The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea Quotes

“There’s freedom in stories, you know. We read them and we become something else. We imagine different lives, and while we turn the pages, we get to live them. To escape the lot we’re given.”
― Maggie Tokuda-Hall, The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea

“Yes, she was an orphan, a sister, a pirate, a girl, and also a boy. But more importantly, she was a person who sought power to protect those she loved. Including herself. Or himself. Both were equally true to her. Neither told the whole story.”
― Maggie Tokuda-Hall, The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea

“She was not a creature of courage, but she was one of spite.”
― Maggie Tokuda-Hall, The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea

“Love does not work in convenience. Or any kind of sense.”
― Maggie Tokuda-Hall, The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea

“Magic was at its core, she said, a kind of madness. It was a willingness to look at the corporeal world and to see it only as the story up to that point. That everything that followed could be changed. Rocks fell because the belief that they would fall was so strong. But that belief wasn’t binding. It didn’t have to be binding anyway. For a price.”
― Maggie Tokuda-Hall, The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea

“After that, she wondered, how improper was it — really — to slap a man in the face for staring?”
― Maggie Tokuda-Hall, The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea

“There are those who are neither a man nor a woman. Those who were born and called the wrong gender and must reshape their story for those around them. But you. You’re something else. You’re whatever is safe. Both, maybe, but not neither. Or interchangeable. Names are funny things, because they can feel like lies but tell our truths.”
― Maggie Tokuda-Hall, The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea

“Mermaid caught
Returned to Sea
By witch taught
To be free

Two souls bound
By love, by knife
True love found
Restored to life

Two souls fight
For love, to be
True love's might
To save the Sea”
― Maggie Tokuda-Hall, The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea

“It was her mother's gift to them both... They had earned it. Together.”
― Maggie Tokuda-Hall, The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea

“She promised herself that when she breathed free once more, she would see these men ruined.”
― Maggie Tokuda-Hall, The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea

“We don’t just read to imagine better lives. We read to be introduced to all kinds of lives. Any kind. Not just for ourselves, but for everyone around us. To understand others better. It’s escape, and it’s also a way to become more connected to everyone around you. There’s power in that, you know. In understanding. It’s like magic.”
― Maggie Tokuda-Hall, The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea

“There’s freedom in stories, you know. We read them and we become something else. We imagine different lives, and while we turn the pages, we get to live them. To escape the lot we’ve been given.”
― Maggie Tokuda-Hall, The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea

“She was not a creature of courage, but she was one of spite. This one little rebellion would sate that, at least.”
― Maggie Tokuda-Hall, The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea

“But He was not listening, not really. He simply waited expectantly in that way men sometimes did when waiting for their chance to talk.”
― Maggie Tokuda-Hall, The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea

“Love does not work in terms of convenience. Or any kind of sense.”
― Maggie Tokuda-Hall, The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea

“Disappointment rose in her throat, and she felt suddenly that she wanted to cry. Which was pathetic, of course. She was pathetic. That she thought she could just mince onto this boat and force a sailor into lessons was so arrogant and foolish. She was as worthless as her parents had so rightly noticed. She took in a breath and tried to steady herself against her own burning humiliation.”
― Maggie Tokuda-Hall, The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea

“There's nothing out there to punish evil, no one out there to reward the righteous. We're all just adrift.”
― Maggie Tokuda-Hall, The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea

“No, better. Stories. There’s freedom in stories, you know. We read them and we become something else. We imagine different lives, and while we turn the pages, we get to live them. To escape the lot we’ve been given.”
― Maggie Tokuda-Hall, The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea

“If Florian was the wall that guarded Flora, then Evelyn had scaled his heights.”
― Maggie Tokuda-Hall, The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea

“Corsets are stupid.”
― Maggie Tokuda-Hall, The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea

“Guard, you said. Whatever. I don't need guarding, but I do love reading and I feel like - since you must like stories, right? - you would, too, if you give it a shot.”
― Maggie Tokuda-Hall, The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea

“How upset he must be, that this one time the world did not grant him his heart's desire on his first request.”
― Maggie Tokuda-Hall, The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea

“Only an Imperial man would go to such lengths for something he wasn't even sure he wanted. Only an Imperial man would be so confounded by not having gotten what he wanted with ease. How upset he must be, that this one time the world did not grant him his heart's desire on his first request.”
― Maggie Tokuda-Hall, The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea

“He smiled broadly, the easily confident smile of a young man entitled to the world. What a slappable face he had. She would enjoy that. Or, better, waking him up in the middle of the night, marching him for an hour in the cold with no shoes on, and then reminding him to be polite. Evelyn said nothing, and the lieutenant nodded at his men, who led Evelyn into her future husband’s keep.”
― Maggie Tokuda-Hall, The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea

“Rich people love books.”
― Maggie Tokuda-Hall, The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea

“For that was what magic was - it was understanding the truth of something, and then changing it. Reality, Xenobia said, was created by belief, and as such even its most fundamental trappings could be altered.”
― Maggie Tokuda-Hall, The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea

“In the morning, she left a large gold coin in her wake, more money, she knew, than a man like him had likely seen in his life. It would not assuage his sadness, but it would keep him warm.”
― Maggie Tokuda-Hall, The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea

“Yes," he said. His eyes were alight with desire. But he was not listening, not really. He simply waited expectantly in that way men sometimes did when waiting for their chance to talk." p270”
― Maggie Tokuda-Hall, The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea

“It did not do to fear Death, only to welcome it.”
― Maggie Tokuda-Hall, The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea

“I sat there with that dead boy's head in my lap, the smell of his death around me, and I cut off his ears. First his right and then his left.”
― Maggie Tokuda-Hall, The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea