"I think the only way to get through this life is laughing hard and constantly, mostly at myself."
— Shannon Hale

"Right now I'd like all my troubles to stand in front of me in a straight line, and one by one I'd give each a black eye. "
— Shannon Hale (The Goose Girl)

"Mama used to say, you have to know someone a thousand days before you can glimpse her soul."
— Shannon Hale (Book of a Thousand Days)

"You are my butterfly and refuse to set you free."
— Shannon Hale

"Personally, I believe “Young Adult” to be an arbitrary title that means the book "Can be enjoyed by anyone/Has a main character who’s not quite an adult/Isn’t really boring.""
— Shannon Hale

"Its important to know stories. I felt the earth shift to make a place for you when you were born, and I came to tell you stories while you are young. And like me, you were born with a word on your tongue."
— Shannon Hale (The Goose Girl)

"... If we don't tell strange stories, when something strange happens we won't believe it."
— Shannon Hale (The Goose Girl)

"I keep thinking about a tale my nurse used to read to me about a bird whose wings are pinned to the ground. In the end, when he finally frees himself, he flies so high he becomes a star. My nurse said the story was about how we all have something that keeps us down."
— Shannon Hale (Princess Academy)

"I was under the stars, like a fish is under water."
— Shannon Hale

"If we're mad, we're mad in large numbers, at least larger than yours."
— Shannon Hale (The Goose Girl)

"He had a dashing smile. It nearly dashed right off his face."
— Shannon Hale (Austenland)

"What she had long believed was not true, and now the world was wide open to discover what was.
It is like all my life I thought the sky was green."
— Shannon Hale

"You're better than seven years of food. You're better than windows. You're even better than the sky."
— Shannon Hale (Book of a Thousand Days)

"When you get tired of worrying and mourning your horse and trying not to be afraid, tell me and I'll do it for you a while so you can shut your eyes and sleep peaceful."
— Shannon Hale (The Goose Girl)

"All I've ever wanted was to be near you."
— Shannon Hale (Enna Burning)

"Razo hopped back up and adopted a posture that said he was completely unruffled, never had been, and in fact was ready to do something manly like lift boulders or swallow live worms."
— Shannon Hale (River Secrets)

"I do like the world quite a lot."
— Shannon Hale (Book of a Thousand Days)

"They finished laughing and caught their breaths, and looked at each other, and Ani thought Geric looked at her too long, as though he forgot he was looking, as though he did not wish to do anything else. She looked back. Her took heart took its time quieting down."
— Shannon Hale (The Goose Girl)

". . . as long as there are movement and harmony, there are words."
— Shannon Hale

"But in a country where you hang your dead up on walls and pride whether or not a man bears a javelin more than his character, how am I to persuade you out of a war? It would be suicide for Kildenree to war on Bayern and butchery for Bayern to attack Kildenree. If you don't believe me, then send me back. Or if you don't trust me to leave, I'll return to my little room on the west wall and tend your geese, and you can be sure that on my watch no thieves will touch my flock."
— Shannon Hale (The Goose Girl)

"I know I would crumble if I lost you."
— Shannon Hale (Enna Burning)

"My mama used to say, 'Are you sad? Then just wait a minute.'"
— Shannon Hale (Book of a Thousand Days)

"Yes, we'll yell,'Help, help us, goose girl, and bring the terrifying legion of warrior geese.'"
— Shannon Hale (The Goose Girl)

"...My friends call me by my name."
"You don't have any friends."
"I don't want you to be my friend, Selia, or my servant, not now. I thought you were both. You have let me know I was wrong. So are you to treat me so. You are wrong."
— Shannon Hale (The Goose Girl)

"We know it's all just daydreaming. In all likelihood, no one in this forest'll ever get a javelin, and I'll never see my mother's kingdom again, let alone be hailed by crowds as the jewel of Kildenree. Maybe it's vain to wish for it. But sometimes, it'd be nice just to hold something real in your hands that felt like a measure of your worth. Right Finn?"
— Shannon Hale (The Goose Girl)

"I, Geric-Sinath of Gerhard, declare that you're beautiful and you're perfect and I'll slay any man who tries to take you from my side. Goose girl, may I kiss you?"
— Shannon Hale (The Goose Girl)

"She was born Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee, Crown Princess of Kildenree, and she did not open her eyes for three days."
— Shannon Hale (The Goose Girl)

"Nom, do say something funny so she can admire!"
— Shannon Hale (River Secrets)

