The biggest challenge for me has been in coping with my perfectionism. I have a stiflingly hard time moving forward in a project if it's not 'just right' all along the way. The trap I so easily fall into is rewriting and rewriting the same scenes over and over to make them perfect, instead of continuing on into the wild unknown of the story.

...magic was ugly—-a hard bargain with the universe, a calculus of pain.

The goblins want girls who dream so hard about being pretty their yearning leaves a palpable trail, a scent goblins can follow like sharks on a soft bloom of blood. The girls with hungry eyes who pray each night to wake up as someone else. Urgent, unkissed, wishful girls. Like Kizzy.

Perhaps Fate laid out your life for you like a dress on a bed, and you could either wear it or go naked.

Your heart is not wrong. Your heart is your strength. You don't have to be ashamed.

Hope can be a powerful force. Maybe there's no actual magic in it, but when you know what you hope for most and hold it like a light within you, you can make things happen, almost like magic.

"Love is a luxury." "No. Love is an element." An element. Like air to breathe, earth to stand on.