Maggie Stiefvater

Maggie Stiefvater in 2013

Maggie Stiefvater (born November 18, 1981) is an American writer of young-adult fiction, especially urban fantasy.

Quotes

The Raven Cycle Series

The Raven Boys (2012)

• Gansey had once told Adam that he was afraid most people didn't know how to handle Ronan. What he meant by this was that he was worried that one day someone would fall on Ronan and cut themselves.

• If I were a tree, I would have no reason to love a human.

• "I guess I make things that need energy stronger. I'm like a walking battery." "You're the table everyone wants at Starbucks," Gansey mused as he began to walk again. Blue blinked. "What?" Over his shoulder, Gansey said, "Next to the wall plug."
  • Blue and Gansey

• "We have to be back in three hours," Ronan said. "I just fed Chainsaw but she'll need it again." "This," Gansey replied "is precisely why I didn't want to have a baby with you.”
  • Ronan and Gansey

• He strode over to the ruined church. This, Blue had discovered, was how Gansey got places - striding. Walking was for ordinary people.
  • Blue, about Gansey

• "Gansey's partying with his mother," Ronan said. He smelled like beer. "And Noah's fucking dead. But Parrish is here"
  • Ronan, to Blue

• Aglionby Academy was the number one reason Blue had developed her two rules: One, stay away from boys because they were trouble. And two, stay away from Aglionby boys, because they were bastards.
  • Blue

The Dream Thieves (2013)

• His eyes were frighteningly alive, the curve of his mouth savage and pleased. It suddenly didn't seem at all surprising that he should be able to pull things from his dreams. In that moment, Blue was a little in love with all of them. Their magic. Their quest. Their awfulness and strangeness. Her raven boys.
  • Blue

• And Ronan was everything that was left: molten eyes and a smile made for war.
  • Prologue

• She wore a dress Ronan thought looked like a lampshade. Whatever sort of lamp it belonged on, Gansey clearly wished he had one. Ronan wasn't a fan of lamps.
  • Ronan, about Blue

• A secret is a strange thing. There are three kinds of secrets. One is the sort everyone knows about, the sort you need at least two people for. One to keep it. One to never know. The second is a harder kind of secret: one you keep from yourself. Every day, thousands of confessions are kept from their would-be confessors, none of these people knowing that their never-admitted secrets all boil down to the same three words: I am afraid. And then there is the third kind of secret, the most hidden kind. A secret no one knows about. Perhaps it was known once, but was taken to the grave. Or maybe it is a useless mystery, arcane and lonely, unfound because no one ever looked for it. Sometimes, some rare times, a secret stays undiscovered because it is something too big for the mind to hold. It is too strange, too vast, too terrifying to contemplate. All of us have secrets in our lives. We’re keepers or keptfrom, players or played. Secrets and cockroaches — that’s what will be left at the end of it all.

• "I am being perfectly fucking civil."
  • Ronan

• Dying's a boring side effect.
  • Joseph Kavinsky

• He was brother to a liar and brother to an angel, son of a dream and son of a dreamer.
  • About Ronan

• His second secret was Adam Parrish.
  • Ronan, on his crush.

Blue Lily, Lily Blue (2014)

• "This is the lady I spoke to on the phone all those months ago, right? How small she is. Are you done growing?"
  "What!" Blue said.
  Gansey felt it was time to remove Malory from the terminal.
  • pg 37

• As they moved through the old barn, Adam felt Ronan's eyes glance off him and away, his disinterest practised but incomplete. Adam wondered if anyone else noticed. Part of him wished they did and immediately felt bad, because it was vanity, really: See, Adam Parrish is wantable, worthy of a crush, not just by anyone, someone like Ronan, who could want Gansey or anyone else and chose Adam for his hungry eyes
  • pg 158

• "We are going so slow," Noah said, craning his neck to observe the inevitable queue behind them. "I think I just saw a tricycle pass us."
  "Rude."
  • Noah about Blue's driving
  • pg 175

• "You guys have a death list?" Ronan broke in. "That is fucking dark. Am I on it?"
  "Some days, I wish," Blue said.
  • pg 191

