A Crane Among Wolves Quotes

“If by any chance we do not meet again in this lifetime, then I will find you in the next—or as many lifetimes as it takes to see you again.”
― June Hur, A Crane Among Wolves

“We mortals exist for but a season, and yet we love as though we are bound by eternity.”
― June Hur, A Crane Among Wolves

“So long as you live, we’ll have the rest of our lives to find each other again. And I will find you again. I promise.”
― June Hur, A Crane Among Wolves

“You would brave a life with me?"
"I would brave this life," I murmured against him, "and a thousand more.”
― June Hur, A Crane Among Wolves

“You will not always be the wisest, nor the strongest, nor the bravest. That is why we need friends. They will guide you down the right path, no matter how dark it grows.”
― June Hur, A Crane Among Wolves

“Tell me to leave,” he urged me desperately. I knew I ought to bid him farewell, yet my hands would not release his sleeve. “And if I do not?” After a long, tense moment, he leaned in, pressing his forehead gently against the curve of my shoulder. “Then I will be yours,” he confessed, his voice a soft caress, “and I shall be your ruin.”
― June Hur, A Crane Among Wolves

“There are too many sorrows in life to feel each too deeply.”
― June Hur, A Crane Among Wolves

“Tomorrow, the kingdom could sink into the sea. Tomorrow, all the elders we trusted could betray us. Tomorrow, the fog might consume everything we loved. But I had him today. And he had me.”
― June Hur, A Crane Among Wolves

“I am tired of being the elder sister, were the words within. When I expressed my objection for the first time today, Father gave me such a look of disappointment that I felt my entire world tremble. Why does he only see my disobedience, and not my desperate love for him? To live near home, to be close enough to care for my parents in their old age—I wish I could cry, I wish I could fall apart as little sister often does, and still be loved and understood. But I cannot. My parents do not love me when I am weak, when I fail them, when I err. Who am I, if I am not the perfect daughter?”
― June Hur, A Crane Among Wolves

“We were sisters. Two girls who shared pieces of each other, tied together by an unspoken bond, a warm feeling of attachment, that no amount of bickering could easily sever. We were sisters. Comrades born from the same womb.”
― June Hur, A Crane Among Wolves

“You look like a vengeful ghost," he murmured, adjusting the seat.
"And you are the sort I would furiously haunt for all eternity," Iseul retorted.”
― June Hur , A Crane Among Wolves

“To believe that life is far greater than this one wretched moment.”
― June Hur, A Crane Among Wolves

“In dark times, every mother becomes your mother, every child your child, every sister your sister, and every stranger-in-need a friend.”
― June Hur, A Crane Among Wolves

“I am just here until I am not. I do not think of one, five, or ten years in the future.”
― June Hur, A Crane Among Wolves

“Our kingdom is surrounded by the sea, yet I have never seen it…,” he confessed, grappling with every word. “I should like to stand before the very expanse that literati scholars have captured in their writings. To witness this vast eternity.” There was a beat of silence, and then he murmured under his breath, “To believe that life is far greater than this one wretched moment.”
― June Hur, A Crane Among Wolves

“The ones I loved most dragged me through the darkest of hours. Yet in the next life, I would still love them again.”
― June Hur, A Crane Among Wolves

“Because rape is about power; it is never about desire or love,” he answered quietly. “His Majesty is a power-hungry beast with a voracious hunger for more, and what better way to display that he reigns supreme than by taking what is precious to his own people? “But the more women he devours,” he continued, “the more starved he becomes. A thousand will not satiate him. And one day, should his dream come true, and he gains ten thousand … I fear he will only be hungrier than ever.”
― June Hur, A Crane Among Wolves

“History moves its course, Young Mistress Iseul, (...) but it is the youth who point the current in its direction.”
― June Hur, A Crane Among Wolves

“Hopefully in the next lifetime, we will meet again,” he said, glancing down at me. “And in kinder circumstances.” I gazed up and offered him a small smile. “I hope so, too.”
― June Hur, A Crane Among Wolves

“He fell quiet. The urge to shield his vulnerabilities was strong, but in the gentle glow of firelight, he found a rare sense of security. Or perhaps it was her presence.”
― June Hur, A Crane Among Wolves

“Go and move the heavens for her.”
― June Hur, A Crane Among Wolves

“Who am I, if I am not the perfect daughter?”
― June Hur, A Crane Among Wolves

“And when you find such a friend,” Wonsik continued, lowering the brim of his straw hat, “you fight for them, and they will fight for you. But alone, you will not survive in the capital. Either defeat or death will crush you, and you will never bring your sister home.”
― June Hur, A Crane Among Wolves

“For a long while, I remained still, taking in the weight of her existence. A weight that grounded my spirit. My sister, my sister, my sister. The words that had once felt as forgettably light as air now squeezed my heart tight. We were sisters. Two girls who shared pieces of each other, tied together by an unspoken bond, a warm feeling of attachment, that no amount of bickering could easily sever. We were sisters. Comrades born from the same womb. I glanced at Suyeon for the hundredth time, to convince myself that she was truly by my side. And when realization finally settled, memories unfurled of the long journey I had taken to reach her, of the kind strangers who had become my dearest friends along the way. Prince Daehyun. Yul. Wonsik…”
― June Hur, A Crane Among Wolves

“We were sisters. Two girls who shared pieces of each other, tied together by an unspoken bond, a warm feeling of attachment, that no amount of
bickering could easily sever. We were sisters. Comrades born from the same
womb.”
― June Hur, A Crane Among Wolves

“To those who have dared to be a beacon of light in the bleakest of moments”
― June Hur, A Crane Among Wolves

“Stay still! Do not provoke me,' I snapped, outrage and frustration choking me. 'Why is it so irrationally difficult for men to simply leave women alone?!”
― June Hur, A Crane Among Wolves

“I hope it crushes you, all your unfelt agony and sorrow.” I drew out my sharpest words. “And when you die,” I whispered, my stare unwavering from his, “I hope no one sheds a tear for you. Not that anyone would.”
― June Hur, A Crane Among Wolves

“All I desire,' he whispered, tenderly caressing her hair, 'is to live a peaceful and honorable life, and above all, to be remembered well by you once I'm gone. Then in the next life, perhaps, you will not pass me by.'

'I would never pass you by,' she replied softly. 'And should I find you first, I do hope you will not greet me with an arrow.”
― June Hur, A Crane Among Wolves

“Hopefully in the next lifetime, we will meet again," he said, glancing down at me. "And in kinder circumstances.”
― June Hur, A Crane Among Wolves