Greywaren Quotes

“Neither Ronan nor Adam had been trained in the difficult and nuanced art of having a future. They had only ever learned the art of surviving the past.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Greywaren

“You were the story I chose for myself.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Greywaren

“ Tamquam, said Ronan, and Adam said, Alter idem.
Cicero had written the phrase about Atticus, his dearest friend. Qui est tamquam alter idem. Like a second self.
Ronan and Adam couldn’t hug, because they had no real arms, but it didn’t matter. Their energy darted and mingled and circled, the brilliant bright of the sweetmetals and the absolute dark of the Lace. They didn’t speak, but they didn’t have to. Audible words were redundant when their thoughts were tangled together as one. Without any clumsiness of language, they shared their euphoria and their lurking fears. They rehashed what they had done to each other and apologized. They showed everything they had done and that had been done to them in the time since they’d last seen each other—the good and the bad, the horrid and the wonderful. Everything had felt so murky for so long, but when they were like this, all that was left was clarity. Again and again they spiraled around and through one another, not Ronan-and-Adam but rather one entity that held both of them. They were happy and sad, angry and forgiven, they were wanted, they were wanted, they were wanted.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Greywaren

“All this time, the biggest lie Declan had told himself was that he hated his father.
What he’d really meant, every time he thought it, every single day, was: I miss him.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Greywaren

“Love had changed the situation. Niall didn't yet love the strange, dangerous child, but he loved Declan, and Declan loved Ronan. So Ronan lived.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Greywaren

“And finally, after nearly everyone had gone to bed, Ronan and Adam lay on their backs on one of the roofs and watched the stars get brighter. Without taking his eyes off the sky, Ronan reached out his hand to Adam to offer him something. It was a ring. Without taking his eyes off the sky, Adam put it on.
They sighed. The stars moved overhead. The world felt enormous, both past and future, with their slender present hovering in the middle.
It was all very good.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Greywaren

“He’d dreamt that watch for Adam when he left for Harvard. It was the closest he could come to a love letter; the language of affection had never felt right to Ronan. Clumsy. Overblown. False. Ronan speaking the language of another country, vocabulary learned from watching films on YouTube. But the watch—the watch told the time for whatever time zone Ronan was in, and it said exactly what Ronan meant to say.
Think of where I am, it said. Think of me.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Greywaren

“Ronan and his friend Gansey stood on the back porch, leaning on the railing, watching the psychics giggling as they placed the flowers for the ceremony. Every so often, Ronan threw a cheese cube stolen from a snack tray at Chainsaw, whose claw marks scarred the railing.
“You want one of these?” Gansey asked. He gestured with his chin to indicate it. The all of it. The wedding.
“Yeah,” said Ronan. “I think so.”
“Well that’s a relief,” Gansey said.
“How do you figure?”
“I asked Adam and he said the same thing.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Greywaren

“There was a strange sort of magic to being a person holding another person after not being held by someone for a long time. There was another strange sort of magic to understanding you'd been using words and silence the wrong way for a long time.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Greywaren

“And on the seventh day, the Lynch brothers discovered they were friends once more.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Greywaren

“Declan was there. He was curled just next to Ronan, an arm draped over his side. They thought he was sleeping, but when Niall’s foot set off a floorboard’s squeal, his eyes came straight open. He looked at his parents so directly that they squirmed, consciences guilty. But of course Declan didn’t know- that was simply his ordinary expression, even as a little kid.
“He was lonely,” Declan explained.
“How do you know?” Niall asked.
Declan carefully moved away from the child to join his parents. “He was crying”
Niall put his hand in Declan’s curls, trying to sound light, unfettered. “I didn’t hear anything.”
Declan’s voice was somewhat haughty. “He was very quiet about it.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Greywaren

“It can be a powerful thing, to know one isn't alone.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Greywaren

“ Magic. It’s a cheap word now. Put a quarter in the slot and get a magic trick for you and your friends. Most people don’t remember what it is. It is not cutting a person in half and pulling a rabbit out. It is not sliding a card from your sleeve. It’s not are you watching closely?
If you’ve ever looked into a fire and been unable to look away, it’s that. If you’ve ever looked at the mountains and found you’re not breathing, it’s that. If you’ve ever looked at the moon and stars and felt tears in your eyes, it’s that.
It’s the stuff between stars, the space between roots, the thing that makes electricity get up in the morning.
It fucking hates us.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Greywaren

“Introductory paragraph incorporating the thesis: After a challenging childhood marked by adversity, Adam Parrish has become a successful freshman at Harvard University. In the past, he had spent his time doubting himself, fearing he would become like his father, obsessing that others could see his trailer-park roots, and idealizing wealth, but now he has built a new future where no one has to know where he's come from. Before becoming a self-actualized young man at Harvard, Adam had been deeply fascinated by the concept of the ley lines and also supernaturally entangled with one of the uncanny forests located along one, but he has now focused on the real world, using only the ghost of magic to fleece other students with parlor trick tarot card readings. He hasn't felt like himself for months, but he is going to be just fine.

