The Door in the Hedge Quotes

“But the world turns, and even legends change; and somewhere there is a border, and sometime, perhaps, someone will decide to cross it, however well guarded with thorns it may be.”
― Robin McKinley, The Door in the Hedge

“It is all very well to say that all princesses are good and beautiful and charming; but this is usually a determined optimism on everybody's part rather than the truth. After all, if a girl is a princess, she is undeniably a princess, and the best must be made of it; and how much pleasanter it would be if she were good and beautiful. There's always hope that if enough people believe as though she is, a little of it will rub off.”
― Robin McKinley, The Door in the Hedge

“So after he married her, he set out not really to woo her, which he thought would be cheating when affairs of state had almost forced them to get married in the first place, but to be as unflaggingly nice to her as he thought he could get away with. Their delight in each other after they became the sort of lovers that minstrels make ballads about (although it was certainly unpoetic of them to be married to each other) was so apparent that it spilled over into their dealings with their people; and the court became a more joyful place than it had been for many a long royal generation. And the minstrels did make ballads about them, even though they were married to each other.”
― Robin McKinley , The Door in the Hedge

“The soldier knew what had happened, and believed; he knew about nightmares. But he knew also that there were nightmares that happened when one was awake, which was a knowledge denied most of the quiet farm folk and city merchants present around him.”
― Robin McKinley, The Door in the Hedge

“He lowered the goblet, and looked into it. The black water shifted as his hand trembled, and the surface glittered like the facets of polished stone. The noise of the water as it touched the sides was like the distant cries of the imprisoned.”
― Robin McKinley, The Door in the Hedge

“The soldier looked back at the King as the King looked at him; for a moment he wondered if he should bow, but the King’s look seemed to wish to forestall him. The soldier saw a face for whom he would be willing to carry colors into battle once more, and the memory of his colonel seemed to fail and fade nearly to oblivion.”
― Robin McKinley, The Door in the Hedge

“there were no bones in his body, only tunes, and no blood, but poetry.”
― Robin McKinley, The Door in the Hedge and Other Stories

“The world turned, and new stories rose up, and the legends of the old days faltered a little, or turned themselves in their course to keep up with the lives of their people, and the lives of great-grandchildren of those they had first known.”
― Robin McKinley, The Door in the Hedge and Other Stories

“Have there been many recently who walk where I go now?” inquired the soldier.
“No,” said the captain of the guard. “There have not been many.” And he stepped back into the shadows without saying any more.”
― Robin McKinley, The Door in the Hedge

“No one, mortal, immortal, or creatures beyond the knowledge of either, can belong to two worlds.”
― Robin McKinley, The Door in the Hedge

“Their delight in each other after they became the sort of lovers that minstrels make ballads about (although it was certainly unpoetic of them to be married to each other) was so apparent that it spilled over into their dealings with their people; and the court became a more joyful place than it had been for many a long royal generation.”
― Robin McKinley, The Door in the Hedge

“She had told the frog, "Certainly, anything"; and her father had brought her up to understand that she must always keep her word, the more so because as Princess there was no one who could force her to.”
― Robin McKinley, The Door in the Hedge