Top 500 Leigh Bardugo Quotes (2025 Update)
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401. “We learn to hold our heads as if we wear crowns.”

— Leigh Bardugo

402. “I think the first trick to writing a feminist work is to write plenty of women. That way you get to write characters, instead of worrying about paradigms.”

— Leigh Bardugo

403. “Her voice had brought him back from the dark; it had been the tether he gripped and used to drag himself back to some semblance of sanity.”

— Leigh Bardugo

404. “I,” she said, planting a hand on her hip, “am a delicate flower.”

— Leigh Bardugo

405. “Speak, Nazyalensky. When you purse your lips like that, you look like you’ve made love to a lemon.”

— Leigh Bardugo

406. “Kaz had rescued her from that hopelessness, and their lives had been a series of rescues ever since, a string of debts that they never tallied as they saved each other again and again.”

— Leigh Bardugo

407. “It’s a symbol, Helvar. If your god is so delicate, maybe you should get a new one. Let’s get out of here.”

— Leigh Bardugo

408. “Put on your pretty clothes and wait for the next kiss, the next kind word. Wait for the stag. Wait for the collar. Wait to be made into a murderer and a slave.”

— Leigh Bardugo

409. “Darlington was a good talker, but he was happiest when no one was speaking to him, when he didn’t have to perform the ritual of himself and he could simply be left to watch others.”

— Leigh Bardugo

410. “You weeel catch the korpa.” “The what?” “The korpa!” I declared in dire tones. “Your private parts weeel shrink to nothink!”

— Leigh Bardugo

411. “Eli’s long fingers cupped her face, traced the nape of her neck, kept her still, as if he needed to give her every bit of his attention, as if he could learn her like a language, plot her like a course. Eli kissed Gracie like she was a song and he was determined to hear every note.”

— Leigh Bardugo

412. “She was the Queen of Mourning, and in its depths, she would never drown.”

— Leigh Bardugo

413. “I need your skills, Inej. That’s not the same thing. You may be the best spider crawling around the Barrel, but you’re not the only one.”

— Leigh Bardugo

414. “You want a love story too? There’s none to be had.”

— Leigh Bardugo

415. “Kaz shrugged, unwilling to give her an answer. Inej was always trying to wring little bits of decency from him. “When everyone knows you’re a monster, you needn’t waste time doing every monstrous thing.”

— Leigh Bardugo

416. “Alex watched in the mirror as her history spilled over her skin. The scars she had chosen for herself. We are the shepherds. The time for that was done. Better to be a rattler. Better to be a jackal.”

— Leigh Bardugo

417. “Kaz, this whole ‘shoot me’ thing is starting to concern me.”

— Leigh Bardugo

418. “We all have spaces we keep blank.”

— Leigh Bardugo

419. “Kaz narrowed his eyes. “I’m not some character out of a children’s story who plays harmless pranks and steals from the rich to give to the poor.”

— Leigh Bardugo

420. “Her silks were feathers, and she was free.”

— Leigh Bardugo

421. “Welcome home. Welcome back. We missed you. I missed you more than I should have, more than I wanted to. I went to hell for you. I’d do it again.”

— Leigh Bardugo

422. “You move forward, and when you falter, you get up. And when you can’t, you let us carry you. You let me carry you.”

— Leigh Bardugo

423. “With a start, I realized that the room smelled like him. I had never even noticed that he had a scent. I shut my eyes and breathed deeply. What was it? The crisp edge of a winter wind. Bare branches. The smell of absence, the smell of night.”

— Leigh Bardugo

424. “I’m not sure why I began this,” she admitted. “But I know why I have to finish. I know why fate brought me here, why it placed me in the path of this prize.”

— Leigh Bardugo

425. “His knuckles brushed against her skin and lightning cracked through him, left him paralyzed, rooted to the earth. His heart should not be making that sound.”

— Leigh Bardugo

426. “My king lies bleeding. I am his subject and his soldier, and I come to fight for him.”

