We all live inside the terrible engine of authority, and it grinds and shrieks and burns so that no one will say: lines on maps are silly.

Marya Morevna! Don't you know anything? Girls must be very, very careful to care only for ribbons and magazines and wedding rings. They must sweep their hearts clean of anything but kisses and theater and dancing. They must never read Pushkin; they must never say clever things; they must never have sly eyes or wear their hair loose and wander around barefoot, or they will draw his attention!

A book is a door, you know. Always and forever. A book is a door into another place and another heart and another world.

When little ones say they want to go home, they almost never mean it. They mean they are tired of this particular game and would like to start another.

She sounds like someone who spends a lot of time in libraries, which are the best sorts of people.

Your past's a private matter, sweetheart. You just keep it locked up in xbox where it can't hurt anyone.

This is what it means to be a woman in this world. Every step is a bargain with pain. Make your black deals in the black wood and decide what you’ll trade for power. For the opposite of weakness, which is not strength but hardness. I am a trap, but so is everything. Pick your price. I am a huckster with a hand in your pocket. I am freedom and I will eat your heart.