Robin McKinley

Charlie is one of the big good guys in my universe.

— Robin McKinley

Vampire. Dangerous. Unknowable. Seriously creepy. This one's name was Constantine. We'd met before.

— Robin McKinley

The insides of our own minds are the scariest things there are.

— Robin McKinley

The Lone Ranger of vampires. Did that make me Tonto?

— Robin McKinley

Sometimes it is better not to know. Sometimes when you do know you just fold up.

— Robin McKinley

He didn't look insane or inhuman. He did look uncooperative.

— Robin McKinley

“Despair was a private weakness she could not afford to indulge.”

— Robin McKinley

the touch of evil poisons by the idea of it. Reject the idea, and you've rejected the evil

— Robin McKinley

“Dogs are very comforting when your world has exploded.”

— Robin McKinley

“But he hated to see his people people unhappy--because he was a good king, not because he was a nervous one--”

— Robin McKinley

“What this world doesn't have is the three-wishes, go-to-the-ball-and-meet-your-prince, happily-ever-after kind of magic. We have all the mangling and malevolent kinds. Who…

— Robin McKinley

I wondered what you'd have on the side with a plate of Deep Fried Anxiety. Pickles? Coleslaw? Potato-strychnine mash?

— Robin McKinley

“So when a dragon is directly over you, well, even if you're me and you're kind of used to it, your medulla…

— Robin McKinley

But it was equally clear to her that this was her fate, that she had called its name and it had come…

— Robin McKinley

Then marry me. For I love you, and I do not believe there is anything so wrong with you. You are fair…

— Robin McKinley

“She had always suffered from a vague restlessness, a longing for adventure that she told herself severely was the result of reading…

— Robin McKinley

I said: "He cannot be so bad if he loves roses so much." "But he is a Beast," said Father helplessly. I…

— Robin McKinley

“She had not meant to name them, but she could not help herself; and having done so she thought, Let their names…

— Robin McKinley

People forgot; it was in the nature of people to forget, to blur boundaries, to retell stories to come out the way…

— Robin McKinley

The great thing about fantasy is that you can drag dreams and longings and hopes and fears and strivings out of your…

— Robin McKinley

“The merrel also knew its wing had not healed. But I could reach a great height once more before it failed me,…

— Robin McKinley

“No wonder he'd never really finished becoming one of us. We just thought it was because he was half Japanese, and lived…

— Robin McKinley

She, too, spoke only when the queen or king addressed her first, but she looked searchingly at every supplicant, and her clear…

— Robin McKinley

Cats were often familiars to workers of magic because to anyone used to wrestling with self-willed, wayward, devious magic--which was what all…

— Robin McKinley

“The Pavilion did not burn by lightening," she said. He hesitated again. "It holds the memory of fire," he said at last.…

— Robin McKinley

“I want no presents from the Beast,” said Father. “Is he trying to buy us off? Let him take his rich gifts…

— Robin McKinley

“Cats were often familiars to workers of magic because to anyone used to wrestling with self-willed, wayward, devious magic—which was what all…

— Robin McKinley

“One of the biggest, and possibly the biggest, obstacle to becoming a writer... is learning to live with the fact that the…

— Robin McKinley

“Her fingers crawled upwards and touched the outer curve of her breast, and the fingers paused, quaking in fear; but after the…

— Robin McKinley

“There are stories about "good" vampires like there are stories about the loathly lady who, after a hearty meal of raw horse…

— Robin McKinley

“Rosie hated her curly golden hair. When she was old enough to hold minimal conversations, the itsy-bitsy-cutesycoo sort of grown-ups would pull…

— Robin McKinley

“Vampires do breathe, by the way, but their chests don't move like humans'. Have you ever lain in the arms of your…

— Robin McKinley

“She caught her father one day at breakfast, between ministers with tactical problems and councillors with strategic ones. His face lit up…

— Robin McKinley

Can you trust me, he said. Not will you. Can you. Can I trust him? What do I have to lose?

— Robin McKinley

With the knowledge of her aloneness came a rush of self-declaration: I will not be nothing.

— Robin McKinley

I said with perfect honest, "I have no intention of trying to take these suckers out by myself, no.

— Robin McKinley

“Stop it. This is me, remember? We've been thrown up by the same puppies.”

— Robin McKinley

It is a much more straightforward thing to be a dog, and a dog's love, once given, is not reconsidered.

— Robin McKinley

Perhaps it is a human thing, to look upon such beauty and fail to encompass it.

— Robin McKinley

“It is halfway true that if you are involved in a family coffeehouse you don't have a life.”

— Robin McKinley