181 Quotes by Katherine Arden

Why carve things of wood,” she asked him, “if you can make marvelous things of ice with only your hands?” He glanced up. “I carve things of wood because things made by effort are more real than things made by wishing.

His voice was like snow at midnight.

He picked her up and sank onto the warm oven-bench with her in his arms. He was gentle. His breath was the winter wind, but his flesh was warm, and his heart beat under her hand.

Come in, Vasya,′ he said. ‘It is cold.’ Could the snow-laden night speak, it might have spoken with that voice.

Fear is first, then fire, then famine.

Girls were happy to be married. Olga had glowed when her husband put a jewel on her finger and took her away. Maybe Vasya was jealous of her elder sister. But this daughter would never find a husband in Moscow. Might as well put a hawk in a dovecote.

Don’t panic. That’s the first rule of survival. Never panic.

You do not know what you are; can you know what I am?

Every time you take one path, you must live with the memory of the other: of a life left unchosen. Decide as seems best, one course or the other; each way will have its bitter with its sweet.