• She turned to Gansey.
  "Blue," he warned, but his voice was chaotic. This close, his throat was scented with mint and wool sweater and vinyl car seat, and Gansey, just Gansey. She said, "I just want to pretend. I want to pretend that I could."
  • pg 199-200

• She seemed to have neither sense of fullness nor taste, and would often combine foods in manners that struck Blue as problematic. She didn't believe in telling people how to live their lives (well, maybe a little), but it was hard to stand by and watch Gwenllian spread peanut butter on a cold hot dog.
  • pg 165-166

• Adam had turned down so many offers for help from Gansey. Money for school, money for food, money for rent. Pity and charity, Adam had thought. For so long, he'd wanted Gansey to see him as an equal, but it was possible that all this time, the only person who needed to see that was Adam.
  Now he could see that it wasn't charity Gansey was offering. It was just truth.
  And something else: friendship of the unshakable kind. Friendships you could swear on. That could be busted nearly to breaking and come stronger than before.
  • pg 296

• "Sorry," he said. "I was being sort of a dick."
  Noah replied, "We weren't going to say it."
  "I was," Blue said.
  • Adam to Noah and Blue
  • pg 312-313

The Raven King (2016)

• "Where the hell is Ronan?" Gansey asked, echoing the words that thousands of humans had uttered since mankind developed speech.
  • pg 15

• Gansey asked, "Do you have time to run an errand with us? Do you have work? Homework?"
  "No homework. I got suspended," Blue replied.
  "Get the fuck out," Ronan said, but with admiration. "Sargent, you asshole."
  Blue reluctantly allowed him to bump fists with her.
  • pg 47

• "Do you love him?" Maura asked curiously.
  "I'd rather not," Blue replied.
  "He has lots of negative qualities I can help you hone in on," her mother offered.
  "I'm already aware of them. Infinitely."
  • pg 82

• "It was not my finest moment," Henry said. "My car and I have since made amends."
  "His electric car," Gansey inserted with subtlety, in case Blue had missed the environmental ramifications.
  Blue narrowed her eyes at Gansey and then pointed out, "You could bike to Aglionby from here."
  Henry wagged a finger. "True, true. But it is important to practise safe bicycling, and they have not yet made a helmet to accommodate my hair."
  • pg 137

• His feelings for Adam were an oil spill; he'd let them overflow and now there wasn't a damn place in the ocean that wouldn't catch fire if he dropped a match.
  • Ronan about Adam
  • pg 141

• It was this,: the future hanging heavy in the air, and Henry starting a quiet, drunk conversation about whether or not Blue would like to travel to Venezuela with him. Blue replying softly that she would, she very much would, and Gansey hearing the longing in her voice like he was being undone, like his own feelings were unbearably mirrored. I cant come? Gansey asked. Yes, you can meet us there in a fancy plane, Henry said. Don't be fooled by his fancy hair, Blue interjected, Gansey would hike. And warmth filled the empty caverns in Gansey's heart. He felt known.
  • pg 155

• Blue said, "I can't get in this car. Do you know what's happening behind me? I don't even want to look."
  Henry said, "How about you give me the finger and shout at me now and withdraw with your principles?" He smiled winningly and held up three fingers. He counted to two with devil horns.
  "This is incredibly unnecessary," Blue told him, but she could feel herself smiling.
  "Life's a show," he replied. He counted one with his middle finger, and then his face melted into exaggerated shock.
  Blue shouted, "Drop dead, you bastard!"
  "FINE!" Henry screamed back, with slightly more hysteria than the role required. He attempted to squeal out of the lot, stopped to take off the parking brake, and then limped out more sedately."
  • pg 234

• Once when Adam had still lived in the trailer park, he had been pushing the lawn mower around the straggly side yard when he realized that it was raining a mile away. He could smell it, the earthy scent of rain on dirt, but also the electric, restless smell of ozone. And he could see it: a hazy sheet of water blocking his view of the mountains. He could track the line of rain travelling across the vast dry field towards him. It was heavy and dark, and he knew he would get drenched if he stayed outside. It was coming from so far away that he had plenty of time to put the mower away and get under cover. Instead, though, he just stood there. he closed his eyes and let the storm soak him.
  That was this kiss.
  • pg 242-243