"The odd thing about people who had many books was how they always wanted more."
— Patricia A. McKillip (The Bell at Sealey Head)

"The man was hit in one eye by a stone, and that eye turned inward so that it looked into his mind, and he died of what he saw there"
— Patricia A. McKillip (The Forgotten Beasts of Eld)

"Words, he decided, were inadequate at best, impossible at worst. They meant too many things. Or they meant nothing at all."
— Patricia A. McKillip (In The Forests of Serre)

"Those who fear the imagination condemn it: something childish, they say, something monsterish, misbegotten. Not all of us dream awake. But those of us who do have no choice."
— Patricia A. McKillip

"When you put your hands and mind and heart into the knowing of a thing ... there is no room in you for fear."
— Patricia A. McKillip

"If you have no faith in yourself, then have faith in the things you call truth. You know what must be done. You may not have courage or trust or understanding or the will to do it, but you know what must be done. You can't turn back. There is now answer behind you. You fear what you cannot name. So look at it and find a name for it. Turn your face forward and learn. Do what must be done.
-Deth to Morgon, Prince of Hed-"
— Patricia A. McKillip (The Riddle-Master of Hed)

"Epics are never written about libraries. They exist on whim; it depends on if the conquering army likes to read."
— Patricia A. McKillip

"There are no simple words. I don't know why I thought I could hide anything behind language."
— Patricia A. McKillip (The Book of Atrix Wolfe)

"Only yesterday a young woman came to me wanting a trap set for a man with a sweet smile and lithe arms. She was a fool, not for wanting him, but for wanting more of him than that."
— Patricia A. McKillip

"The giant Grof was hit in one eye by a stone, and that eye turned inward so that it looked into his mind, and he died of what he saw there. -Cyrin"
— Patricia A. McKillip (The Forgotten Beasts of Eld)

"But even in the schoolyard I'd been aware of that silence, that reserve in him, as though he'd been raised by foxes and language was his second language."
— Patricia A. McKillip

""What?" It was a good word. Like a rock in a river, sticking up to let you land on it, so you could make your way across the flow."
— Patricia A. McKillip (Solstice Wood)

"She is our moon. Our tidal pull. She is the rich deep beneath the sea, the buried treasure, the expression in the owl's eye, the perfume in the wild rose. She is what the water says when it moves."
— Patricia A. McKillip (Solstice Wood)

"The young gentlemen who came calling seemed especially puzzling. They sat in their velvet shirts and their leather boots, nibbling burnt cakes and praising Diamond's mind, and all the while their eyes said other things. Now, their eyes said. Now. Then: Patience, patience. 'You are flowers,' their mouths said, 'You are jewels, you are golden dreams.' Their eyes said: I eat flowers, I burn with dreams, I have a tower without a door in my heart, and I will keep you there... "
— Patricia A. McKillip (Harrowing the Dragon)

"Morgon of Hed met the High One's harpist one autumn day when the trade-ships docked at Tol for the season's exchange of goods. A small boy caught sight of the round-hulled ships with their billowing sails striped red and blue and green, picking their way among the tiny fishing boats in the distance, and ran up the coast from Tol to Akren, the house of Morgon, Prince of Hed. There he disrupted an argument, gave his message, and sat down at the long, nearly deserted tables to forage whatever was left of breakfast. The Prince of Hed, who was recovering slowly from the effects of loading two carts of beer for trading the evening before, ran a reddened eye over the tables and shouted for his sister."
— Patricia A. McKillip (Riddle-Master)