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Robin McKinley

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“The magic in that country was so thick and tenacious that it settled over the land like chalk-dust and over floors and shelves like slightly sticky plaster-dust. (Housecleaners in that country earned unusually good wages.) If you lived in that country, you had to de-scale your kettle of its encrustation of magic at least once a week, because if you didn't, you might find yourself pouring hissing snakes or pond slime into your teapot instead of water.”

IfsCountryMightWaterMagicWeekLandScalesDustFinding YourselfThickShelvesWagesSnakesPouringPondsStickyTenaciousChalkKettlesSlimePlastersTeapotsHissing
Book:Spindle's End
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“She poured the water, arranged some bread near enough the embers to scorch but not catch fire, and looked up at Little John. She was so accustomed to his step, to his bulk, that it took a moment to notice his face; and when she did . . . It was, she thought, rather like the moment it took to realize one had cut one's finger as one stared dumbly at the first drop of blood on the knife-blade. You know it is going to hurt quite a lot in a minute.”

KnowsFirstsLittlesEnoughMomentsFacesWaterRealizingHurtStepsFireCuttingBloodMinutesFingersBreadKnivesAccustomedBladesEmbers
Author:Robin McKinley
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“Oh,' she said, too bone-weary to pretend: 'I would far rather that I love you as I saw yesterday I do than that I had gone on worshiping you as I did not long since.' And she turned away hastily, and did not see that Little John would reach out to her; and half-running, went to Tuck's cottage, where she could pull on her half-dry clothes, and become a proper outlaw again. At least, she thought, fighting back tears, like this I am Cecil, with a place among friends, and a task to do. I am someone. I wonder if perhaps if I am no longer Cecil, I am no one at all.”

IfsLittlesLongSaidRunningFightingHalfWonderGoneSawsLove YouTearsClothesTasksBonesYesterdayDryReach OutWearyOutlawCottagesFighting Back
Author:Robin McKinley
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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.”

IfsWorldLooksLittlesDoeNamesBitsAnswersPerfectCompassionTreeFeetWallBalanceLittle BitRoundsPhilosopherClueAntsOaksOak Tree
Author:Robin McKinley
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“...and again she wished for Sherwood, and the dappled roof of leaves that never weighed upon her. She pulled her scarf closer around her and thought, I would rather live in a hut in the woods; a hut like the one of my first memories, with a clean-swept dirt floor, and a brown-eyed boy watching me from behind his mother's skirts as I watched him from behind mine.”

FirstsMotherMemoriesBehindsBoysMinesCleanWoodsBrownRoofDirtSkirtsHutsScarves
Author:Robin McKinley
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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.”

IfsKnowsWritingFirstsMayDoeBookIdeasStoriesAbleWaterWhiteNovelWrittenTheoryFaultsBrilliantCouncilTubesOnce Upon A TimeRaftingWhite Water
Author:Robin McKinley
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“So, what do you do when you know you have two days to live? Eat an entire Bitter Chocolate Death cake all by myself. Reread my favorite novel. Buy eight dozen roses from the best florist in town--the super expensive ones, the ones that smell like roses rather than merely looking like them--and put them all over my apartment. Take a good long look at everyone I love.”

KnowsLooksLongTwoNovelTownsRoseMy FavoriteEightSmellBitterExpensiveChocolateCakeDozenApartmentTwo DaysGood Long
Author:Robin McKinley
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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.”

LittlesSaidBookDreamCoursesFatherAbilityCompanyBecomingIntellectualMirrorsUniversityPassionateExcuseReleaseSpokesDedicationScholarShockedEarnestAvoidedUnheard
Author:Robin McKinley
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