Anne Ursu Quotes

• I believe that the world isn't always what we can see...I believe there are secrets in the woods. And I believe that goodness wins out...So, if someone's changed overnight - by witch curse or poison apple or were-turtle - you have to show them what's good. You show them love. That works a surprising amount of the time.

  Anne Ursu

  Believe, Winning, Turtles

  8 Copy quote

• If shadows were caused by the interplay between light and Life, a child's was still forming. An adult's was inextricably bound to his body, but a child had a tenuous relationship to his own permanence, and thus, his own shadow.

  Anne Ursu

  Children, Light, Shadow

  Anne Ursu, Eric Fortune (2007). “The Shadow Thieves”, p.167, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• This is what it is to live in the world. You have to give yourself over to the cold, at least a little bit.

  Anne Ursu

  Giving, World, Littles

  6 Copy quote

• In woods where the woodsmen told lies, maybe it was the wolves who told the truth.

  Anne Ursu

  Lying, Woods

  6 Copy quote

• Jack believed in something—he believed in white witches and sleighs pulled by wolves, and in the world the trees obscured. He believed that there were better things in the woods. He believed in palaces of ice and hearts to match. Hazel had, too. Hazel had believed in woodsmen and magic shoes and swanskins and the easy magic of a compass. She had believed that because someone needing saving they were savable. She had believed in these things, but not anymore. And this is why she had to rescue Jack, even though he might not hear what she had to tell him.

  Anne Ursu

  Heart, Ice, Shoes

  7 Copy quote

• Her father said she was a princess. He did not see that she was a brave knight.

  Anne Ursu

  Father, Princess, Knights

  4 Copy quote

• Fiercely original and uncommonly lovely, The Witch's Boy is equal parts enchanting and haunting. Kelly Barnhill is master of truly potent and unruly magic; luckily for readers, she chooses to use her powers for good.

  Anne Ursu

  Boys, Lovely, Magic

  4 Copy quote

• She understood. They were plastic flowers of words—but they looked nice on the surface.

  Anne Ursu

  Nice, Flower, Plastic

  9 Copy quote

• Now, the world is more than it seems to be. You know this, of course, because you read stories. You understand that there is the surface and then there are all the things that glimmer and shift underneath it. And you know that not everyone believes in those things, that there are people—a great many people—who believe the world cannot be any more than what they can see with their eyes. But we know better.

  Anne Ursu

  Believe, Eye, People

  4 Copy quote

• Sometimes superheroes are born, sometimes they are made. Sometimes they make themselves. Sometimes all it takes is will.

  Anne Ursu

  Superhero, Sometimes, Born

  Anne Ursu (2003). “The Disapparation of James”, Hyperion

  4 Copy quote

• She'd read once that if you ran into a bear in the woods you should avoid eye contact and you shouldn't run away, but all she knew about wolves is that you should never tell them how to find your grandmother's house.

  Anne Ursu

  Running, Eye, Grandmother

  4 Copy quote

• Hazel had read enough books to know that a line like this one is the line down which your life breaks in two. And you have to think very carefully about whether you want to cross it, because once you do it’s very hard to get back to the world you left behind. And sometimes you break a barrier that no one knew existed, and then everything you knew before crossing the line is gone. But sometimes you have a friend to rescue. And so you take a deep breath and then step over the line and into the darkness ahead.

  Anne Ursu

  Book, Thinking, Two

  5 Copy quote

• A boy got a splinter in his eye, and his heart turned cold. Only two people noticed. One was a witch, and she took him for her own. The other was his best friend. And she went after him in ill-considered shoes, brave and completely unprepared.

  Anne Ursu

  Heart, Eye, Boys

  6 Copy quote

• The halls were empty. Charlotte had missed the first bell and would be late, again. Her homeroom teacher would ask her for an excuse and she would say, 'Overwhelming feeling of dread.' That was going to go over nicely.

  Anne Ursu

  Teacher, Feelings, Would Be

  Anne Ursu (2008). “The Siren Song”, p.27, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• People feared snowstorms once. Hazel read about this all the time. Pioneers opened their front doors and saw they'd been entombed in snow overnight. They walked across malevolent swirling whiteness and did not know if they would survive. Nature can destroy us in a blink. We live on only at its pleasure. That was what looking at the witch was like.

  Anne Ursu

  Doors, People, Snow

  8 Copy quote

• This morning, as Charlotte approached the brick facade of Hartnett, she found herself overcome with a great sense of dread. It hit her with a strange and sudden force, and she had an overwhelming urge to turn back, get into bed and not go out for about three weeks. She stopped in her tracks. The feeling itself was alarming to Charlotte - was she sensing something? Something dangerous? And was it something supernatural or just middle school? Sometimes it was hard to tell the difference.

  Anne Ursu

  Morning, School, Differences

  4 Copy quote

• He squeezed Steve's shoulder possessively. "Oh, Zero. He is not you, I must admit. He does not have your bravery, your nobility, your je ne sais quoi, and all he talks about is this magical place called 'Canada'.

  Anne Ursu

  Zero, Bravery, Doe

  Anne Ursu (2009). “The Immortal Fire”, p.398, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

• It snowed right before Jack stopped talking to Hazel, fluffy white flakes big enough to show their crystal architecture, like perfect geometric poems.

  Anne Ursu

  Talking, White, Perfect

  Anne Ursu (2011). “Breadcrumbs”, p.5, Harper Collins

  4 Copy quote

• Kids can handle a lot more than you think they can. It's when they get to be grown up that you have to start worrying.

  Anne Ursu

  Kids, Thinking, Worry

  Anne Ursu (2011). “Breadcrumbs”, p.8, Harper Collins

  4 Copy quote

• She looked at her shelves, filled with books in which the bad stuff that happened to people was caused by things like witches who lured people into the woods. In a weird way, the world seemed to make more sense that way.

  Anne Ursu

  Book, People, World

  4 Copy quote

• But if you were Charlotte, and you had been feeling that life was some cosmic joke that had no punchline, and in the space of a moment you had gone from being Charlotte-without-a-kitten to being Charlotte-with-a-kitten, you too would have found it nothing short of remarkable.

  Anne Ursu

  Space, Feelings, Gone

  Anne Ursu, Eric Fortune (2007). “The Shadow Thieves”, p.7, Simon and Schuster

  4 Copy quote

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