Quotessence
Home / Authors / V.E. Schwab

V.E. Schwab Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllLifeLila BardAddie LarueLivingV E SchwabLoveFreedomKellDeathFamilyFantasyFeminismInspirationalLilaMagicRomanceSadShades Of MagicVictor ValeBeautiful

Famous V.E. Schwab Quotes

“She draws him out of bed, and into the kitchen, and Henry sits on a stool and listens as she makes an omelet and tells him about the first time she flew a plane, heard a song on the radio, saw a moving picture. This is the last gift she can give him, these moments he will never have. And this is the last gift he can give her, the listening. And he wishes they could climb back into bed with Book, but they both know there’s no going back. And now that he’s up, he cannot bear the stillness. He is all restless energy, and urgent need, and there isn’t enough time, and he knows of course that there will never be. That time always ends a second before you’re ready. That life is the minutes you want minus one.”

LifeTimeLostSad
Book:The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
Create image

“What would become of me?" Those shoulders - the ones she drew so many times, the ones she conjured into being - give only a dismissive shrug. "You will be nothing, my dear," he says simply. "But it is a kinder nothing than this. Surrender, and I will set you free." If some part of her wavered, if some small part wanted to give in, it did not last beyond a moment. There is a defiance in being a dreamer. "I decline," she growls. The shadow scowls, those green eyes darkening like cloth soaked wet. HIs hands fall away. "You will give in," he says. "Soon enough." He does not step back, does not turn to go. He is simply gone. Swallowed by the dark.”

LifeDeathFreedomDefiance
Book:The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
Create image

“But that’s the whole problem, you’ve never felt called to any one thing. There is no violent push in one direction, but a softer nudge a hundred different ways, and now all of them feel out of reach. Blink and you’re twenty-eight, and everyone else is now a mile down the road, and you’re still trying to find it, and the irony is hardly lost on you that in wanting to live, to learn, to find yourself, you’ve gotten lost.”

LifeCallingDecisionsCareer
Book:The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
Create image

“Sixty minutes to an hour. Twenty-four hours to a day. These are mortal measurements, for mortal lives. But when you live forever, time is something far less constant. When you are happy, a decade rushes by. When you are sad, a minute crawls. When you are lonely and afraid, time seems to lose all meaning. Blink, and a year is gone. Blink, and it has only been a night. Only, it is not a life at all. It is a prison sentence.”

LifeTimeImmortality
Book:Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil
Create image

“Finally the church bell tolls, the same low tone it calls at funerals, and she forces herself to her feet. Her father touches her arm. His face is sorry, but his grip is firm. "You will come to love your husband," he says, but the words are clearly more wish than promise. "You will be a good wife," says her mother, and hers are more command than wish. And then Estele appears in the doorway, dressed as if she is in mourning. And why shouldn't she be? This woman who taught her of wild dreams and willful gods, who filled Adeline's head with thoughts of freedom, blew on the embers of hope and let her believe a life could be her own.”

LifeHopeFreedomMarriageWoman
Book:The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
Create image

“Because Rhy didn’t need his protection, not anymore, and he’d only told a partial truth when he said they both needed this. The whole truth was, Rhy needed it more. Because Kell had given him a gift he did not want, could never repay. He’d always envied his brother ’s strength. And now, in a horrible way, it was his. He was immortal. And he hated it. And he hated that he hated it. Hated that he’d become the thing he never wanted to be, a burden to his brother, a source of pain and suffering, a prison. Hated that if he’d had a choice, he would have said no. Hated that he was grateful he hadn’t had a choice, because he wanted to live, even if he didn’t deserve to. But most of all, Rhy hated the way his living changed how Kell lived, the way his brother moved through life as if it were suddenly fragile. The black stone, and whatever lived inside it, and for a time in Kell, had changed his brother, woken something restless, something reckless. Rhy wanted to shout, to shake Kell and tell him not to shy away from danger on his account, but charge toward it, even if it meant getting hurt. Because Rhy deserved that pain. He could see his brother suffocating beneath the weight of it. Of him. And he hated it. And this gesture—this foolish, mad, dangerous gesture—was the best he could do. The most he could do.”

LifeHateBrotherBurden
Book:A Gathering of Shadows
Create image