Lauren Bear > Lauren's Quotes

“Hope is an act of desperate defiance against monstrous odds.”
― Ivo Andrić, Bosnian Chronicle

“I have always known Fear. She was the fourth sister, and my most intimate acquaintance.”
― Lauren J.A. Bear, Medusa's Sisters

“What freedom exists when men find you dangerous!”
― Lauren J.A. Bear, Medusa's Sisters

“Euryale could barely conceal the odium in her voice. “And their mothers allow you to enslave their children or leave them for dead?” “The mothers must survive in a world where men and gods—and men who think they are gods—limit their choices.” Charmion’s nostrils flared. “To have choices is to have power. Most women have neither.”
― Lauren J.A. Bear, Medusa's Sisters

“There is no perfect trinity, for three connotes competition. Power struggles. Favoritism and loneliness. We were almost not a trio; although now that she is gone, neither of us feels like a duo. We are not twins, nor will we ever be. Our third was the center, and when we lost her, we also failed each other, collapsing inward upon ourselves. A broken triplet. Thrice blessed. Thrice cursed.”
― Lauren J.A. Bear

“Nobody requested our testimony. The voices of ugly women are easily diminished.”
― Lauren J.A. Bear, Medusa's Sisters

“We do not apologize for the sins of men, Dora. Not today. Not ever.”
― Lauren J.A. Bear, Medusa's Sisters

“My sisters compete. For favor, for suitors, for reputations. For our parents' love. We are connected only by secrets and lies.' Semele waved her kantharos at Euryale and Stheno, liquid sloshing once more onto the tiled floor. A harried girl hurried forward with a rag. 'You three accept other for all that you are and are not. You share your lives. That is sisterhood.”
― Lauren J.A. Bear, Medusa's Sisters

“Thrice blessed. Thrice cursed.”
― Lauren J.A. Bear, Medusa's Sisters

“(And if not for this unruly captive, Hades might never have stumbled upon Persephone, gathering daffodils in a nearby meadow. But that’s how stories are cultivated. Words and actions are sown, spreading repercussions like wildflowers: monsters begetting lovers begetting conflict begetting heroes. On and on, endlessly.)”
― Lauren J.A. Bear, Medusa's Sisters

“Medusa's mouth twisted. "I would rather be remembered for what I did, what I said, whom I loved, than how I met my end.”
― Lauren J.A. Bear, Medusa's Sisters

“When I choose myself,
do not be afraid
if my choice looks different than yours”
― Lauren J.A. Bear, Medusa's Sisters

“Danaë chose to survive. She chose to be brave, and perhaps she also chose revenge, for she named her son Perseus, the Destroyer. Do ewes call their lambs such?”
― Lauren J.A. Bear, Medusa's Sisters

“Find delight in your pain, she said,
and rejoice in your longing.
If it still hurts,
you are alive, you are alive.”
― Lauren J.A. Bear, Medusa's Sisters

“To have choices is to have power. Most women have neither.”
― Lauren J.A. Bear, Medusa's Sisters

“She thought love a perfect pain.
Come then. Break me, bend me.
Hurt me flawless.”
― Lauren J.A. Bear, Medusa's Sisters

“But that’s how stories are cultivated. Words and actions are sown, spreading repercussions like wildflowers: monsters begetting lovers begetting conflict begetting heroes. On and on endlessly.”
― Lauren J.A. Bear, Medusa's Sisters

“She lifts her dress to wade, this river girl. She bares her ankles and shows her heart. —Erastus of Athens, “The Illness of Maidens”
― Lauren J.A. Bear, Medusa's Sisters

“They behaved in ways that celebrated decadence and ambition, and the passions and feuds of their personal lives thrilled Euryale. Hungry for snippets of their hierarchical melodramas, she consumed the gossip and obsessed over their increasingly tangled relations.”
― Lauren J.A. Bear, Medusa's Sisters

“Riches, even freedom, matter very little if you cannot control your own womb.”
― Lauren J.A. Bear, Medusa's Sisters

“The Sphinx’s tail curled as the storyteller’s gaze settled upon her eyes. It’s a look I’ve come to recognize, when a speaker inhabits the faraway and the present, retreating to memory, invoking language, and assembling both for an audience.”
― Lauren J.A. Bear, Medusa's Sisters

“People can like bad art that brings comfort and entertainment; people can dislike good art that chafes.”
― Lauren J.A. Bear, Medusa's Sisters

“Why do men have nipples but no milk? Is wine a blessing or a curse? What is madness?”
― Lauren J.A. Bear, Medusa's Sisters

“Liquid sunrise poured into her soul, and she woke each morning full of hope.”
― Lauren J.A. Bear, Medusa's Sisters

“Without their worship, without the women, you will wither away. And as your power wanes, I want you to know, I will be there, watching with rapture. Because I’m just the cast-aside sister, I don’t demand veneration to survive. I will witness it all.” “I am an Olympian,” he fumed. She shrugged. “For now.”
― Lauren J.A. Bear, Medusa's Sisters

“Humans are made of memory and story as much as blood and bone.”
― Lauren J.A. Bear, Mother of Rome

“A person should not have to be brutalized to be considered strong.”
― Lauren J.A. Bear, Mother of Rome

“RHEA (incredulous): There is no "we". These are animals.

LAVIANA (smiling): We are women. We are both”
― Lauren J.A. Bear, Mother of Rome

“But how could losing what you never had compete with losing your everything?”
― Lauren J.A. Bear, Medusa's Sisters

“Our mortal sister is dead. She was Medusa. And we are the Gorgons.”
― Lauren J.A. Bear, Medusa's Sisters