A Council of Dolls Quotes

“...I learned that we can't heal the story by changing the plot, pretending the awful stuff didn't happen. Tragedy just breaks out somewhere else along the line. The story won't heal until the players do.”
― Mona Susan Power, A Council of Dolls

“Survival is never a waste... Remember what you told me one time, how you felt your main job some years was to stay alive? Well, you did your job, you made it through. Not everyone does. It takes fortitude.”
― Mona Susan Power, A Council of Dolls

“You can put ideas on and off just like moccasins. You can wear them and set them aside, hold onto those you find meaningful. Don't be afraid of learning something beyond what we're able to teach you. Even the wisest person doesn't know everything. But it's also important to preserve the ideas that make sense to you, even in the face of resistance--someone telling you that you're wrong and only they know the truth. Such boasting is evidence of a fool, perhaps a dangerous one.”
― Mona Susan Power, A Council of Dolls

“The point is that even in difficult times, see how the light is always working to come in. Don’t forget to notice.”
― Mona Susan Power, A Council of Dolls

“My father says that we should welcome all stories to see if they are worth remembering. “You can put ideas on and off just like moccasins. You can wear them and set them aside, hold on to those you find meaningful. Don’t be afraid of learning something beyond what we’re able to teach you. Even the wisest person doesn’t know everything. But it’s also important to preserve the ideas that make sense to you, even in the face of resistance—someone telling you that you’re wrong and only they know the truth. Such boasting is evidence of a fool, perhaps a dangerous one.”
― Mona Susan Power, A Council of Dolls

“Maybe we should dance and dream and pray for the good of everything in the world because we’re meant to restore it together.”
― Mona Susan Power, A Council of Dolls

“The dolls have spoken. They tell me they did their best to heal the ones they love. But always they failed because even the medicine of love can't change what is broken. It's up to us to transform the story we're living. Though you have powerful business here. You can make your story whatver you want.”
― Mona Susan Power, A Council of Dolls: A Novel

“In two generations of one family, we lost the ability to think in words other English. This loss reshaped our minds. English has its grand beauty . . . but it also has its agenda. Dakota is a missing piece for me in my quest to be whole.”
― Mona Susan Power, A Council of Dolls

“But when you harbor an inner script that treats you like the enemy, it doesn't allow you to soar for very long. Doubts nibble at the edges of your thoughts until they're the only voice left. Imposter syndrome secures its triumph and ushers in an era of self-sabotage. Then the carnival shuts down, packs up, moves to another town. And you're alone, hiding in the dark.”
― Mona Susan Power, A Council of Dolls

“We are a threat to wašíču designs. For them, there is no such thing as enough.”
― Mona Susan Power, A Council of Dolls

“Remember what you told me one time, how you felt your main job some years was to stay alive? Well, you did your job, you made it through. Not everyone does. It takes fortitude.”
― Mona Susan Power, A Council of Dolls: A Novel

“Sometimes when you lose a lot you have to put your heart away to keep it ticking.”
― Mona Susan Power, A Council of Dolls

“How when a dream comes true you have to feel deserving or else it brings only guilt and shame.”
― Mona Susan Power, A Council of Dolls

“They like you to perform because to them, it’s a trick. They think when we learn from them and their books it’s like we’re a puppy you can make bow or dance on its back legs. They look at us like fractions. We’re fractions, not whole as them.”
― Mona Susan Power, A Council of Dolls

“we can’t heal the story by changing the plot, pretending the awful stuff didn’t happen. Tragedy just breaks out somewhere else along the line. The story won’t heal until the players do.”
― Mona Susan Power, A Council of Dolls

“Don’t be afraid of learning something beyond what we’re able to teach you. Even the wisest person doesn’t know everything. But it’s also important to preserve the ideas that make sense to you, even in the face of resistance—someone telling you that you’re wrong and only they know the truth. Such boasting is evidence of a fool, perhaps a dangerous one.”
― Mona Susan Power, A Council of Dolls

“When Winona whispered her memories to me in later years, she said that Whitestone Hill was the day the world ended. I never asked what she meant, how the world could be gone when the sun was still in the sky and my parents alive. I felt such a question would diminish her pain, which was clear to see from the stain of ancient tears trailing her indigo eyes.”
― Mona Susan Power, A Council of Dolls

“Shame invades one's thoughts like a parasite, twists them like wet laundry until all sense is wrung out.”
― Mona Susan Power, A Council of Dolls