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“Stay in the boat, I told myself, watching them walk up to the pavilion. I'll just stay in the boat. I won't go anywhere near that creature.
But in spite of that wise warning, I climbed out of the boat.
Fine, stretch your legs, I told myself. Just don't follow them.
But of course, I followed them.
You are without question your own worst enemy, I scolded myself, even as I tiptoed after them.”
― Merrie Haskell, The Princess Curse

“Fate is for people who are too lazy to do anything”
― Merrie Haskell, The Princess Curse

“I understand that you don’t want to marry me,�� I said. “I mean, I don’t know why, since I’m simply delightful to be around. But to each his own taste.”
― Merrie Haskell, The Princess Curse

“Did I never explain to you about love, Reva?' Pa asked. I gave him a look, and he laughed uncomfortably. 'I guess not. Let me put it in a way you'll understand. Love is like stinging nettles. Only they prick from the inside out, starting at your heart and bursting on around. It's worse when it gets here'--he rubbed the bridge of his nose--'then your vision goes a little strange. But eventually the nettles stop stinging--once she agrees to kiss you. But they start right back up again when she agrees to marry you--'
'Pa,' I interrupted, 'that's not love, that's fear.'
Pa shook his head, looking off admiringly in the direction where Lacrimora had disappeared. 'Same thing, in my case.”
― Merrie Haskell, The Princess Curse

“I held in the sneeze, though, by thinking of the word cucumber. It always works.”
― Merrie Haskell, The Princess Curse

“Ignorance does not make the wrong choice into the right one.”
― Merrie Haskell, Handbook for Dragon Slayers

“Mens videt astra.
(The soul sees the stars.)”
― Merrie Haskell, The Castle Behind Thorns

“I didn’t hear any of that,�� he said. “You didn’t?�� “Nope. Chivalry occasionally causes deafness.”
― Merrie Haskell, Handbook for Dragon Slayers

“I’m alive,�� he groaned. “But I’m not doing a very good job of it.”
― Merrie Haskell, The Castle Behind Thorns

“Child, you do not forgive because the person who wronged deserves it.You misunderstand the point of forgiveness entirely. The only cage that a grudge creates is around the holder of that grudge. Forgiveness is not saying that the person who hurt you was right, or has earned it, or is allowed to hurt you again. All forgiveness means is that you will carry on without the burdens of rage and hatred.”
― Merrie Haskell, The Castle Behind Thorns

“Birds have a powerful sense of home.”
― Merrie Haskell, Handbook for Dragon Slayers

“Forgiveness is not death. It is life.”
― Merrie Haskell, The Castle Behind Thorns

“An uncomfortable marriage can not bear the strain of the death of a beloved donkey.”
― Merrie Haskell, Unplugged: The Web's Best Sci-Fi & Fantasy, 2008

“Why did being a princess always come down to taxes and cows?”
― Merrie Haskell, Handbook for Dragon Slayers

“Some things don't need to be mended.
Some things are not meant to be mended. Some things are not for you to mend.”
― Merrie Haskell, The Castle Behind Thorns

“But winter was necessary. Why else would the world have it? The trees seemed to welcome the season, from the way they changed colors before they dropped their leaves and went to sleep. Winter was a part of a cycle, like day and night, life and death.”
― Merrie Haskell, The Castle Behind Thorns

“The other good thing was that I had enough rank to strong-arm Marjit into confessing that she'd been the one who'd told everything to Pa about my first invisibility cap, which was how Pa knew to come steal it. Unfortunately, since my rank in the surface world hung off Pa's, I did NOT have enough rank to take him to task for stealing my cap. So I just put him to sleep during a fancy dinner, so that he went facedown into the sour soup. Just the once. It eased my ire terrifically.”
― Merrie Haskell, The Princess Curse

“Who knows what courses their lives would have taken if I had done differently?”
― Merrie Haskell, The Castle Behind Thorns

“I asked him: Why didn’t you just tell me? He said: ‘If I tell you, you’ll just forget at some critical point. If you figure it out for yourself, you’ll always remember.”
― Merrie Haskell, The Castle Behind Thorns

