A Knot in the Grain and Other Stories Quotes

“Peter Dickinson, Diana Wynne Jones, Margaret Mahy—and had Mistress Masham’s Repose and a couple of Lang’s fairy books besides.”
― Robin McKinley, A Knot in the Grain and Other Stories

“She was concentrating on the feel of the knot, her eyes half closed and not attending; but it’s when you’re not thinking about noticing, and therefore don’t have it in your mind what you expect to see, that you’re likeliest to see something unexpected.”
― Robin McKinley, A Knot in the Grain and Other Stories

“She told herself she didn’t need books about imaginary places and things that weren’t real. But she knew she wouldn’t have had to go on telling herself this if it were really true.”
― Robin McKinley, A Knot in the Grain and Other Stories

“He did not measure her help in terms of how many rows she hoed, or whether the shelves of the house were more or less dusty than they had been before two people lived there again, but only in the deliciousness of joined lives.”
― Robin McKinley, A Knot in the Grain and Other Stories

“She looked at them as they looked at each other, and knew why, for the hopelessness was as bright in their eyes as the love.”
― Robin McKinley, A Knot in the Grain and Other Stories

“the boys stood around looking awkward and patting their girls’ shoulders in that way boys have when they want to look as if they’re being sympathetic but what they really want is for you to stop whatever it is you’re doing, like crying, or having a serious conversation.”
― Robin McKinley, A Knot in the Grain and Other Stories