One keeps searching for ease, she did not say, and not finding it, till the memories of no-pain seem only like daydreams.
Robin McKinleyWhen they finished laughing they were on their way to being not just friends, but the dearest of friends, the sort of friends whose lives are shaped by the friendship.
Robin McKinleyCan you trust me, he said. Not will you. Can you. Can I trust him? What do I have to lose?
Robin McKinleyAt least I was true. My intellectual abilities gave me a release, and an excuse. I shunned company because I preferred books; and the dreams I confided to my father were of becoming a scholar in good earnest, and going to University. It was unheard-of several shocked governesses were only too quick to tell me, when I spoke a little too boldly -- but my father nodded and smiled and said, 'We'll see.' Since I believed my father could do anything -- except of course make me pretty -- I worked and studied with passionate dedication, lived in hope, and avoided society and mirrors.
Robin McKinley