Indexing Quotes

“Everyone thinks of them in terms of poisoned apples and glass coffins, and forgets that they represent girls who walked into dark forests and remade them into their own reflections.”
― Seanan McGuire, Indexing

“Clichés are relatives of the fairy tale, and tropes aren’t bad; they go with the territory.”
― Seanan McGuire, Indexing

“When you’re late in a fairy tale, people wind up dead. And not true-love’s-kiss, glass-coffin-nap-time dead. Really dead, the kind of dead you don’t recover from.”
― Seanan McGuire, Indexing

“I am an archivist. I am a librarian. I collect words because words are the truest and longest-lasting craft in the world.”
― Seanan McGuire, Indexing

“Pan is neutralized,” I said. “I repeat, Pan is neutralized. Sloane showed the kid her tits. I don’t know how we’re going to write this up for the official report.”
― Seanan McGuire, Indexing

“Once upon a fuck, you people,”
― Seanan McGuire, Indexing

“I have waited a very long time to be able to have inappropriately timed discussions about the status of our relationship with you. I don’t intend to let my own stupidity take this opportunity away from me.”
― Seanan McGuire, Indexing

“That’s the nature of stories. No one ever gets to know the entire thing. We just get to know the parts we have to deal with right here, right now. Before they rip our throats out.”
― Seanan McGuire, Indexing

“Every good thing you find, no matter how small, is a penny for you to put in your pocket. Gather them close, and treasure them. Someday you'll have a future where you feel rich enough, emotionally, to spend them freely.”
― Seanan McGuire, Indexing

“You dead, or I need to hit you again? You know what, fuck it. I’m just going to hit you again.”
― Seanan McGuire, Indexing

“Sloane slipped into the room the way a knife slips into a wound: silently, and with the potential to do a lot of damage to anything that happened to get in her way.”
― Seanan McGuire, Indexing

“What just happened?” asked Jeff. “Sloane just yelled at the story until it went away,” I said blankly.”
― Seanan McGuire, Indexing

“No [Peter] Pan has ever survived past puberty. When their bodies start changing, they start looking for the rope and the razor blades. There are some betrayals of the flesh that they simply aren’t designed to endure.”
― Seanan McGuire, Indexing

“She wanted to be a perfect little princess. All she did was turn herself into a flawed reflection of an ideal she could never achieve.”
― Seanan McGuire, Indexing

“There’s one thing the Brothers Grimm got very, very wrong: There’s no such thing as “ever after.” That would require that the story ever end.”
― Seanan McGuire, Indexing

“It took almost fifteen minutes to explain the situation. By the time I finished, my throat was dry and Demi’s eyes were so wide that it seemed like they might fall out of her head. I glanced at Jeff, afraid of finding judgment or disapproval in his eyes. Not because it would change the way I felt about my brother, but because I liked Jeff, and it would be a shame to have to find a place to hide his body.”
― Seanan McGuire, Indexing

“It didn’t take long to write up our reports, since they mostly consisted of variations on “Rapunzel confirmed downtown, field team dispatched to resolve the incursion; incursion resolved when Agent Winters shouted at it until it agreed to go away. Resolution mechanism not recommended for future incursions.” Demi’s was even shorter: “Barely made it out of the car.”
― Seanan McGuire, Indexing

“You know, as stupid-ass delusions go, this one is pretty good,” said Sloane. “It’s consistent, it’s logical, and it’s fucking moronic. Gold star.” “Don’t say ‘moronic,’” said Jeff. “It’s ableist language, and you know I won’t stand for that.” “Fuck you,” replied Sloane genially. “Much less offensive,” said Jeff.”
― Seanan McGuire, Indexing

“What, you thought that one story was somehow more real than all the others, just because it’s the one that has the most people living in it? Shit, if it worked that way, all the narratives would focus on quantity over quality, and we’d be buried under something featuring rabbits. What we think of as reality is just the tale type that took over longest ago. The others keep fighting back.”
― Seanan McGuire, Indexing

“Here’s the first thing you need to know: all the fairy tales are true. Oh, the specific events that the Brothers Grimm chronicled and Disney animated may only have happened once, in some kingdom so old that we’ve forgotten whether it ever really existed, but the essential elements of the stories are true, and those elements are what keep repeating over and over again.”
― Seanan McGuire, Indexing

“I was blessed with suck in the form of the traditional Snow White coloring: skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood, and hair as black as coal. In the cartoons and the storybooks, they make it look almost cute. Of course, when artists and animators design a Snow White, they essentially give their incarnation of my story a spray tan and some neutral lip liner. A true seven-oh-nine was nowhere near as marketable as those animated darlings. We’re too pale, and our lips are too red, and we look like something out of a horror movie that didn’t have the decency to stay on the screen.”
― Seanan McGuire, Indexing

“Make me, snow-bitch,” she said. “Please don’t make her,” said Andy. “We’ll just wind up with two more hours of paperwork if Henry assaults a teammate.”
― Seanan McGuire, Indexing

“I swallowed a frustrated groan. “Is this one of those idiotic clichés where I turn around and see myself in the mirror of my own story, and the narrative tries to tell me that this was my destiny all along? Because I have shit to do, and if I’m not dead, I’d really like to skip the DVD extras and get back to my team before Sloane strangles Demi or something.”
― Seanan McGuire, Indexing

“A crow. My eyes widened, and I ran to the door, calling, “Jeff! Bring me a crow!” Jeff’s head appeared around the edge of the kitchen doorframe. “I beg your pardon?” “We need a crow in Dr. Reynard’s office. Get me a crow.” “You’re not serious.” I glared at him. “You are serious. Be right there.” Jeff withdrew. I did the same. Sloane was still pacing. She glanced my way and asked, “You have an idea, or do you just want to see Jeff get his eyes pecked out? I’m good with either one, I’d just like to know.”
― Seanan McGuire, Indexing

“Sure. If she gets mugged, she can just flute them to death.”
― Seanan McGuire, Indexing

“Never underestimate the power of a good story.”
― Seanan McGuire, Indexing

“We're supposed to get some time off after we stop a fairy tale from rewriting a major metropolitan area into an evil, R-rated version of Disney World."New and improved! Now with extra incest and murder!"”
― Seanan McGuire, Indexing

“So Gerry’s a Rose Red now, even though Henry’s part of a different story,” said Andy. “Is it going to try to force him to be a girl?” “That’s a risk, and the narrative has done stranger things,” said Jeff. “Great, we’re going to get to see my brother punch out the narrative,” I said. “That’ll make our jobs a lot easier.” Demi blinked. “Is that possible?” “Probably not,” I said,”
― Seanan McGuire, Indexing

“Thirty minutes out, people,” I said. “Where the fuck does she live, Jupiter?” asked Sloane. “Close,” I said. “She’s in a housing development out near the edge of the wildlife preserve. I guess she likes being close to nature.” “Or she’s cuckoo-bats,” said Sloane. “That’s a horrible commute. I’d be road-raging weekly.” “That’s why we don’t let you drive,” said Andy. “Henry, you going to light it up?” “No,” I said. “No lights, no sirens. We do this quiet.” “Because we’re so subtle,” said Sloane.”
― Seanan McGuire, Indexing

“Only silence answered me. No, not quite silence—the Peter Pan that Sloane was trying to talk off the roof of the apartment building was shouting something at her, his weedy, prepubescent voice shredded into wordless tatters by the wind. The wind found no such purchase with Sloane. “And I’m telling you that Neverland isn’t real!” she shouted. “You can’t fucking fly, kid—the laws of physics are for everybody!”
― Seanan McGuire, Indexing