“Child, you do not forgive because the person who wronged deserves it. You misunderstood the point of forgiveness entirely. The only cage that a grudge creates is around the holder of the grudge. Forgiveness is not saying that the person who hurt you was right, or has earned it, or is allowed to hurt you again. All forgiveness means is that you will carry on without the burdens of rage or hatred.”
― Merrie Haskell, The Castle Behind Thorns

“A falcon. I can see that. I thought you said nothing lived here?��
Sand’s face went blank. “There was nothing alive, except for me, until Merlin. And then you.��
Perrotte bit back her exasperation, and said simply, “Go on.��
He twined his blunt-tipped fingers together, staring down at them. “I, erm. I found the falcon in the mews.�� “So, it’s not true that there was nothing alive in the castle?��
“The truth is . . . Well, the truth is the truth, and thus worth telling, but sometimes truths are so complicated that it’s exhausting to get them out in the right order.�� He glanced up at her. That sounded like an evasion if ever she’d heard one. She raised an eyebrow.
“The falcon was dead!�� Sand blurted out. “Stuffed and mounted, and then also damaged in the sundering. I mended him, and put him on the mantel, so I’d have something to talk to. But a couple days before you—you came upstairs—�� He gestured helplessly at the bird, who stopped stripping water from its feathers just long enough to glare at the humans. Perrotte stared. “The bird came to life,�� she whispered. “After you put it to rights, this falcon came to life. Just like me.��
“Well . . .”
― Merrie Haskell, The Castle Behind Thorns

“You’re not mending anything, remember, Sand? The hedge.�� He paused and shook his head at himself. “And Perrotte’s away for a few minutes, and you’re talking to yourself again.”
― Merrie Haskell, The Castle Behind Thorns

“The magical force that had sundered everything in the castle had occasionally made some very odd choices in its destruction—Sand found a hammer that had been broken only at the wooden handle and not any of the metal parts, and another hammer whose handle was whole while the metal was broken.”
― Merrie Haskell, The Castle Behind Thorns

“Prologue WHOSOEVER STEALS THIS BOOK
shall BURN in the
Fiery Conflagration of a
Dragon’s Breath
and will also
Lose Their Nose
to
Putrefaction.
It is advised, therefore,
that you take your
nose home intact,
and leave this HANDBOOK
for the study of proper”
― Merrie Haskell, Handbook for Dragon Slayers

“Are you suggesting we eat cursed fruit? Vicious fruit? Attacking fruit?”
― Merrie Haskell, The Castle Behind Thorns

“And turnips - endless ruptured turnips.”
― Merrie Haskell, The Castle Behind Thorns

“The shrine I prayed at not to go to university,�� Sand said.
“I guess your prayer was answered,�� Perrotte said.
Sand strongly considered throwing something at her—but there was nothing to hand that wasn’t sacred.”
― Merrie Haskell, The Castle Behind Thorns

“How did you get into the castle, Alexandre, son of Gilles Smith?��
Sand shrugged. “A saint kidnapped me from his shrine and put me into a fireplace here. So I guess the answer is, a miracle of Saint Melor. Or so I think. He has not told me.��
“If you are trying to antagonize him, you are doing a good job,�� Perrotte whispered.
Sand scuffed his shoe at her. “I’m just telling the truth!��
“You’re very good at telling it in the most maddening way possible.��
“Thank you?”
― Merrie Haskell, The Castle Behind Thorns

“Saint Melor’s father was Saint Meliau.��
“Was everyone in Bertaèyn a saint, back in the day?��
“Everyone who didn’t murder anyone, maybe,�� Perrotte said.”
― Merrie Haskell, The Castle Behind Thorns

“Perrotte frowned. “I’d like to turn a plowshare into a sword ,�� she said. “I’d cut our way out of those thorns, and then use it to run my enemies through—�� She bit off her next words and swallowed them. Sand stared at her, aghast. She met his eyes, defiant. “What? You don’t like bloodthirstiness?�� she asked. “Pardon? No. I’m horrified that you would dull a sword on that thorn brake. I could make you some pretty good hedge shears.”
― Merrie Haskell, The Castle Behind Thorns