The Familiar Quotes

“But let it be my ambition and not my fear that seals my fate.”
― Leigh Bardugo, The Familiar

“Writing is the closest thing we have to real magic. Writing is creating something out of nothing, is opening doors to others lands. Writing gives you power to shape your own world when the real one hurts too much.”
― Leigh Bardugo, The Familiar

“Language creates possibility. Sometimes by being used. Sometimes by being kept secret.”
― Leigh Bardugo, The Familiar

“You think you know hardship, but men have a gift for finding new ways to make women suffer.”
― Leigh Bardugo, The Familiar

“It is a danger to become nothing. You hope no one will look, and so one day when you go to find yourself, only dust remains, ground down to nothing from sheer neglect.”
― Leigh Bardugo, The Familiar

“every night she shuts the windows tight to guard against drafts, and every morning he dies and is reborn beside her. she reminds his heart to beat again, as she did so long ago. he kisses her fingers, and combs her hair, and he treasures her, as only a man who has lost his luck and found it once more ever can.”
― Leigh Bardugo, The Familiar

“There are different kinds of suffering, Valentina thought. The kind that takes you by surprise and the kind you live with so long, you stop noticing it.”
― Leigh Bardugo, The Familiar

“I still meet grief in sudden places, when I least expect it. A familiar song. A smell from the kitchen. Then there it is. An enemy that can’t be bested.”
― Leigh Bardugo, The Familiar

“His belief in her was wine on an empty stomach and it left her light-headed.”
― Leigh Bardugo, The Familiar

“Maybe there really was a demon inside her. One that craved feather beds and fine food and applause.”
― Leigh Bardugo, The Familiar

“You’re right. I’m stupid and sentimental. When we wed I was a foolish girl who hoped to love you. I grew into a foolish woman who hoped to please you. And now, well, I suppose I’m still a foolish woman who only hopes to be rid of you. Go away, Marius.”
― Leigh Bardugo, The Familiar

“And you're not afraid...of the devil? Of his minions? "Fear men, Luzia," he said. "Fear their ambition and the crimes they commit in its service. But don't fear magic or what you may do with it.”
― Leigh Bardugo, The Familiar

“Better to live in fear than in grinding discontent. Better to dare this new path than continue her slow, grim march down the road that had been chosen for her. At least the scenery would be different.”
― Leigh Bardugo, The Familiar

“She was allowed to want more for herself. And even if she wasn't, she would find a way to get it.”
― Leigh Bardugo, The Familiar

“She would build herself a life of plenty. She would force her world to bloom as she’d made the pomegranate tree grow, and Santángel would help her do it. Even if blood watered the soil.”
― Leigh Bardugo, The Familiar

“There is a fine line between a saint and a witch, and I wonder if you are prepared to walk it.”
― Leigh Bardugo, The Familiar

“Clap your hands,” Luzia said, surprised at the command in her voice. It had the snap of a whip over a horse’s back. The man’s laugh died on his lips. Who was a peasant to command a person of his stature? And yet, in this room, on this night, he had asked for her to perform, and so her impudence must be permitted. Such was the temporary power of the singer, the actor, the fool.”
― Leigh Bardugo, The Familiar

“There are worse things for a woman than being alone.”
― Leigh Bardugo, The Familiar

“Months later, a woman brought a fish home from the market and cut it open to find an emerald the size of her thumbnail. She thanked the fish, tucked the jewel into her pocket, and left the house, never to be seen again. Her husband, a drunkard with heavy fists, found only the fish, which he was forced to prepare himself for dinner. He choked on a bone and was buried in a pauper's grave.”
― Leigh Bardugo, The Familiar

“There was nothing more dangerous than a woman witha pen in her hand.”
― Leigh Bardugo, The Familiar

“She hadn’t so much climbed a mountain as a low hill, but she might as well enjoy the view while she could.”
― Leigh Bardugo, The Familiar

“Fear men, Luzia," he said. "Fear their ambition and the crimes they commit in its service. But don't fear magic or what you may do with it.”
― Leigh Bardugo, The Familiar

“Who has more power in a house than the woman who stirs the soup and makes the bread and scrubs the floors, who fills the foot warmer with hot coals, and arranges your letters, and nurses your children?” Her anger radiated from her like heat from a stone left in the sun. She was right, of course. These were the ways women entered the body, through the kitchen, through the nursery, their hands in your bed, your clothes, your hair. There was danger in such trust, and a wise man learned to respect the women who tended to his home and heirs. “Do”
― Leigh Bardugo, The Familiar

“You are the burnt bread. You are the broken glass. I cannot put you back together, but you can.”
― Leigh Bardugo, The Familiar

“Her aunt had warned her long ago that some people brought misery with them like weather,”
― Leigh Bardugo, The Familiar

“I will tell you if you tell me which language you sing in."
"Spanish," she lied.
"No great miracle has evern been worked in Castilian."
"And why is that?"
"Because it's a language that spends its power in command and conquest.”
― Leigh Bardugo, The Familiar

“If she was kneeling in prayer, she would at least be off her feet.”
― Leigh Bardugo, The Familiar

“She hoped that Marius was right, that it wasn’t beauty life required, but will.”
― Leigh Bardugo, The Familiar

“God gave women beauty to tempt man and speech to drive him mad.”
― Leigh Bardugo, The Familiar

“He knew that he was lucky in the way that lucky people do.” “So not at all.”
― Leigh Bardugo, The Familiar