Wolf by Wolf Quotes

“These were the names she whispered in the dark.
These were the pieces she brought back into place.
These were the wolves she rode to war.”
― Ryan Graudin, Wolf by Wolf

“Once upon a different time, there was a girl who lived in a kingdom of death. Wolves howled up her arm. A whole pack of them--made of tattoo ink and pain, memory and loss. It was the only thing about her that ever stayed the same.”
― Ryan Graudin, Wolf by Wolf

“The wolves of war are gathering. They sing a song of rotten bones.”
― Ryan Graudin, Wolf by Wolf

“I'm tired of fixing things that always break.”
― Ryan Graudin, Wolf by Wolf

“Her self-reflection was no reflection at all. It was a shattered mirror. Something she had to piece together, over and over again. Memory by memory. Loss by loss. Wolf by wolf.”
― Ryan Graudin, Wolf by Wolf

“So she traced and she named. She hurt and she raged. She remembered.”
― Ryan Graudin, Wolf by Wolf

“The world was not just moving. It was alive.
And it was ready to fight.”
― Ryan Graudin, Wolf by Wolf

“The world is wrong. I'm just doing my part to fix it.”
― Ryan Graudin, Wolf by Wolf

“People were more than crooked type and swastika-stamped documents. No number of bullet points and biography facts could pin the soul behind the eyes.”
― Ryan Graudin, Wolf by Wolf

“Even at their most basic function, needles do two things: They give and they take away.”
― Ryan Graudin, Wolf by Wolf

“There would be no dressing up as a maid. No cyanide slipped into his crystal glass of mineral water. The Fuhrer’s death was to be a loud, screaming thing. A broadcast of blood over the Reichssender.”
― Ryan Graudin, Wolf by Wolf

“Hope. A strange word. In her past, it had been a light, wispy thing. Crushed as easily as a finger under a guard's boot. But now...now hope weighed so much, as if the Colosseum itself had collapsed on top of her. Mortar and suffering. Brick and time.”
― Ryan Graudin, Wolf by Wolf

“The guard grabbed Yael's hand, snapped his pen across her skin in two quick strikes. X marks the survivor.”
― Ryan Graudin, Wolf by Wolf

“She'd been trained to survive many things: starvation and bullet wounds. Winter nights and scouring sun. Double-tied knots and interrogations at knifepoint. But this? A boy's lips on hers. Moving and melding. Soft and strength, velvet and iron. Opposite elements that tugged and tor Yael from the inside. Feelings bloomed, hot and warm. Deep and dark.”
― Ryan Graudin, Wolf by Wolf

“Yael was a cobweb version, composed of gaps and strings and fragile nothings.”
― Ryan Graudin, Wolf by Wolf

“The moreness of him was beginning to show. The way ruins were excavated by an archaeologist. Brushstroke by brushstroke. Bit by bit.”
― Ryan Graudin, Wolf by Wolf

“There was still beauty in this world. And it was worth fighting for.”
― Ryan Graudin, Wolf by Wolf

“Yes, Luka Löwe was a National Socialist, but he was different on the inside.”
― Ryan Graudin, Wolf by Wolf

“A different voice slid through the speakers now--his voice. The one that raised armies, toppled kingdoms. The one that sent the entire stadium into a hush. Even the raindrops hung back in the sky; the air cleared into a spitting drizzle.”
― Ryan Graudin, Wolf by Wolf

“Once upon a different time, there was a girl who lived in a kingdom of death. Wolves howled up her arm. A whole pack of them—made of tattoo ink and pain, memory and loss. It was the only thing about her that ever stayed the same. Her story begins on a train.”
― Ryan Graudin, Wolf by Wolf

“Not alone. It was a cruel irony that this was the message she had been chosen to deliver. She, the loneliest of all. The girl without a people. Without a face. The girl who was no one. Who could be everyone.”
― Ryan Graudin, Wolf by Wolf

“Her loss was larger than that . . . but four + one was a number she could remember. A number she could handle without letting the vastness of it pick her to pieces like a crab's ragged claws. Scavenging death on the ocean floor. Sometimes (usually) there was nothing left for grief to feed on. Yael was a bare-bones blank slate. A hanger that held a cloth of pretty skin.
Who are you? (On the inside?)”
― Ryan Graudin, Wolf by Wolf

“You look like you've seen a ghost, Fraulein.''

If only Luka knew how right he was. Not one ghost. Hundreds. Thousands. There was not enough sadness, enough anger, enough her for numbers like that.”
― Ryan Graudin, Wolf by Wolf

“Babushka- the one who gave her purpose.
Mama- the one who gave her life.
Miriam- the one who gave her freedom.
Aaron-Klaus- the one who gave her a mission.
Vlad- the one who gave her pain.

These were the names she whispered in the dark.
These were the pieces she brought back into place.
These were the wolves she rode to war.”
― Ryan Graudin, Wolf by Wolf

“Babushka- the one who gave her purpose.
Mana- the one who gave her life.
Miriam- the one who gave her freedom.
Aaron-Klaus- the one who gave her a mission.
Vlad- the one who gave her pain.

These were the names she whispered in the dark.
These were the pieces she brought back into place.
These were the wolves she rode to war.”
― Ryan Graudin, Wolf by Wolf

“1. babushka - the one who gave her purpose.
2. Mama - the one who gave her life.
3. Miriam - the one who gave her reedom.
4. Aaron-Klaus - the one who gave her a mission.
5. Vlad - the one who gave her pain.

These were the names she whispered in the dark.
These were the pieces she brought back into place.
These were the wolves she rode to war.”
― Ryan Graudin, Wolf by Wolf

“It wasn't just becoming strong. It was about becoming not weak. And this process was something else entirely.”
― Ryan Graudin, Wolf by Wolf

“Why is this night different from all other nights?
This was a question from another time, another place, but it rose up in Yael now, as she stood at the entrance to the ballroom. Met with an answer from the wholeness of herself.
Tonight death is at Hitler's door. And I am the one to bear it. I have always been the one to bear it.”
― Ryan Graudin, Wolf by Wolf

“This is how empires crumble. This is how tyrants fall. Like everyone else.”
― Ryan Graudin, Wolf by Wolf

“I’ll be watching you on the Reichssender. Our hope goes with you, Volchitsa.” Yael tried to swallow the partisan’s words, nod them away with her good-bye. But they clung, digging their needle claws into her shoulders. Hope. A strange word. In her past, it had been a light, wispy thing. Crushed as easily as a finger under a guard’s boot. But now… now hope weighed so much, as if the Colosseum itself had collapsed on top of her. Mortar and suffering. Brick and time.”
― Ryan Graudin, Wolf by Wolf