Matilda

“I think they have to show their worst selves sometimes in order to be sure that even at their worst they are loved. Irene knows how frightened he is."

The King didn't sound frightened.

"Any minute," said Eddis, "he will realise--"
As if her words were magic, silence fell in the tent and Eddis finished in a whisper. "How frightened she is.”
― Megan Whalen Turner, Return of the Thief

“You live your life, and then at the end you have to look back on it. You can either accept it or you can’t, but either way, you die with it behind you.”
― Jeffrey Cranor, You Feel It Just Below the Ribs

“All I can say is that it was complicated back in Canaan House, and sometimes a cute older girl shows you a lot of attention, because she’s bored or whatever, and you sort of have this maybe-flirting maybe-not thing going on, right, and then it turns out she’s an ancient warrior who’s killed all your friends and she’s coming for you, and then you both die and she turns up ages later in the broiling heat on a sacred space station and like, it’s complicated. Just saying that it happens all the time.”
― Tamsyn Muir, Harrow the Ninth

“We’re all in this together,’ she said, which was a typically Fifth assumption. The Ninth didn’t think anyone was in anything together, or, if they were, they all had to disperse as soon as humanly possible to avoid splash damage.”
― Tamsyn Muir, Harrow the Ninth