Laini Taylor
As long as he had life, who deserved it so little, he would use it, wield it, and do whatever he could in its name, even if it was not, was never, enoughCollection: Names
Dead souls dream only of death. Small dreams for small men. It is life that expands to fill worlds. Life is your master, or death isCollection: Dream
One world on its own is a strange enough seethe of coiling, unknowable veins of intention and chance, but two? Where two worlds mingle breath through rips in the sky, the strange becomes stranger, and many things may come to pass that few imaginations could encompass.Collection: Rip
It was brave," countered Issa. "It was rare. It was love, and it was beautiful.Collection: Beautiful
She was a girl and she was a queen and back in the mists she was a woman who had seized the moon from the sky and drunk its light so that she would never die. And she never had.Collection: Girl
Long life is a burden, when it's spent in misery.Collection: Long
My tiny scary friend is comingCollection: Scary
You really think joy is easier to come by than pain? What have you had more of?Collection: Pain
Like attracts like, beauty finds beauty, and freaks look on from the smoking section, aching.Collection: Smoking
Is that all souls are for? For when we die?" "No. They're for living, too.Collection: Soul
It was sadness, lostness, and the worst thing about it was the way it seemed like a default—like it was there all the time, and all her other expressions were just an array of masks she used to cover it up.Collection: Sadness
Brimstone once told me that to stay true in the face of evil is a feat of strength.Collection: Evil
Beauty,’ Brimstone had scoffed once. ‘Humans are fools for it. As helpless as moths who hurl themselves at fire.Collection: Fire
Take up a weapon and you become an instrument with as pure a purpose as the weapon itself: to find arteries and open them, limbs and sever them; to take what is alive and deliver it unto death.Collection: Purpose
Rapture cults had packed their suitcases and were massing together in great vigils, waiting for the end. "All bogus," she'd told Zuzana. "Just a bunch of crackpots waiting for the Apocalypse." "Because, fun, right?" Zuzana rubbed her hands together in mock glee. "Oh, boy. The Apocalypse!" "Right? I know. How much does your life have to suck to want the Apocalypse?Collection: Fun
A dream dirty and bruised is better than no dream at all.Collection: Dream
She had said she didn't feel fear, but it was a lie; this was her fear: being left alone. Because of one thing she was certain, and it was that she could never love, not like that. Trust a stranger with her flesh? The closeness, the quiet. She couldn't imagine it. Breathing someone else's breath as they breathed yours, touching someone, opening for them? The vulnerability of it made her flush. It would mean submission, letting down her guard, and she wouldn't. Ever. Just the thought made her feel small and weak as a child.Collection: Children
It was one of those dreams that invade the space between seconds, proving sleep has its own physics- where time shrinks and swells, lifetimes unspool in a blink, and cities burn to ash in a mere flutter of lashes.Collection: Dream
Anyway, since when are you shy? Just talk to him already!' ' 'And say what? Nice fiddling, handsome man?' 'Absolutely.Collection: Nice
Infinities are not for casual exploration. You could fall and keep falling. You could get lost.Collection: Fall
When it turned out that he could, Karou dropped to her knees to genuflect. "Gods of math and physics," she intoned, "I accept your gift of this clever fair-haired boyCollection: Clever
How could you tell if your instincts were just hope in disguise, and if your hope was really desperation parading as possibility?Collection: Desperation
We are the beginning ... We always have been. This time, let it be more than a beginning.Collection: Has Beens
I shudder to think. I might wear lace collars and laugh flower petals and pearls. People might try to pat me. I see them think it. My height triggers the puppy-kitten reflex- Must touch-and I've found that since you can't electrify yourself like a fence, the next best thing is to have murderer's eyes.Collection: Flower
And I've found that since you can't electrify yourself like a fence, the next best thing is to have murderer's eyes.Collection: Eye
I am stardust gathered fleetingly into form.Collection: Stardust
I'm going to join them", he said. And he did. When Sveva fled, Rath stayed and fought with the rebels. And died with them, right there at the toes of the mountains. And was dragged with them into a big pile. And burnedCollection: Mountain
