Top 100 Gail Carson Levine Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “A library is infinity under a roof.”

— Gail Carson Levine

2. “When you become a teenager, you step onto a bridge. You may already be on it. The opposite shore is adulthood. Childhood lies behind. The bridge is made of wood. As you cross, it burns behind you.”

— Gail Carson Levine

3. “And so, with laughter and love, we lived happily ever after.”

— Gail Carson Levine

4. “Step follows step, Hope follows Courage, Set your face towards danger, Set your heart on victory.”

— Gail Carson Levine

5. “There’s nothing wrong with reading a book you love over and over.”

— Gail Carson Levine

6. “Food for thought requires a mind with teeth.”

— Gail Carson Levine

7. “There’s nothing wrong with reading a book you love over and over. When you do, the words get inside you, become a part of you, in a way that words in a book you’ve read only once can’t.”

— Gail Carson Levine

Featured in: Reading Quotes

8. “I rode all day. I cried all night. The moon didn’t glow. The sun didn’t rise. A comet blazed Between my eyes. West and South, Wind and rain. Every way is Just the same. Pray give me a box To hide inside. Pray give me a spade To dig my own grave.”

— Gail Carson Levine

9. “It is helpful to know the proper way to behave, so one can decide whether or not to be proper.”

— Gail Carson Levine

10. “Who judges the judge who judges wrong?”

— Gail Carson Levine

11. “I was born singing. Most babies cry, I sang an aria.”

— Gail Carson Levine

12. “We promised to be kind to each other, to be patient, to forgive each other’s faults, to be steadfast and true, and to keep joy in our love.”

— Gail Carson Levine

13. “I never met a word I didn’t love.”

— Gail Carson Levine

14. “I want to be with you forever and beyond...”

— Gail Carson Levine

Featured in: Romance Quotes

15. “Things change, people change, but that doesn’t mean you should forget the past.”

— Gail Carson Levine

16. “I trust you to find the good in me, but the bad I must be sure you don’t overlook.”

— Gail Carson Levine

17. “He put his hand on my waist, and my heart began to pound, a rougher rhythm than the music. I held my skirt. Our free hands met. His felt warm and comforting and unsettling and bewildering – all at once.”

— Gail Carson Levine

Featured in: Romance Quotes

18. “No, I won’t marry you. I won’t do it. No one can force me.”

— Gail Carson Levine

19. “I wished she’d never stop squeezing me. I wished I could spend the rest of my life as a child, being slightly crushed by someone who loved me.”

— Gail Carson Levine

20. “Oak, granite, Lilies by the road, Remember me? I remember you. Clouds brushing Clover hills, Remember me? Sister, child, Grown tall, Remember me? I remember you.”

— Gail Carson Levine

21. “My favorite of my books is DAVE AT NIGHT, because it’s loosely based on my father’s childhood in an orphanage.”

— Gail Carson Levine

22. “I loved fairy tales as a kid. I’ve always been drawn to fantasy. They’re always exciting. There’s never a dull moment. I just love the embellishments and the magical stuff. It’s such fun to work with and to re-imagine your own way.”

— Gail Carson Levine

23. “She asks why I like her. Might as well ask Why I breathe. Maybe tomorrow I won’t Breathe or like her Anymore. Maybe tomorrow the tides Will stop. Maybe tomorrow will bring No more rainbows. Maybe tomorrow She will stop Asking useless questions.”

— Gail Carson Levine

24. “That’s funny, you’re funny. I like you, I’m quite taken by you.”

— Gail Carson Levine

25. “I’m solitary as a pulled tooth, Lonely as an unwelcome truth, Lost as a minnow out of school, A genius in a crop of fools.”

— Gail Carson Levine

26. “Climb the day, Drop your dreams, Possess the day.”

— Gail Carson Levine

27. “Daughter, we didn’t need your note – or a prince’s visit – to tell us you’d done nothing wrong. We know the daughter we raised. We fear for your future, but never for your character. You take our love and our trust wherever you wander. Father.”

— Gail Carson Levine

28. “Everyone called it losing Mother, but she wasn’t lost. She was gone, and no matter where I went – another town, another country, Fairyland, or Gnome Caverns – I wouldn’t find her.”

— Gail Carson Levine

29. “In books and in life, you need to read several pages before someone’s true character is revealed.”

— Gail Carson Levine

30. “Perhaps we can come here together someday. By the way, you’re a month older than the last time I saw you. Are you still too young to marry.”

— Gail Carson Levine

31. “I was no hero. The dearest wishes of my heart were for safety and tranquility. The world was a perilous place, wrong for the likes of me.”

— Gail Carson Levine

32. “I had always been the hardest on myself when I drew and painted. I am not hard on myself when I write. I like what I write, so it is a much happier process.”

— Gail Carson Levine

33. “I had been able to break the curse myself. I’d had to have reason enough, love enough to do it, to find the will and the strength.”

— Gail Carson Levine

34. “When I write, I make discoveries about my feelings.”

— Gail Carson Levine

35. “I love having written. Sometimes I love writing. I love to revise. Revising is my favorite part of writing.”

— Gail Carson Levine

36. “I gathered them on my stomach and waited for sleep. But sleep was busy elsewhere.”

— Gail Carson Levine

37. “I shan’t marry a prince!”

— Gail Carson Levine

38. “I’m more interested in plot than theme, but I hope my values find their way into my stories: kindness, sympathy, effort, and humor!”

— Gail Carson Levine

39. “You’re Only the fairest when your fairest to yourself.”

— Gail Carson Levine

40. “Although we didn’t invite Lucinda, she arrived anyway-with a gift. “No need,” Char and I chimed together. “Remember when you were a squirrel,” Mandy said.”

— Gail Carson Levine

41. “Danger, a quest, three figures. They are close to you, but they are not your friends.” She let my hand go. “Beware of them!”

— Gail Carson Levine

42. “Everyone dies. You needn’t go on about it so.”

— Gail Carson Levine

43. “The Writer’s Oath I promise solemnly: 1. to write as often and as much as I can, 2. to respect my writing self, and 3. to nurture the writing of others. I accept these responsibilities and shall honor them always.”

— Gail Carson Levine

44. “I can see that. She is lovely, very different from you. Oh, my clumsy tongue.” Vollys’s bells clanged. “You are lovely too, but in a quieter way. In temperament I see that you are different as well. She could lead a charge, but you could last a siege. This is fascinating, little Adelina. The more I look at her, the more clearly I see you. You may be a worthier opponent than even my Willard was.”

— Gail Carson Levine

45. “You’re free. The curse is over, love.” Mandy was at my side, hugging me. “You rescued yourself when you rescued the prince. I’m that proud and glad, sweet, I could shout.”

— Gail Carson Levine

46. “I don’t wait for inspiration. Writing is my job.”

— Gail Carson Levine

47. “I think kids abandon stories all the time. They start stories and get frustrated or get a different, better idea. I think that it is more worthwhile to stick with a story and revise it and try to finish it than abandon ship. Revisions, for any writer, are the name of the game.”

— Gail Carson Levine

48. “Kisses were better than potions.”

— Gail Carson Levine

49. “Instead of making me docile, Lucinda’s curse made a rebel of me. Or perhaps I was that way naturally.”

— Gail Carson Levine

50. “Sorcerers believe that an action taken for the right reasons has an unreasonable chance of success.”

— Gail Carson Levine