... relationships required such vigilance, such attention. You had to hold them together by force of will, and other people took up so much space, demanded so much time. It was exhausting.

I don’t want to be a Princess,” she said finally. “You can’t make me be one.” She knew very well what became of Princesses, as Princesses often get books written about them. Either terrible things happened to them, such as kidnappings and curses and pricking fingers and getting poisoned and locked up in towers, or else they just waited around till the Prince finished with the story and got around to marrying her. Either way, September wanted nothing to do with Princessing.

It is well known that reading quickens the growth of a heart like nothing else.

You are going to break your promise. I understand. And I hold my hands over the ears of my heart, so that I will not hate you.

I've always had enough, even if my enough and your enough are as different as an elephant and a minaret.

Snow is the beginning and the end of everything.

And if they thought her aimless, if they thought her a bit mad, let them. It meant they left her alone. Marya was not aimless, anyway. She was thinking.