Julie Berry Quotes

“I don't believe in miracles, but if the need is great, a girl might make her own miracle.”

— Julie Berry

“There is a curious comfort in letting go. After the agony, letting go brings numbness, and after the numbness, clarity. As if I can see the world for the first time, and my place in it, independent of you, a whole vista of what may be. Even if it is not grand or inspiring, it is real and solid, unlike the fantasy I've built around you. I will do this.
I will triumph over you.”

— Julie Berry

“I don't suppose you believe love could last forever."
I'd hurt him. I looked away, chagrined.
"You're mistaken," I said. "I do believe it could. But it would depend upon the lovers."
He folded his arms and watched me, forcing me to return his gaze. Oh, those eyes.
"And what kind of lovers must they be?" he asked.
The You-and-Me kind?”

— Julie Berry

And what rules of economy dictate that a boy without a foot is more whole than a girl without a tongue?

— Julie Berry

“The people you save won't celebrate you. They'll gather the wood and cheer while you burn.”

— Julie Berry

“It's always you ladybird," he says softly "don't you know?”

— Julie Berry

Come, come," I said. "You may be a lord someday, but you aren't one yet. No need for the courtly manners, and certainly not the moody temper. If you're to be my escort tonight, I insist you be a cheery one. You can even insult me if you like. It always makes you feel better.

— Julie Berry

“This will be a new amputation. You've been a part of my flesh, underneath all my skin. Your removal will bleed and leave me lame for a time.”

— Julie Berry

“I understand you're a common street thief?"
Peter bristled. "Hardly a common one.”

— Julie Berry

Beauty hovers around you wherever you go, which is why these two poor young men chase after you when you're covered in dirt and dressed in rages. Not beauty of the face or form. Something eternal.

— Julie Berry

“If I thought I could never love you more, I didn't understand you well enough.”

— Julie Berry

Like the clanging of the bell, the truth crashes in upon me. At last I understand. He took away my voice to save me. And now, to save myself, I take it back.

— Julie Berry

“Like a soldier back from battle you fill my vision. You're a flood, a baptism I'd forgotten, and the force of you leaves me breathless.”

— Julie Berry

“I have no words to save you.”

— Julie Berry

“It's a cold world when no one will touch you.”

— Julie Berry

You." I gasped.
"Me," he agreed, amused.

— Julie Berry

“Did we risk our lives to defend a just society, where guilt must be proven and not assumed? Or are we no better than the oppressive kings from whom our fathers fled?”

— Julie Berry

“But I did consider you," Peter assured me. "For quite a while. About half an hour. Beatrix wasn't too happy with me.”

— Julie Berry

“There's no justice in this world, the things that happen to people.”

— Julie Berry

To tell the truth will make me loathsome in your eyes.
Even more than I already am.
I pledge to give you all the truth that's in me.
And you want me to tell you this.

— Julie Berry

“A miracle that can never be: your face, your hands, pledged to me.”

— Julie Berry

“The stars' cold stare reminds me: worse than a sinner, I'm a thief. I steal the touch you would not choose to give me.
You'll never know you've been robbed.”

— Julie Berry

“I don't condone killing, but if killing happens anyway, then I think women go about it much more sensibly. Leave it to men to be loud and violent and messy about the business. It's egotistical of them. It's not enough to eliminate their enemy. No. They must conquer them face to face and watch them plead for mercy, whereas women dispatch victims quickly and silently."
"Men might say poison isn't sporting."
"Yes, and men think that organizing parties of dozens of riders and hounds to chase down one poor fox is sporting. Men's opinions are irrelevant.”

— Julie Berry

I never heard any angel voice but yours.

— Julie Berry

That won't excuse me for presuming to give my heart to you. It's not your fault you broke it.

— Julie Berry

“Strange how my body and its purity have become the town's sacred possessions, yet they spare me no pity. It's as if they were the ones wronged, not me.”

— Julie Berry

Each of us could be under a cloud of suspicion for the rest of our lives."
"A black spot," Dour Elinor intoned. "A blemish upon our maiden purity."
"Oh, no, surely not," disgraceful Mary Jane replied. "Not for such a trifling thing as neglecting to mention the death of a headmistress and her nasty brother. No one could really be upset over that. It takes much more fun to leave a blemish upon one's maiden purity.

— Julie Berry

“My guilt was firm in their minds the moment my name was called, the moment my tongue was cut.”

— Julie Berry

Your father died the night the town believed he did, and my captor was born from his ashes. Two men, not alike, strangers to each other.

— Julie Berry

“You are not like him. No matter what anyone says.”

— Julie Berry

“The fuzzy boundary lines between different readership ages have always puzzled me, so these days I just write what comes, and assume I can fix the mess later with an editor's help.”

— Julie Berry

I nod. Young love is not always forever. I know.

— Julie Berry

I have to trust that if a story is strong, it can find its readership, and good editors can steer me well.

— Julie Berry

“I always want readers to lose themselves completely in a story and feel something, whatever the book invites them to feel. That experience is the best takeaway any book can offer.”

— Julie Berry