Frances Hardinge citations

“Tea is the magic key to the vault where my brain is kept.”

“Everybody knew that books were dangerous. Read the wrong book, it was said, and the words crawled around your brain on black legs and drove you mad, wicked mad.”

“Where is your sense of patriotism?"

I keep it hid away safe, along with my sense of trust, Mr. Clent. I don't use 'em much in case they get scratched.”

“Revenge is a dish best served unexpectedly and from a distance - like a thrown trifle.”

“We always find it difficult to forgive our heroes for being human.”

“I am anything I wish to be. The world cannot choose for me. No, it is for me to choose what the world shall be.”

“In Mosca’s experience, a ‘long story’ was always a short story someone did not want to tell.”

“If wits were pins, the man would be a veritable hedgehog.”

“You, sir, are a romantic, and I'm afraid the condition is incurable.

-Eponymous Clent”

“If you want someone to tell you what to think…"

"You will never be short of people willing to do so.”

“Do you know why a vandal is worse than a thief?’ asked the man on the right, in a soft growl. ‘A thief steals a treasure from its owner. A vandal steals it from the world.”

“Brand a man as a thief and no one will ever hire him for honest labor - he will be a hardened robber within weeks. The brand does not reveal a person's nature, it shapes it.”

“Sometimes fear made you angry. Perhaps after years anger cooled, like a sword taken from a forge. Perhaps in the end you were left with something very cold and very sharp.”

“The world is like a broken wrist that healed the wrong way, and will never be the same again.”

“Push something in someone’s face, and they will shove it away reflexively. Threaten to snatch it away from them, and sometimes they become convinced that it is what they want.”