When I turned to writing fantasy, and writing for young people, it was joyous. It was like discovering an underground lake of ideas that went on forever.Collection: Writing
As long as you're alive, there's always a chance things will get better." "Or worse," said Liraz. "Yes," he conceded. "Usually worse." Hazael cut in. "My sister, Sunshine, and my brother, Light. You two should rally the ranks. You'll have us killing ourselves by morning.Collection: Morning
I think with world building, it's important to create a sense of culture even if it is just a fantasy, and the best way to do that is to look at a real human culture and see what makes it cohesive.Collection: Real
What are we fighting for? What are we killing for? What do you see when you look into the future?Collection: Fighting
I've always been a reader and a writer.Collection: Reader
Cesky Krumlov, the little jewel box of a city in southern Bohemia.Collection: Jewels
I want to touch with my mouth. His mouth, with my mouth. Maybe his neck, too. But first things first: Make him aware I exist. It’s possible that he is already aware, if only in a ‘don't step on the small girl’ kind of way.Collection: Crush
You almost hold up your piece of paper and say, ‘The girl I like just gave me a treasure map to herself.’ But you don’t. You just don’t.Collection: Girl
I start to wonder if I’m being creepy. I mean, I am creeping. Does creep-ing automatically make one creep-y? Or are there dispensations for…romance? I bet all stalkers believe they’re being romantic. I did it for love, officer.Collection: Believe
My phone buzzes. It’s from Karou: a list of conversation openers that I won’t be needing. —a) Hi. I’m Zuzana. I’m actually a marionette brought to life by the Blue Fairy, and the only way I can gain a soul is if a human falls in love with me. Help a puppet out? —b) Hi. I’m Zuzana. The touch of my lips imparts immortality. Just sayin’. —c) Hi. I’m Zuzana. I think I might like you.Collection: Falling In Love
My face responds without authorization from my brain, so the resulting smile feels like the biggest, most unguarded, goofiest smile I’ve ever unleashed in my entire life. I didn’t even know my face could do this. It’s like there were hidden zippers in my cheeks. Jesus. This must be what feelings are. This is why people write poems! I get it now. I get it, and I want more.Collection: Jesus
So here we are, talking about Roman unicycles and alien sandwiches and my sister’s Italian misfortunes, while hanging in between us is: MY EPIC FAILURE TO CARPE. What’s wrong with me?Collection: Epic
His eyes are blue, and blue eyes up close are a celestial phenomenon: nebulae as seen through telescopes, the light of unnamed stars diffused through dusts and elements and endlessness. Layers of light. Blue eyes are starlight.Collection: Stars
I want to build spires in their minds and dance shadows through like marionettes, chased by whispers and hints of the unspeakable.Collection: Mind
...something was starting to take shape, out of magic and will. Smoke and bone.Collection: Magic
Mercy, she had discovered, made mad alchemy: a drop of it could dilute a lake of hate.Collection: Hate
You have only to begin, Lir. Mercy breeds mercy as slaughter breeds slaughter. We can’t expect the world to be better than we make it.Collection: World
I might try that one thing, you know, that thing people do when their eyes get all wet and stupid—what’s it called? Crying? Or NOT. I might PUNCH you instead and trust that you won’t punch me back because of my endearing smallness. It would be like punching a child.Collection: Children
Be your own place of safety, she told herself, straightening. No crossbar in the world could protect her from what lay ahead, and neither could a tiny knife ticked in her boot - though there her tiny knife would most certainly remain - and neither could a man, not even Akiva. She had to be her own strength, complete unto herself.Collection: Men
Everything lined up. It has been easy, as if it were meant-" "Meant!" she said, amazed. She spun to face him, which, in the crush, brought her against his chest as if they were still dancing. She fought backward for space. As if what were meant?" "You," he said. "And me.Collection: Crush
Creatures with no dreams of their own can do naught but destroy the dreams of others.Collection: Dream
And there's no better way to thaw a face, as it turns out, than with another face.Collection: Way