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f49ede1
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I don't put up with being messed around, and I don't suffer fools gladly. The short version of that is that I'm a bitch. Trust me, I can provide character references.
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Robin McKinley |
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c49bdfe
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The train is roaring toward you and the villain is twirling his moustache and you're fussing that he's tied you to the tracks with the wrong kind of rope.
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vampire
villians
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Robin McKinley |
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b4c8112
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Harry] had always suffered from a vague restlessness, a longing for adventure that she told herself severely was the result of reading too many novels when she was a small child.
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Robin McKinley |
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86edfbe
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Feeling at peace, however fragilely, made it easy to slip into the visionary end of the dark-sight. The rose shadows said that they loved the sun, but that they also loved the dark, where their roots grew through the lightless mystery of the earth. The roses said:
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reassurance
dark
magic
light
roses
shadows
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Robin McKinley |
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cd96e66
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The big difference between my mom and me-- besides the fact that she is dead normal and I'm a magic-handling freak-- is that she's the real thing. She may have a slight problem seeing other people's points of view, but she's about it. She's a brass-bound bitch because she believes she knows best. I'm a brass-bound bitch because I don't want anyone getting close enough to find out what a whiny little knot of naked nerve endings I really am..
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magic
mothers
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Robin McKinley |
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de2a324
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My friend, there are some things that I cannot tell you. Some I will tell you in time; some, others will tell you; some you may never know, or you may be the first to find the answers.
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Robin McKinley |
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84374c2
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When 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.
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Robin McKinley |
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a86fc24
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As I have said, you have no reason to trust me, and an excellent reason not to.
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beauty
trust
love
beauty-and-the-beast
reasoning
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Robin McKinley |
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9da7b5c
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Roses are for love. Not silly sweet-hearts' love but the love that makes you and keeps you whole, love that gets you through the worst your life'll give you and that pours out of you when you're given the best instead.
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Robin McKinley |
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37e9606
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But I'm going to try to tell the truth. Except for the parts I'm leaving out, because there's still stuff I'm just not going to tell you. Get used to it.
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truth
storytelling
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Robin McKinley |
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72d8560
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You are attempting to be logical, I suspect, and logic has little to do with government, and nothing at all to do with military administration.
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Robin McKinley |
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f215b65
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Everything was an adventure, at night, when you were where you shouldn't be, even if it was somwhere you could go perfectly well in daylight, and it was then only ordinary.
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night
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Robin McKinley |
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853e017
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He laughed, tried to make it into a cough, inhaled at exactly the wrong moment, and then really did cough.
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Robin McKinley |
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768d0cc
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One doesn't generally look into mirrors when one is especially angry; one has better things to do, like pace the floor or throw things.
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especially
throw
pace
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Robin McKinley |
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1518bdf
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And if my choice is to sit graciously in my best robes and accept the inevitable or to bail a sea with a bucket, give me the bucket.
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Robin McKinley |
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35433b9
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At 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 anyth..
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Robin McKinley |
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6611891
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It is a much more straightforward thing to be a dog, and a dog's love, once given, is not reconsidered.
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Robin McKinley |
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3a57157
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Cats were often familiars to workers of magic because to anyone used to wrestling with self-willed, wayward, devious magic--which was what all magic was--it was rather soothing to have all the same qualities wrapped up in a small, furry, generally attractive bundle that...might, if it were in a good mood, sit on your knee and purr. Magic never sat on anybody's knee and purred.
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magic
purring
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Robin McKinley |
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abb2e37
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there remained a strange formality between them, and her pleasure in his presence felt too much like missing him had felt during the last week.
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relationships
missing
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Robin McKinley |
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003149b
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There are things you don't want to know you can do
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Robin McKinley |
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59908b5
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I wondered what you'd have on the side with a plate of Deep Fried Anxiety. Pickles? Coleslaw? Potato-strychnine mash?
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food
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Robin McKinley |
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6ac1913
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So, what do you do when you know you have two days to live? Eat an entire Bitter Chocolate Death cake all by myself. Reread my favorite novel. Buy eight dozen roses from the best florist in town--the super expensive ones, the ones that smell like roses rather than merely looking like them--and put them all over my apartment. Take a good long look at everyone I love.
