"It is funny how you do not miss affection until it is given, but once it is, it can never be enough; you would drown in it if possible."
— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)

"No one asks how or what I am doing. They could not care less. We’re all looking glasses, we girls, existing only to reflect their images back to them as they’d like to be seen. Hollow vessels of girls to be rinsed of our own ambitions, wants, and opinions, just waiting to be filled with the cool, tepid water of gracious compliance.
A fissure forms in the vessel. I’m cracking open.
--Libba Bray"
— Libba Bray

"Around us the night creatures have their say. We are surrounded by a symphony of crickets and frogs. Neither of us feels the need to speak, and I suppose that is one of the qualities I find comforting in Kartik. We can be alone together."
— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)

"A gentle breeze catches in the branches then and I hear it, soft and low, a murmured prayer--Gem-ma, Gem-ma--and then the leaves bend down and trail delicate fingers across my cold cheeks."
— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)

"He said that we belonged together because he was born with a flower and I was born with a butterfly and that flowers and butterflies need each other for survival."
— Gemma Malley (The Declaration)

""I change the world, the world changes me.""
— Libba Bray

"Because no one needs to live for ever. I think that sometimes you can outstay your welcome.
"
— Gemma Malley (The Declaration)

"Surplus meant unnecessary. Not required.
You couldn’t be a Surplus if you were needed by someone else. You couldn’t be a Surplus if you were loved.
"
— Gemma Malley (The Declaration)

"'I love you Anna Covey,' he said, his voice barely audible. And slowly, clumsily, he leant forward, and his lips found hers, and Anna felt him kiss her awkwardly, she knew that she wasn't a Surplus any more. And nor was Peter."
— Gemma Malley (The Declaration)

"Mawah meenon ne le plus poohlala" I say with an affected bow"
— Libba Bray (The Sweet Far Thing)

"In each of us lie a good and bad, light and dark, art and pain, choice and regret, cruelty and sacrifice. We're each of us our own chiaroscuro, our own bit of illusion fighting to emerge into something solid, something real. We've got to forgive ourselves that. I must remember to forgive myself. Because there is a lot of grey to work with. No one can live in the light all the time."
— Gemma Dolye, A Great and Terriblre Beauty