Robin McKinley Quotes

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• The story is always better than your ability to write it. My belief about this is that if you ever get to the point that you think you've done a story justice, you're in the wrong business.

  Robin McKinley

  Writing, Thinking, Justice

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• I advise those who want to become writers to study veterinary medicine, which is easier. You don't want to be a writer unless you have no choice - and if you have no choice, good luck to you.

  Robin McKinley

  Good Luck, Medicine, Choices

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• The great thing about fantasy is that you can drag dreams and longings and hopes and fears and strivings out of your subconscious and call them 'magic' or 'dragons' or 'faeries' and get to know them better. But then I write the stuff. Obviously I'm prejudiced.

  Robin McKinley

  Dream, Writing, Dragons

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• The story is always better than your ability to write it.

  Robin McKinley

  Writing, Rejection, Stories

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• When you write your first novel you don't really know what you're doing. There may be writers out there who are brilliant, incisive and in control from their first 'Once upon a time'. I'm not one of them. Every once upon a time for me is another experience of white-water rafting in a leaky inner tube. And I have this theory that while the Story Council has its faults, it does have some idea that if books are going to get written, authors have to be able to write them.

  Robin McKinley

  Book, Writing, Ideas

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• There are things you don't want to know you can do

  Robin McKinley

  Want, Knows, Can Do

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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.

  Robin McKinley

  Laughing, Just Friends, Way

  Robin Mckinley (2002). “Spindle's End”, p.108, Penguin

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• For anyone who is: just keep writing. Keep reading. If you are meant to be a writer, a storyteller, it'll work itself out. You just keep feeding it your energy, and giving it that crucial chance to work itself out. By reading and writing.

  Robin McKinley

  Reading, Writing, Giving

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• Mathin said: "It is best to take your opponent's sash. The kysin mark each blow dealt, but to cut off the other rider's sash is best. This you will do." "Oh," said Harry. "You may, if you wish, unhorse him first," Mathin added as an afterthought. "Thanks," said Harry.

  Robin McKinley

  Cutting, Blow, Wish

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• Vampire. Dangerous. Unknowable. Seriously creepy. This one's name was Constantine. We'd met before.

  Robin McKinley

  Names, Creepy, Vampire

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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.

  Robin McKinley

  Dog, Given, Straightforward

  Robin McKinley (2014). “Deerskin”, p.268, Open Road Media

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• Perhaps it is a human thing, to look upon such beauty and fail to encompass it.

  Robin McKinley

  Looks, Failing, Humans

  Robin Mckinley (2010). “Pegasus”, p.118, Penguin

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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.

  Robin McKinley

  Children, Reading, Adventure

  Robin McKinley (2016). “The Blue Sword”, p.8, HarperCollins

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• I get a little cranky with the whole business about kids not having attention spans. This reminds me of the usual business of thinking that the next generation is hopeless. Every generation has said that about every younger generation.

  Robin McKinley

  Kids, Thinking, Next

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• With the knowledge of her aloneness came a rush of self-declaration: “I will not be nothing.”

  Robin McKinley

  Self, Declaration

  "Deerskin". Book by Robin McKinley, June 1, 1993.

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• Never assume. Never make plans. Keep doing the press-ups and deep knee bends: you'll need all your strength and flexibility when your life suddenly implodes. Maybe it won't — some people do lead enchanted lives — but odds are that it will. Some time.

  Robin McKinley

  Odds, People, Needs

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• Oh, why does compassion weaken us?' It doesn't, really...Somewhere where it all balances out-don't the philosophers have a name for it, the perfect place, the place where the answers live?-if we could go there, you could see it doesn't.It only looks, a little bit, like it does, from here, like an ant at the foot of an oak tree. He doesn't have a clue that it's a tree; it's the beginning of the wall round the world, to him.

  Robin McKinley

  Wall, Compassion, Names

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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 anything -- except of course make me pretty -- I worked and studied with passionate dedication, lived in hope, and avoided society and mirrors.

  Robin McKinley

  Dream, Father, Book

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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.

  Robin McKinley

  Sea, Giving, Choices

  Robin Mckinley (2008). “Chalice”, p.174, Penguin

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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.

  Robin McKinley

  Mirrors, Looks, Pace

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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: You do not have to choose.

  Robin McKinley

  Dark, Roots, Sight

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• But it was equally clear to her that this was her fate, that she had called its name and it had come to her, and she could do nothing now but own it.

  Robin McKinley

  Fate, Names, Clear

  Robin McKinley (2014). “Rose Daughter”, p.63, Open Road Media

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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.

  Robin McKinley

  Sweet, Silly, Heart

  Robin McKinley (2014). “Rose Daughter”, p.42, Open Road Media

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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.

  Robin McKinley

  Trying, Stuff, Telling The Truth

  Robin Mckinley (2007). “Dragonhaven”, p.11, Penguin

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• I didn’t want to know that the monster that lived under your bed when you were a kid not only really is there but used to have a few beers with your dad.

  Robin McKinley

  Dad, Kids, Beer

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