""What are you doing?"
"Ya!" said Jane, whirling around, her hands held up menacingly.
It was Mr. Nobley with coat, hat, and cane, watching her with wide eyes. Jane took several quick (but oh so casual) steps away from Martin's window.
"Um, did I just say, 'Ya'?"
"You just said 'Ya,'" he confirmed. "If I am not mistaken, it was a battle cry, warning that you were about to attack me."
"I, uh..." She stopped to laugh. "I wasn't aware until this precise and awkward moment that when startled in a startled in a strange place, my instincts would have me pretend to be a ninja.""
— Shannon Hale (Austenland)

"I cannot write to anyone outside myself--if I tried, it would be a horrible story, flat and lifeless. I write to myself. That's the only person I'm trying to please."
— Shannon Hale

"They laughed much harder than the memory was funny because it felt good to laugh."
— Shannon Hale (Enna Burning)

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a thirty-something woman in possession of a satisfying career and fabulous hairdo must be in want of very little"
— Shannon Hale (Austenland)

"He smiled in a way that made me want to kiss him right on the spot. Or the lips. Whichever was closer."
— Shannon Hale

"Careful with the accusations of insanity, oh my lady whose home is a tower with windows of brick, all for the sake of some skinny-ankled, laugh-prone boy of a khan."
— Shannon Hale (Book of a Thousand Days)

"Sometimes my fancy gets to floating inside me, threatening to carry me away like a leaf on a wind. Better to be a stone."
— Shannon Hale (Book of a Thousand Days)

"The book smelled dusty and old but also carried a sweet tang, a hint of something inviting. She opened to the first page and started to read, pronouncing the words in a reverent whisper."
— Shannon Hale

"Really, becoming a writer sounds more like a mental illness than a professional choice."
— Shannon Hale

"You, what are you? The brat of lucky parents who were related to a childless king. There is no such thing as royal blood. I believe we are what we make ourselves, and as such, you, Crown Princess, are nothing."
— Shannon Hale (The Goose Girl)

"WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE
RAPUNZEL

For horse thieving, kidnapping, jail breaking, and using her hair in a manner other than nature intended!

REWARD"
— Shannon Hale (Rapunzel's Revenge)

"There you go...let it all slide out. Unhappiness can't stick in a person's soul when it's slick with tears [p. 173]."
— Shannon Hale (Princess Academy)

"'You saw my leg?'
'How can a man help what he sees?' he said. 'And, if I could add, you possess a very fine leg.'"
— Shannon Hale (The Goose Girl)

""This morning, Tegus welcomed me again with an arm clasp and cheek touch. I wasn't startled this time, and I breathed in at his neck. How can I describe the scent of his skin? He smells something like cinnamon-- brown and dry and sweet and warm. Ancestors, is it wrong for me to imagine laying my head on his chest and closing my eyes and breathing in his smell?""
— Shannon Hale (Book of a Thousand Days)

"I let my head fall back, and I gazed into the Eternal Blue Sky. It was morning. Some of the sky was yellow, some the softest blue. One small cloud scuttled along. Strange how everything below can be such death and chaos and pain while above the sky is peace, sweet blue gentleness. I heard a shaman say once, the Ancestors want our souls to be like the blue sky."
— Shannon Hale (Book of a Thousand Days)

"It's not something you tell your single best friend. It'd be like rubbing your nose in the poop of my happiness."
— Shannon Hale (Austenland)

"Jack "Hey, times are tough, and thirty gold coins can do a lot of good. But I guess you wouldn't know about needing money, since you grew up like a little princ..."
(Rapunzel glares)
Jack continues "Prin... soner. I mean, prisoner! A prisoner in a tower, such a shame, that.""
— Shannon Hale

"She put a wedge beside my heart
And then she brought the mallet down
She sang no song to guide her work
I lost my heart without a sound"
— Shannon Hale

"We know it's all just daydreaming...But sometimes, it'd be nice just to hold something real in your hands that felt like a measure of your worth."
— Shannon Hale (The Goose Girl)

"They weren't nice words he said. He could've lived a good life and died never having made a person feel rubbed down to bones and too sad to hold together. "
— Shannon Hale (Book of a Thousand Days)

""What should I say? That I like him so much it hurts?""
— Shannon Hale (Princess Academy)

"I can see that one can never pay back Gilsa for the fear that she will give again."
— Shannon Hale (The Goose Girl)