief and pain, through many trials, through betrayal and loss, your feet will walk a straight path.Collection: Daughter
Water and stone Flesh and bone Night and morn Rose and thorn Tree and wind Heart and mindCollection: Heart
Each of my novels features a protagonist undertaking a difficult personal journey. On the way, each of these characters - mostly female - discovers something about herself and at the same time makes an impact on other people's lives.Collection: Character
There is no good or evil, save in the way you see the world. There is no dark or light save in your own.Collection: Dark
If a man has to say trust me, Gogu conveyed, it's a sure sign you cannot. Trust him, that is. Trust is a thing you know without words.Collection: Men
First person allows deeper insight into the protagonist's character. It allows the reader to identify more fully with the protagonist and to share her world quite intimately. So it suits a story focused on one character's personal journey. However, first person shuts out insights into other characters.Collection: Character
He was sitting not far away, watching me, and I surprised a smile on his face, the first real smile I had ever seen him give, a smile that curved and softened the tight mouth, and warmed the ice-cool eyes; a smile that brought the blood to my face and made my heart turn over.Collection: Real
But I believe we all have an inner goodness; a little flame that stays alight through the worst of trials.Collection: Believe
You thought you’d never give up your vocation, a voice whispered inside me. You thought you’d never even consider it. But you’ve met the one man who could change your mind. He is your perfect complement. He is Cathal to your Clodagh; he is Bran to your Liadan. No wonder you conjured up those images. No wonder they make you weep.Collection: Giving Up
You cannot poison what is between us with your foul words. She is my light in the darkness and Johnny is my pathway ahead.Collection: Light
Perhaps he could still weave together the broken threads of his life. And yet, I wanted him here now. I needed him here. In the darkness, if I sat very still, I could almost feel his presence by me, quite near, but not too near. Didn't I promise to keep you safe, he would say softly. I have never broken a promise. Don't look so worried, Jenny. And yet, he would be careful. Careful not to move too close. Careful not to frighten me. Waiting still. I am your shelter. Don't be afraid.Collection: Moving
There is no truth on this island of yours. Rather, there are as many truths as there are stars in the sky; and every one of them different.Collection: Stars
I would hold on, and hold on, until my hands clutch at emptiness.Collection: Hands
All that he had of her was his memory, where he held every moment, every single moment that she had been his. That was all he had, to keep out the loneliness.Collection: Memories
a tree is never just a tree, it is bigger and deeper and wiser than a girl like you will ever be.Collection: Girl
Stronger than iron crueler than death sweeter than springtime it lives beyond breathCollection: Iron
We cannot know the future. All we can do is face it bravely. We should take heed of those we love and respect. But in the end, we make every decision alone.Collection: Decision
She had sacrificed her childhood to save her brothers; she loved her family above all else, and her spirits yearned to return home once more, to the wild forest and the land of mystic tales and ancient spirits whence he had taken her. That was the place of her heart, and if he loved her, he must let her go.Collection: Brother
I have listened to many tales in my life, and told a few of my own. If this has taught me anything, it is that there are some occurrences that change the course of things, that make an alteration far beyond their own apparent magnitude. It is like the throwing of a tiny pebble into a pool, how it makes an ever-expanding circle of ripples, spreading right across the water's surface.Collection: Circles
There are technical tricks that may help you create more effective characters. My approach to characterization is not at all technical. I can't really analyze how I do it, but I am sure of one thing. To write convincing characters, you must possess the ability to think yourself into someone else's skin.Collection: Writing
As for religious faith, a lack of it shouldn't stop us from doing good deeds for their own sake.Collection: Religious
If a man truly loves, he gives no heed to what others may think. His heart has no room for that, for it is filled to the brim with the unutterable truth of his feelings.Collection: Romance