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Robin McKinley |
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e9ab20e
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What was she to say? "The prodigal has returned? The mutineer wishes to be reinstated? The subordinate, having gone to a great deal of trouble to prove her commander wrong, has come back and promises to be a good little subordinate hereafter, or at least until next time?"
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Robin McKinley |
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dca65d7
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There had been certain romantic interludes in the past that had included galloping across the desert at night; but he had never abducted any woman whose enthusiastic support for such a plan had not been secured well in advance.
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Robin McKinley |
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658fa71
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He will apologize, or I'll give him a lesson in swordplay he will not like at all.
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perlith
tor
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Robin McKinley |
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37f312b
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It seems to me further, that it is very odd that fate should leave so careful a trail, and spend so little time preparing the one that must follow it.
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Robin McKinley |
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fc594db
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I said: "He cannot be so bad if he loves roses so much." "But he is a Beast," said Father helplessly. I saw that he was weakening, and wishing only to comfort him I said, "Cannot a Beast be tamed?"
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Robin McKinley |
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ba0f7a3
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Laughter went on and on, like sunlight and stone, even if the human beings who laughed did not.
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Robin McKinley |
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a5d5cd4
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I found that the only way I could control this sorrow was not to think of [it] at all, which was almost as painful as the loss itself.
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grief
loss
sorrow
heartbreak
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Robin McKinley |
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285c696
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The insides of our own minds are the scariest things there are.
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Robin McKinley |
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76d2c8a
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I like that: a little pressure on the understood boundaries of yourself. Sounded like something out of a self-awareness class, probably with yoga. See what kind of a pretzel you can tie yourself into and press on the understood... I was raving, if only to myself.
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self-awareness
humor
yoga
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Robin McKinley |
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4d00d24
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Vampires do breathe, by the way, but their chests don't move like humans'. Have you ever lain in the arms of your sweetheart and tried to match your breathing to his, or hers? You do it automatically. Your brain only gets involved if your body is having trouble. Fortunately there was nothing about this situation that was like being in the arms of a sweetheart except that I was leaning against someone's naked chest. I could no more have brea..
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humor
vampires
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Robin McKinley |
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adb0348
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If you try to breathe water, you will not turn into a fish, you will drown; but water is still good to drink.
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Robin McKinley |
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20b1575
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My kind [vampires] does not surprise easily," he said. "You surprised me, this morning. I have thus used up my full quota of shock and consternation for some interval." I stared at him. "You made a *joke*." "I have heard this kind of thing may happen..."
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Robin McKinley |
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59f6938
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Beauty: "You called me beautiful last night." Beast: "You do not believe me then?" Beauty: "Well - no. Any number of mirrors have told me otherwise." Beast: "You will find no mirrors here, for I cannot bear them: nor any quiet water in ponds. And since I am the only one who sees you, why are you not then beautiful?" --
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Robin McKinley |
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c248da0
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Yes, I am letting my own experience color my answer, which is what experience is for....
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Robin McKinley |
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ca6a08a
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The Lone Ranger of vampires. Did that make me Tonto?
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lone-ranger
vampires
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Robin McKinley |
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39f07be
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Sometimes it is better not to know. Sometimes when you do know you just fold up.
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Robin McKinley |
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f72774f
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like a grain of sand that gets into an oyster's shell. What if the grain doesn't want to become a pearl? Is it ever asked to climb out quietly and take up its old position as a bit of ocean floor?
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Robin McKinley |
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dc76a04
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I love you. I will love you till the stars crumble, which is a less idle threat than is usual to lovers on parting.
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humor
love
luthe
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Robin McKinley |
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8d15d5e
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But the world turns, and even legends change; and somewhere there is a border, and sometime, perhaps, someone will decide to cross it, however well guarded with thorns it may be.
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Robin McKinley |
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853b389
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Friends you will have need of, for in you two worlds meet. There is no one on both sides with you, so you must learn to take your own counsel; and not to fear what is strange, if you know it also to be true. --Luthe
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Robin McKinley |
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d8c3006
|
Stay a little while longer, and let everyone congratulate you - including the ones who clearly don't want to: in fact, especially the ones who clearly don't want to. You don't have to say anything but 'thank you
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thanks
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Robin McKinley |
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4432625
|
I don't believe in fate," she said at last. "But I do believe in...loopholes. I think a lot of what keeps the world going is the result of accidents -- happy or otherwise -- and taking advantage of these."
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Robin McKinley |