Temperament, you'll find, is highly dependent on time of day, weather, frequency of naps, and whether one has had enough to eat.

If one did not have at least a little luck, one would never survive childhood. But luck can be spent, like money; and lost, like a memory; and wasted, like a life.

She was beautiful and terrifying, savage and pure.

Humanity lived many years and ruled the earth, sometimes wisely, sometimes well, but mostly neither.

I will never be without information,' she determined. 'I will do better than my sisters. If a bird or any other beast comes out of that uncanny republic where husbands are grown, I will see him with his skin off before I agree to fall in love.' For this is how Marya Morevna surmised that love was shaped: an agreement, a treaty between two nations that one could either sign or not as they pleased.

The worst thing in the world is having to go back to the dark you shook off.

You know how we can be about things which sparkle and shine. We imagine they will put back something of what has been lost.