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Robin McKinley

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“My books happen. They tend to blast in from nowhere, seize me by the throat, and howl 'Write me! Write me now!' But they rarely stand still long enough for me to see what and who they are, before they hurtle away again. And so I spend a lot of time running after them, like a thrown rider after an escaped horse, saying 'Wait for me! Wait for me!' and waving my notebook in the air.”

WritingLongStillsBookEnoughHappensRunningWaitingAirHorseThrownThroatNotebookBlastRidersHowlWait For Me
Author:Robin McKinley
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“The weak grey light that serves as harbinger of red and golden dawn faintly lit my window. I fumbled for a candle, found and lit it, and by its little light saw that the rose floating in the bowl was dying. It had already lost most of its petals, which floated on the water like tiny, un-seaworthy boats, deserted for safer craft. "Dear God," I said. "I must go back at once.”

LittlesSaidLightFoundLostWaterSawsDyingRedWindowWeakRoseDearTinyGoldenBoatCraftsDawnCandleBowlsGreyFloatingLitPetalsDesertedDear GodHarbinger
Author:Robin McKinley
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“One day" she told them, "when you have retired, you will go to live with a family who will love you for your beauty and nothing more, and if you're very lucky there will be children, and the children will pet you and pet you and pet you. Ossin has a list, I think, of such children; he sends his hunting-staff out during the months they are not needed for that work, to look for them, and add names to the list." The fleethounds stared back at her with their enormous dark liquid eyes, and believed every word.”

IfsThinkingLooksChildrenEyeNamesDarkLove YouMonthsNeededOne DayLuckyAddListsEnormousPetHuntingStaffRetiredLiquid
Book:Deerskin
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“My sheets had never been so clean as they had in the past few months. I hardly got them on again before something else happened and I was feverishly ripping them off and stuffing them in the wash with double amounts of soap and all the "extra" buttons pushed: extra wash, extra rinse, extra water, extra spin, extra protection against things that go bump in the night.”

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Author:Robin McKinley
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“She laughed at him then, because he sounded like a small boy, not like a very large grown-up Beast with a voice so deep it made the hair on the back of your neck stir when you heard it. 'But vegetables are good for you,' she said, and added caressingly, 'They make you grow up big and strong.' He smiled, showing a great many teeth. 'You see why I wish to eat no more vegetables.”

MadeSaidBigsStrongWishGrowsVoiceBoysGrowing UpHeardHairTeethBeastNecksLaughedVegetables
Book:Rose Daughter
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“Cats were often familiars to workers of magic because to anyone used to wrestling with self-willed, wayward, devious magic--which was what all magic was--it was rather soothing to have all the same qualities wrapped up in a small, furry, generally attractive bundle that...might, if it were in a good mood, sit on your knee and purr. Magic never sat on anybody's knee and purred.”

IfsSelfMightUsedQualityMagicCatWorkersMoodKneesAttractiveSatWrestlingSoothingBundlesGood MoodDeviousFurry
Book:Spindle's End
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“I smiled. "I understand now. But It doesn't matter and you needn't apologize. They have been very kind to me too. Even if we did differ a little about suitable dresses." He considered me a moment, a mischievous light creeping into his eyes, and said: "Was THAT the dress - that night you wouldn't come out of your room?" I grinned and nodded, and we both laughed.”

IfsKindLittlesHas BeensSaidMatterMomentsLightEyeNightRoomsDressesHis EyesLaughedApologizingSuitableYour RoomMischievous
Author:Robin McKinley
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