The Journey Quotes

“I am ashamed of anyone who has eyes and still can't see.”
― Kathryn Lasky, The Journey

“I am ashamed of anyone who has eyes and still cannot see. (Mrs. Plithiver)”
― Kathryn Lasky, The Journey

“We are the owls of the weather chaw.
We take it blistering,
We take it all.
Roiling boiling gusts,
We're the owls with the guts.
For blizzards our gizzards
Dr tremble with joy.
An ice storm, a gale, how we love blinding hail.
We fly forward and backward,
Upside down and flat.
Do we flinch? Do we wail?
Do we skitter or scutter?
No, we yarp one more pellet
And fly straight for the gutter!
Do we screech? Do we scream?
Do we gurgle? Take pause?
Not on your life!
For we are the best
Of the best of the chaws!”
― Kathryn Lasky, The Journey

“Night is done, gone the moon, gone the stars
From the skies.
Fades the black of night
Comes the morn with rosy light.
Fold your wings, go to sleep,
Rest your gizzards, Safe you'll be for the day.
Glaux is nigh.
Far away is first black,
But it shall seep back
Over field
Over flower
In the twilight hour.
We are home in our tree.
We are owls, we are free.
As we go, this we know
Glaux is nigh.”
― Kathryn Lasky, The Journey

“What is a fleecy as a cloud,
As majestic and shimmering as the breaking dawn,
As gorgeous as the sun the sun is strong?
Why, it's ME!
Twilight, the Great Gray,
Tiger of the sky ---
Light of the Night, Most beautiful,
An avian delight.
I beam ---
I gleam ---
I'm a livin' flying dream.
Watch me roll off this cloud and pop on back.
This is flying.
I ain't no hack.”
― Kathryn Lasky, The Journey

“Give me a hot coal glowing bright red,
Give me an ember sizzling with heat,
These are the jewels made from my beak.
We fly between the flames and never get singed
We plunge through the smoke and never cringe.
The secrets of fire, its strange winds, its rages,
We know it all as it rampages
Through forests, through canyons,
Up hillsides and down.
We track it.
We'll find it.
Take coals by the pound.
We'll yarp in the heart of the hottest flame
Then bring back its coals an make them tame.
For we are the colliers brave and beyond all
We are the owls of the colliering chaw!”
― Kathryn Lasky, The Journey

“We're going to bash them birds,
Them rat-feathered birds.
Them bad-butt owls ain't never heard
'Bout Gylfie, Soren, Dig, and Twilight
Just let them get to feel my bite
Their li'l ole gizzards gonna turn to pus
And our feathers hardly mussed.
Oh, me. Oh, my. They gonna cry.
One look at Twilight,
They know they're gonna die.
I see fear in their eyes
And that ain't all.
They know that Twilight's got the gall.
Gizzard with gall that makes him great
And every bad owl gonna turn to bait.”
― Kathryn Lasky, The Journey

“Hush little owl,
You're with Twi.
I got the moves to get you by.
Big bad crows.
St. Aggie's scamps
Ain't got nothin to show the champ.
I'll pop a spiral
With a twist,
Do a three-sixty
And scatter mist----”
― Kathryn Lasky, The Journey

“Far away if first black,
But it shall be back
Over field
Over flower
In the twilight hour.
We are home in our tree.
We are owls, we are free.
As we go, this we know
Glaux is nigh.”
― Kathryn Lasky, The Journey

“He didn't know what he wanted. He only knew what he didn't want.”
― Kathryn Lasky, The Journey

“Indeed, nobility is not always found in the flash of battle claws or flying through the embered wakes of firestorms, or even in making strong the weak, mending the broken, vanquishing the proud, or making powerless those who abuse the frail.” Soren’s gizzard grew quiet as Boron spoke. “It is also found in the resolute heart, the gizzard that can withstand the temptations of false dreams, the mind that has the imagination to comprehend another’s pain,”
― Kathryn Lasky, The Journey

“—Night is Done—
Night is done, gone the moon, gone the stars
From the skies.
Fades the black of the night
Comes the morn with rosy light.
Fold your wings, go to sleep,
Rest your gizzards,
Safe you’ll be for the day.
Glaux is nigh.
Far away is First Black,
But it shall seep back
Over field
Over flower
In twilight hour.
We are home in our tree.
We are owls, we are free.
As we go, this we know
Glaux is nigh.”
― Kathryn Lasky, The Journey

“Soren had been at the Great Ga’Hoole Tree for almost a month,”
― Kathryn Lasky, The Journey

“I am an owl of low birth in the eyes of the world because I have had no proper upbringing." All the bluster was gone from Twilight's voice; even his feathers seemed to sag a bit and he appeared slightly smaller. "I have had no First Ceremonies, no First Insect, no First Fur-on-Meat ceremony. There is much I don't know."
Soren was stunned. Twilight never admitted to not knowing anything.
"But there is much I do know. I know light and shadow and everything in between. I know the life pulse in the throat of a bobcat and where to slash to break the blood pump that is the cat's heart. I know mountains and deserts and the creatures who fly and those who don't, but slither or crawl or leap. I know of all sorts of claws, as well as fangs and poisons that lock the talons and freeze the wings. I know the false horizon that comes in the heat of the summer when the air is thick with dew and confuses old owls so that they go yeep and fall. And I know all this, not because I was reared in a hollow lined with the down of my mother's breast, but because I was not. I was alone within minutes of my hatching. I can be alone. It is a special talent. And I can be alone again.”
― Kathryn Lasky, The Journey

“Hope is never a foolish thing—although others will tell you it is.”
― Kathryn Lasky, The Journey

“Barn Owls were known for their extremely sensitive hearing. They could contract and expand the muscles of their facial disks to funnel the sound source to their unevenly placed earholes.”
― Kathryn Lasky, The Journey

“For those who believe.”
― Kathryn Lasky, The Journey

“congregations of owls seemed to be below, along with a hollow that was called a kitchen, from”
― Kathryn Lasky, The Journey