Followed by three paragraphs with information that supports the thesis. First: Adam understands that suffering is often transient, even when it feels permanent. This too shall pass, etc. Although college seems like a lifetime, it is only four years. Four years is only a lifetime if one is a guinea pig.

Second paragraph, building on the first point: Magic has not always been good for Adam. During high school, he frequently immersed himself in it as a form of avoidance. Deep down, he fears that he is prone to it as his father is prone to abuse, and that it will eventually make him unsuitable for society. By depriving himself of magic, he forces himself to become someone valuable to the unmagic world, i.e. the Crying Club.

Third paragraph, with the most persuasive point: Harvard is a place Ronan Lynch cannot be, because he cannot survive there, either physically or socially. Without such hard barriers, Adam will surely continue to return to Ronan Lynch again and again, and thus fall back in with bad habits. He will never achieve the life of financial security and recognition he planned.

Thesis restated, bringing together all the information to prove it: Although life is unbearable now, and Adam Parrish seems to have lost everything important to him in the present by pursuing the things important to him in the past, he will be fine.

Concluding paragraph describing what the reader just learned and why it is important for them to have learned it: He will be fine. He will be fine. He will be fine. He will be fine.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Greywaren

“Love was one of this species’ weapons. It had so many hooks: the knowledge it was conditional, the desire to believe it was real.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Greywaren

“God had not yet answered, but Ronan respected the reticence. Fathers were not always there. They had other things to do.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Greywaren

“He thought of how he would never again feel powerless, because he wasn’t going to lie to himself anymore, hiding from the truth just because he was afraid of taking on the decisions himself, afraid of being wrong.
He was Greywaren, and he belonged in both worlds.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Greywaren

“It could not just be mundanity and humans, because that felt wrong, like he had been made for something different, like he would always be seeking something more but never finding it.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Greywaren

“There was a time when it would have made Hennessy feel bad to see how gratefully Ronan’s face was pressed into Adam’s neck. To see how Adam’s face just wore a raw relief, a peace, as he held onto Ronan, his eyes open and gazing up into the blue sky. To see Ronan finally say something into his ear and Adam close his eyes and sigh.
But not now.
Now she said, “When I look at moments like this, two men in love, reunited against all odds,their feelings so pure, their commitment so deep that they’ll literally cross space-time for each other, all I can really think is: I can’t believe how these two blokes will owe Jordan Hennessy for the rest of their fucking lives.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Greywaren

“Dudifer, you are saddest dude I have ever met.” Matthew told him. “It’s like you’re always wet. Seems to me that if I had to learn to be sad, you have to learn to be happy. Why don’t you draw a, I dunno, chinchilla or something, instead of that, uh, thing. Not that its not good.” ”What’s a chinchilla?” “You’re sort of a funny person,” Matthew told him. “You know a lot of stuff but you’re also pretty stupid.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Greywaren

“Whoa, whoa, whoa' said Hennessy. 'Pump the brakes, as the Pope would say”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Greywaren

“He and Matthew would be talking about something entirely different and then suddenly Bryde would break off and be all "consciousness is a map to every place we have ever been and will be and yet no one here will consult it and thus is lost" and Matthew would ask, "Have you ever read anything about clinical depression?”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Greywaren

“The second thing he noticed was the rat. He'd had a long debate with Matthew about rats, back at the DC town house they'd shared a lifetime ago, because Matthew had wanted one. As a pet. Declan had said Matthew wouldn't want one if he'd seen a city rat. Matthew had replied the only thing that was different about a city rat was that no one loved it.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Greywaren

“As before, his consciousness floated above his physical form, and he found, now, that he was quite sentimental about his human body. Look at that poor asshole lying on that packed dirt, look how lovingly tattooed his skin was, each mark a small confirmation that even though it felt like he hated his life and body, deep down, he wanted to keep it, to redecorate the place to his own liking.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Greywaren

“He made up the task of guarding the world, which meant nothing to him, instead of guarding his family, which meant everything to him.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Greywaren

“…what amazed Matthew about the punch was the fact that it appeared at all. The fact that his hand made a fist and the fist took a journey and the journey ended on Declan’s face. The punch knocked Declan right off the stool and onto his back on the tile floor, fancy brogues pointing at the ceiling light. It knocked the breath right out of him (Matthew heard it) and it knocked the car keys right out of his pocket (Matthew saw it). A second later, his spilled coffee cup rolled off the counter and joined him on the floor with a clatter. It amazed Matthew that his hand, right after punching Declan, snatched the car keys off the floor. It was like he was a whole different person. It was like he was Ronan. “How do you like it?!” Matthew shouted daringly.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Greywaren

“Ronan Lynch was becoming a jagged, shaggy horror of a thing. She could feel the same wordless dread that the Lace invoked rising in her.

