Best 351 quotes of Leigh Bardugo on MyQuotes

And there's nothing wrong with being a lizard either. Unless you were born to be a hawk.

Anything worth doing always starts as a bad idea.

But I’ve also been known to answer to ‘sweetheart’ or ‘handsome.

Don't argue. Never deign to deny. Meet insults with laughter.

Don't wish for bricks when you can build from stone.

Grief had its own life, took its own sustenance.

I had spared the stag's life. The power of that life belonged to me as surely as it belonged to the man who had taken it.

I'm perfectly capable of being stupid on my own.

I think the first trick to writing a feminist work is to write plenty of women. That way you get to write characters, instead of worrying about paradigms.

I wanted to believe anything so that I wouldn’t have to face the future alone. The problem with wanting is that it makes us weak.

Just because you escape one trap, doesn't mean you will escape the next.

Maybe love was superstition, a prayer we said to keep the truth of loneliness at bay. I tilted my head back. The stars looked like they were close together, when really they were millions of miles apart. In the end, maybe love just meant longing for something impossibly bright and forever out of reach.

My stories usually begin with the characters and some elements of how power (personal, political, magical) functions in the world. The rest develops as I write, and research helps a great deal with that. If you're going to write about an agrarian economy, research agrarian economies. If your main character is starving, then you should know what it means for a malnourished body to break down.

People, particularly big men carrying big rifles, don't expect lip from a scrawny thing like me. They always look a bit dazed when they get it.

The ox feels the yoke, but does the bird feel the weight of its wings?

There’s no such thing as too much champagne. Though your head will try to tell you otherwise tomorrow.

There was something soothing about the crackle of paper, the smell of ink, and the soft scratching of nibs and brushes.

Weakness is a guise. Wear it when they need to know you're human, but never when you feel it.

What is infinite? The universe and the greed of men.

When people say impossible, they usually mean improbable.

You want a love story too? There's none to be had.

Abruptly, Adrik snarled, 'I'm glad Sergei's dead. I'm just sorry I didn't get to wring his neck myself.' 'You'd need two hands for that,' said Zoya. There was a brief, terrible silence, then Adrik scowled and said, 'Okay, stab him.

After the noise and jostle of the journey, there was something soothing about the crackle of paper, the smell of ink, and the soft scratching of nibs and brushes.

Alys Van Eck waddled along beside him. Her blindfold had been removed, and through his long glass, Matthias could see her lips moving. Sweet Djel, is she still singing? Judging from the sour expression on Kaz's face, it was a distinct possibility.

And feast on the dead, I thought with a shudder. As if he could read my thoughts, he pressed a hand to my shoulder. His fingers were long and white, splaying over my arm like a waxen spider. If the gesture was meant to comfort me, it failed.

And Inej was wrong about one thing. He knew exactly what he intended to leave behind when he was gone. Damage.

And that was what destroyed you in the end: the longing for something you could never have.

And the Darkling?" "I tried to kill him." "As one does.

and the look they exchanged could have melted miles of northern ice.

(...)And what did I want? (...)A chance to sleep easy in my bed without fear. (...) There were old wants too, to be loved for who I was, not what I could do, to lie in a meadow with a boy's arms around me and WATCH THE WIND MOVE THE CLOUDS. (...)

And what did you do, Matthias? What did you do to me in you dreams?” “Everything,” he said, as he turned to go, “Everything.

And what god do you serve, then?” “Whichever will grant me good fortune.” “I don’t think gods work that way.” “I don’t think I care.

Any other impossible feats you'd like us to accomplish?" The barest smile flickered over Kaz's lips, "I'll make you a list.

Anyway, I think I made a bit of progress." "How did you manage that?" "Well, they liked that you served in the First Army, and that you saved their prince's life." "After he risked his own life rescuing us?" "I may have taken some liberties with the details." "Oh, Nikolai will love that. Is there more?" "I told them you hate herring." "Why?" "And that you love plum cake. And that Ana Kuya took a switch to you when you ruined your spring slippers in puddles." I winced. "Why would you tell them all that?' "I wanted to make you human," he said. "All they see when they look at you is the Sun Summoner. They see a threat, another powerful Grisha like the Darkling. I want them to see a daughter or a sister or a friend. I want them to see Alina." I felt a lump rise in my throat. "Do you practice being wonderful?" "Daily," he said with a grin. Then he winked. "But I prefer 'useful.

Are we calling it a presence now?" asked Nikolai. "I preferred 'monster.' Or 'demon.' Even 'fiend' has a nice ring.

A secret's not like a coin. It doesn't keep it's value in the spending

As they roared past the streetlamps, people emerged from their houses to see what was happening. Nina tried to imagine what their wild crew must look like to these Fjerdans. What did they see as they poked their heads out of windows and doorways? A group of hooting kids clinging to a tank painted with the Fjerdan flag and charging along like some deranged float gone astray from its parade: a girl in purple silk and a boy with red-gold curls poking out from behind the guns; four soaked people holding tight to the sides for dear life—a Shu boy in prison clothes, two bedraggled drüskelle, and Nina, a half-naked girl in shreds of teal chiffon shouting, "We have a moat!

A thousand desperate wishes have been spoken on these shores, and in the end they were all the same: Make me someone new.

At some point, Jesper realized Kaz was gone. "Not one for goodbyes, is he?" he muttered. "He doesn't say goodbye," Inej said. She kept her eyes on the lights of the canal. Somewhere in the garden, a night bird began to sing. "He just lets go.

At that moment, the creature's back breached the waves, its body cutting through the water in a sinuous arch, rainbows sparking off the iridescent scales on its back. Rusalye.

A wise warrior learns from her mistakes.

Baghra," Nikolai said, "how are you this evening?" "Still old and blind," she snarled. "And charming," Nikolai drawled. "Never forget charming." "Whelp." "Hag." "What do you want, pest?

Before you finish that sentence, I want you to think about what a promise from me costs and what you're willing to pay for it.

Because the whole world loves to tell us what we can’t do, that we aren’t good enough. The people in your own house should be on your side. It’s the people who never learn the word impossible who make history, because they’re the ones who keep trying.

Be the thing they all fear when they close their eyes at night.

Brick by brick. Brick by brick, I will destroy you. "It was the promise that let him sleep at night, that drove him every day, that kept Jordie's ghost at bay. Because a quick death was too good for Pekka Rollins.

But as you leave that dark gap in the trees behind, remember that to use a thing is not to own it and should you ever take a bride, listen closely to her questions. In them you may hear her true name like the thunder of a lost river, like the sighing of the sea.

But hope rises like water trapped by a dam, higher and higher, in increments that mean nothing until you face the flood.

But if you loved a thing, the work was never done

But they were his first friends, his only friends, and Wylan knew that even if he'd had his pick of a thousand companions, these would have been the people he chose.