— Leigh Bardugo

427. “Zoya’s company was like strong drink. Bracing – and best to abstain if you couldn’t handle the kick.”

— Leigh Bardugo

428. “For the briefest moment, Ulla despised Signy, as we can only hate those who rescue us from loneliness.”

— Leigh Bardugo

429. “You say exile, I say extended holiday.”

— Leigh Bardugo

430. “Do you ask your heart to beat or your lungs to breathe? Your power serves you because that is it’s purpose, because it cannot help but serve you.”

— Leigh Bardugo

431. “In the Barrel, we don’t trade in safety,” Kaz said, the abraded burn of his voice carrying over the crowd. “There’s only strength and weakness. You don’t ask for respect. You earn it.” You don’t ask for forgiveness. You earn it.”

— Leigh Bardugo

432. “Thanks for being my best friend and making my life bearable. Oh, and sorry I fell in love with you for a while there. Make sure to write!”

— Leigh Bardugo

433. “The world was made of miracles, unexpected earthquakes, storms that came from nowhere and might reshape a continent.”

— Leigh Bardugo

434. “You are a stolen painting, Kuwei. Too recognizable to sell on the open market, too valuable to leave lying around. You are worthless to me.”

— Leigh Bardugo

435. “Inej was always trying to wring little bits of decency from him.”

— Leigh Bardugo

436. “Now you kno what monsters once lurked in the woods near Duva, and if you ever meet a bear with a golden collar, you will be able to greep him by name. So shut the window tight and make sure the latch is fastened. Dark things have a way of slipping in through narrow spaces. Shall we have something good to eat? Well then, come help me stir the pot.”

— Leigh Bardugo

437. “A friend of mine liked to tell me that women love flowers. He had many flirtations, but he never found a wife. Do you know why? Because women may love flowers, but only one woman loves the scent of gardenias in late summer that remind her of her grandmother’s porch. Only one woman loves apple blossoms in a blue cup. Only one woman loves wild geraniums.”

— Leigh Bardugo

438. “Rich men want to believe they deserve every penny they’ve got, so they forget what they owe to chance.”

— Leigh Bardugo

439. “You see, some people are born with a piece of night inside, and that hollow place can never be filled – not with all the good food or sunshine in the world. That emptiness cannot be banished, and so some days we wake with the feeling of the wind blowing through, and we must simply endure it as the boy did.”

— Leigh Bardugo

440. “How many rules have you broken since you met me? How many laws? They won’t be the last. Nothing about us will ever be proper,” she said. She tilted her face up to his. So close now it was as if they were already touching. “Not the way we met. Not the life we lead. And not the way we kiss.”

— Leigh Bardugo

441. “The age of Grisha power is coming to an end.”

— Leigh Bardugo

442. “She would have her ship and he would have his city.”

— Leigh Bardugo

443. “If you ever cared about me at all, don’t follow.”

— Leigh Bardugo

444. “Cautious was helpful; paranoid was just another word for distracted.”

— Leigh Bardugo

445. “As they sped across the bridge, Jesper thought he spotted Matthias and Wylan in their red capes, tossing coins as they steadily made their way off the Stave. If they started running, it might draw stadwatch attention. Jesper struggled not to laugh. That was definitely Matthias and Wylan. Matthias was hurling the money with way too much force and Wylan with way too much enthusiasm. The kid’s throwing arm needed serious work. He looked like he was actively trying to dislocate his shoulder.”

— Leigh Bardugo

446. “Only two were unmarked. Tolya and Tamar led the charge, eyes wild, blades flashing, roaring my name.”

— Leigh Bardugo

447. “Innocence was a luxury.”

— Leigh Bardugo

448. “Beware of power. There is no amount of it that can make them love you.”

— Leigh Bardugo

449. “It felt like something that was meant to be kept secret, a new seed that might grow to something extraordinary if it wasn’t forced to bloom too soon.”

— Leigh Bardugo

450. “So many of my old friends, gathered in one place.”

— Leigh Bardugo