Tangleweed and Brine Quotes

“You grew up soft. Your tender heart would nurse a frightened field mouse rescued from a trap. Would make a splint. You'd try to help but always it would die. You gave them names. You were a friendless child, a barrel-chested, sturdy little thing who played alone.
You grew up soft, but still you learned to hide it. Piece by piece. The world's not built for soft and sturdy things. It likes its soft things small and white, defenceless. Princesses in castles. Maidens waiting for the perfect sword. You grew up soft, and piece by wounded piece you built a carapace around your body. Humans are peculiar little things.”
― Deirdre Sullivan, Tangleweed and Brine

“You grew up soft. Your tender heart would nurse a frightened field mouse rescued from a trap. Would make a splint. You'd try to help but always it would die. You gave them names. You were a friendless child, a barrel-chested, sturdy little thing who played alone.
You grew up soft, but still you learned to hide it. Piece by piece. The world's not built for soft and sturdy things. It likes its soft things small and white, defenceless. Princesses in castles. Maidens waiting for the perfect sword. You grew up soft, and piece by wounded piece you built a carapace around your body. Humans are peculiar little things.”
― Deirdre Sullivan, Tangleweed and Brine

“Sometimes I would like to be a child again, and other times a woman made of snow.”
― Deirdre Sullivan, Tangleweed and Brine

“People like their women to be lovely. Women are a lot of different things.”
― Deirdre Sullivan, Tangleweed and Brine

“You are afraid. But there is something else inside as well. A kind of thrill. You always have been told the things you want. What you are greedy for. The sense of wanting something is quite different.”
― Deirdre Sullivan, Tangleweed and Brine

“You do not ask her if she even wants him. That is not at all what it's about. It's not about being sensible, or strong. It's not about being kind. It's not about the soft touch and the kind heart. Beauty and a womb. That's all you are. That's all an adder needs.”
― Deirdre Sullivan, Tangleweed and Brine

“You know that there are colours in the day. But shadows gather and your thoughts collide.”
― Deirdre Sullivan, Tangleweed and Brine

“It’s nicer wild, but folk don’t like it that way. They like their women coiled and wrapped and soft.”
― Deirdre Sullivan, Tangleweed and Brine

“Everything you gather can be lost,”
― Deirdre Sullivan, Tangleweed and Brine

“There are things we can’t do for ourselves.”
― Deirdre Sullivan, Tangleweed and Brine

“The things you care for sometimes try to hurt. You must protect yourself. And those around you.”
― Deirdre Sullivan, Tangleweed and Brine

“You’ll try to help, but you will not make promises.”
― Deirdre Sullivan, Tangleweed and Brine

“You have to ask for his permission now. To cook. To eat. You are a woman.”
― Deirdre Sullivan, Tangleweed and Brine

“People weave a kindness to their cruelty.”
― Deirdre Sullivan, Tangleweed and Brine

“Every little death had taught you something.”
― Deirdre Sullivan, Tangleweed and Brine

“You grew up soft, but still you learned to hide it. Piece by piece. The world’s not built for soft and sturdy things. It likes its soft things small and white, defenceless.”
― Deirdre Sullivan, Tangleweed and Brine

“A woman who has died and come back twice is not a woman. She is something more and something less.”
― Deirdre Sullivan, Tangleweed and Brine

“Creating life. It almost overwhelms.”
― Deirdre Sullivan, Tangleweed and Brine

“My mind drifts but my industry never wavers.”
― Deirdre Sullivan, Tangleweed and Brine

“A forest is lovely to look at but only to look at. Once inside, you can’t look any more. Everything is muted and in shadow.”
― Deirdre Sullivan, Tangleweed and Brine

“It’s hard to trust tales from the lips of grandmothers; they come out wrong, too dirty or too clean.”
― Deirdre Sullivan, Tangleweed and Brine

“But walls are not a home. No matter how familiar their appearance.”
― Deirdre Sullivan, Tangleweed and Brine

“Money can be armor, if you have it.”
― Deirdre Sullivan, Tangleweed and Brine

“Words are not truths. Your father said he loved you. He didn’t, though.”
― Deirdre Sullivan, Tangleweed and Brine

“Come live in me, you think. Come live here and be loved. Come take your place. And make me sure of mine.”
― Deirdre Sullivan, Tangleweed and Brine

“Women such as we, your mother told you, we feel things strongly and we always have. You need to choose to love, and love, not hate.”
― Deirdre Sullivan, Tangleweed and Brine