Hennessy hugged him.

She didn't even know where the impulse came from. She was not a sentimental hugger. She had not been hugged as a child, unless the hug was being emotionally weaponized for later. And Ronan Lynch did not seem like the sort of person who would care about getting a hug. Giving someone care and receiving it were two unrelated actions.

At first it did not seem to do anything.

Ronan kept screaming. The hug had not made him appear more human. He seemed more like Bryde than ever--and not Bryde when he was his most man-shaped. He just seemed like a dream entity that hated everything.

"Ronan Lynch, you asshole," Hennessy said.

Once, he'd hugged her. At the time, she had thought it didn't help, but she'd been wrong.

So she held on now, and kept holding on, though he became even less recognizable as Ronan Lynch for a little bit. Then, after a while, the scream gave way to quiet.

She could feel his body quivering. Like a pencil sketch, it conveyed misery with the smallest of gestures.

And then there was nothing at all, just stillness.

Finally, she realized he was hugging her, too, tightly.

There was a strange sort of magic to being a person holding another person after not being held by someone for a long time. There was another strange sort of magic to understand you'd been using words and silence the wrong way for a long time.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Greywaren

“A startlingly clear memory jolted through Ronan, as fresh as the moment he'd lived it. It was the day Ronan had first come to Harvard to surprise Adam, back when he still thought he was moving to Cambridge. He'd been so full of anticipation for how the reveal would go and then, in the end, they'd walked right past each other.

At the time, Ronan had thought it was because Adam looked so different after his time away. He was dressed differently. He held himself differently. He'd even lost his accent. And he'd assumed it had felt the same to Adam; Ronan had gotten older, lonelier, sharper.

But now they were in this strange sea, and neither of them looked anything like the Adam Parrish and Ronan Lynch the other had known. Adam was a collection of thoughts barely masquerading as a human form. Ronan Lynch was raw dark energy, alien and enormous.

And yet when Adam's consciousness touched his, Ronan recognized him. It was Adam's footsteps on the stairs. His surprised whoop as he catapulted into the pond they'd dug. The irritation in his voice; the impatience of his kiss; his ruthless, dry sense of humor; his biting pride; his ferocious loyalty. It was all caught up in this essential form that had nothing to do with how his physical body looked.

The difference between this reunion and the one at Harvard was that there in Cambridge they had been false. They'd both been wearing masks upon masks, hiding the truth of themselves from everyone, including themselves. Here, there was no way to hide. They were only their thoughts. Only the truth.

"Ronan, Ronan, it is you. I did it. I found you. With just a sweetmetal, I found you."

Ronan didn't know if Adam had thought it or said it, but it didn't matter. The joy was unmistakable.

"Tamquam," said Ronan, and Adam said, "Alter idem."

Cicero had written the phrase about Atticus, his dearest friend. Qui est tamquam alter idem. Like a second self.

Ronan and Adam could not hug, because they had no real arms, but it didn't matter. Their energy darted and mingled and circled, the brilliant bright of the sweetmetals and the absolute dark of the Lace. They didn't speak, but they didn't have to. Audible words were redundant when their thoughts were tangled together as one. Without any of the clumsiness of language, they shared their euphoria and their lurking fears. They rehashed what they had done to each other and apologized. They showed everything they had done and that had been done to them in the time since they'd last seen each other--the good and the bad, the horrid and the wonderful. Everything had felt so murky for so long, but when they were like this, all that was left was clarity. Again and again they spiraled around and through one another, not Ronan-and-Adam but rather one entity that held both of them. They were happy and sad, angry and forgiven, they were wanted, they were wanted, they were wanted.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Greywaren

“I’m crafting a denial in my head,” said Hennessy. “It’s very witty and convincing. Give me just a second.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Greywaren

“This paradise, this summer, it had been a dream. One didn’t integrate dreams into waking life. One went away, woke up, and then returned to the dream only at night. They were separate.
“I know I’m going,” Adam said, repeating the thing he’d said over and over, “but I’ll always come back, as long as you’re here.”
“I’ll be here,” Ronan said. “I’ll always be here.”
They kept saying it. The less true it felt, the more they said it.
Magic is about intention. So are conversations.”
― Maggie Stiefvater, Greywaren