Franny Billingsley

“I may be wicked, but I'm not bad.”

— Franny Billingsley

“My, my,” said Eldric. “You are full of surprises.”

— Franny Billingsley

I’m not really the sacrificing type.

— Franny Billingsley

Death had no lips, but it was smiling

— Franny Billingsley

“It never ends, this business of being a lady.”

— Franny Billingsley

...if you don't argue, you can't give in...

— Franny Billingsley

Even a witch wants sympathy.

— Franny Billingsley

Eavesdropping is such a regular-person activity.

— Franny Billingsley

Witches don’t look like anything. Witches are. Witches do.

— Franny Billingsley

That’s where proper stories begin, don’t they, when the handsome stranger arrives and everything goes wrong?

— Franny Billingsley

A girl can have the face of an angel but have a horrid sort of heart.

— Franny Billingsley

Blast Cecil!” said Eldric. “You have my permission,” I said.

— Franny Billingsley

“Sometimes, of course, the sister’s the wicked one, not the stepmother.”

— Franny Billingsley

“I knew then the taste of true fear. It tastes of dark places deep in your stomach and holds you by the…

— Franny Billingsley

“I've confessed to everything and I'd liked to be hanged. Now, if you please.”

— Franny Billingsley

It's strange how a person can have a distinct distaste for herself, but still she clutches on to life.

— Franny Billingsley

If you say a word, it leaps out and becomes the truth. I love you. I believe it. I believe I am…

— Franny Billingsley

“A toast at your wedding, perhaps?” said Eldric. “I shall never get married,” I said. “But I do like champagne.”

— Franny Billingsley

It’s one thing if a person learns you’re a witch. It’s quite another if he learns you’re a murderer. I almost forget…

— Franny Billingsley

Secrets press inside a person. They press the way water presses at a dam. The secrets and the water, they both want…

— Franny Billingsley

Boxing’s not that straightforward,” said Eldric. “You can practice and practice, but the real experience will always be different. Lots of things…

— Franny Billingsley

I hope you don’t mind my joining you,” said Leanne. I minded. After all, she’d tried to kill me. A girl in…

— Franny Billingsley

“That's what stories do. They connect the random dots of life into a picture. But it's all an illusion. Just try to…

— Franny Billingsley

“You could write your way into happiness. It might not be the happiness you'd experience if Eldric pushed Leanne from a cliff,…

— Franny Billingsley

“Poor Cecil, consumed by a grande passion, only to be told to compress his love manifesto into a haiku. “I won’t try…

— Franny Billingsley

Guess what it is that turns plants to coal. Pressure. Guess what it is that turns limestone to marble. Pressure. Guess what…

— Franny Billingsley

When Rose takes to screaming, she starts loud, continues loud, and ends loud. Rose has a very good ear and always screams…

— Franny Billingsley

“How many bones did he set?" I cared about it much less than they did. It's my Florence Nightingale calm, I suppose.…

— Franny Billingsley

The handkerchief dabbed at my forehead. 'Ouch! You'll have a fine-looking bruise tomorrow.' 'Then you'll be able to distinguish me from Rose.'…

— Franny Billingsley

“Excellent fistibus," said Eldric, but he wasn't done with my hand. He inspected my left palm, the pucker of scars. "There's no…

— Franny Billingsley

We laughed a lot and I grew warmer still, lovely and warm. I do realize that some of that warmth was due…

— Franny Billingsley

“That girl was gone; wolfgirl had returned. Wolfgirl, who was leaf dance and moon claw and tooth gleam. When Jupiter sizzled the…

— Franny Billingsley

“Eldric turned away from the mirror, holding out his hand. In the cup of his hand lay his fidget of paper clips.…

— Franny Billingsley

“I grew up in a household that was filled with Scottish and Irish ballads. So I think that the complexity and the…

— Franny Billingsley

“More important for Chime were the ballads that my father sang me. I think that all of those ballads, the structure of…

— Franny Billingsley

“My writer friends and I talk about the kinds of writers we are and some of us are plungers and some of…

— Franny Billingsley

“When I was a kid, I just read and read. We were lucky enough to have gone to England and had a…

— Franny Billingsley

“Are those paper clips?' I'd seen them in catalogs, but the pictures don't do them justice. They're beautiful, in an industrial sort…

— Franny Billingsley

“The first meeting of the Fraternitus Bad-Boyificus was also to be my first fighting lesson. I made a fist and showed it…

— Franny Billingsley

“There’s such a thing as being irritatingly ethical,” said Eldric. “That’s you, right now.” That’s a pleasant change. Witches are rarely accused…

— Franny Billingsley