Top 140 Rachel Gillig Quotes (2026 Update)
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51. “Violence is a craft. So is compassion.”

— Rachel Gillig

52. “And what a useless thing pity is, for a guest is always a kind of trespasser.”

— Rachel Gillig

53. “Be wary the pink, the Nightmare said as he sniffed the air. Be wary the rose. Be wary of beauty divine, unopposed.”

— Rachel Gillig

54. “How undignified.” The gargoyle let out a whimper. “Did anyone see me fall?”

— Rachel Gillig

55. “Fear is not an outward pointing compass... You should not let it guide your way.”

— Rachel Gillig

56. “Faith requires a display. The greater the spectacle, the greater the illusion.”

— Rachel Gillig

57. “There were not enough pages in all the books Elm had read, in all the libraries he’d wandered, in all the notebooks he’d scrawled, that could measure – denote or describe – just how beautiful she was.”

— Rachel Gillig

58. “I’m tied to a post with a grating headache and the dimmest Yews in five centuries,” the Nightmare muttered. “Never been better.”

— Rachel Gillig

59. “Dead as a doorhanger?”

— Rachel Gillig

60. “Children are strongest when their eyes are clear. Only then can they make their own choices. Only then are they truly free. Tell them. Tell them the truth.”

— Rachel Gillig

61. “You are more special than you realize. I don’t even know your name” – he drew in a breath – “and I would do anything for you.”

— Rachel Gillig

62. “I dreamed of a knight with gold in his ears and charcoal around his eyes, who did all the ignoble things I asked of him.”

— Rachel Gillig

63. “The disgust,” Ione said, her tone idle, “is mutual.”

— Rachel Gillig

64. “The Yew girl wears a tunic and pants. Why not you? Jespyr’s entirely more fearsome than I am. I glanced down at my legs. I look like a bloody stable boy. How you look is – and perhaps always has been – utterly irrelevant.”

— Rachel Gillig

65. “You did not come all this way to yield to despair.”

— Rachel Gillig

66. “The Nightmare’s smile was a thinly veiled threat. “I know what I know. My secrets are deep. But long have I kept them. And long will they keep.”

— Rachel Gillig

67. “I don’t want rest, Elspeth,” he murmured into my lips. “I want you.”

— Rachel Gillig

68. “Balance,” she answered, head tilting like a bird of prey. “To right terrible wrongs. To free Blunder from the Rowans.” Her yellow eyes narrowed, wicked and absolute. “To collect his due.”

— Rachel Gillig

69. “I love when they argue,” Emory said into his soup. “Keeps my weak little heart beating.”

— Rachel Gillig

70. “If you only ever look up at something, can you ever see it clearly?”

— Rachel Gillig

71. “Which one, Diviner?” Rory’s voice was deathly calm. He looked over his shoulder at me. “Which one marked up your face?”

— Rachel Gillig

72. “I’m always right behind you.”

— Rachel Gillig

73. “I was losing my faith in everything, but the two of us meeting... it felt almost divine.”

— Rachel Gillig

74. “You’re a Rowan. Don’t you take whatever you fancy?” “Clearly not, when all I fancy is a proper night’s sleep.”

— Rachel Gillig

75. “Tell them. Tell them the truth. When your children ask, do not lie- do not hide the risk of magic. Children are strongest when their eyes are clear. Only then can they make their own choices. Only then are they truly free. Tell them. Tell them the truth.”

— Rachel Gillig

76. “No is a sufficient answer.”

— Rachel Gillig

77. “Starving things make for loyal pets, so long as you feed them just enough.”

— Rachel Gillig

78. “People who love you for your usefulness don’t love you at all.”

— Rachel Gillig

79. “He held me in his gaze like he needed to. “Do you want to know how it ends?” “Does it end?” He nodded. “It ends a handful of minutes from now. After you’ve won, and there is one less Omen in the world.” He grinned. “It ends when you kiss me.” “You mean it ends after I’ve won, and there is one less Omen in the world – and I hit you as hard as I can.” “With your mouth.”

— Rachel Gillig

80. “If I am wonderful and wretched for learning the truth of the Omens, your hands are marked by the blood of my metamorphosis.”

— Rachel Gillig

81. “She cried out, calling his name, ripping the last whole piece of his rotted-out heart to tatters. Go, he commanded. Don’t look back. She fought it. Damn her, she fought to look back. Tears burned Elm’s eyes. “See you in the woods,” he murmured. “Mud on my ankles.”

— Rachel Gillig

82. “I confess horses are not the intelligent beasts I imagined them to be. Though I don’t think that merits the abuse they suffer postmortem.” That one took me a moment. “No one actually beats dead horses, gargoyle. It’s an expression.” “Really? How morbid.”

— Rachel Gillig

83. “Elspeth returned. She made a noise in her throat. Ravyn? Even now, taut with strain, her voice eased him, like a warm cloth pressed over his eyes. Yes, Elspeth? Don’t die. I won’t. Because if you do, and we never get the time we’re owed, I’ll hate you, Ravyn Yew. I’ll love you and hate you forever.”

— Rachel Gillig

84. “I’ll love you for a hundred years – and an eternity after.”

— Rachel Gillig

85. “I think I would like to stop promising myself away, or else there will be nothing left of me to give, King Castor.”

— Rachel Gillig

86. “There once was a girl,” he said, his voice slick, “clever and good, who tarried in shadow in the depths of the wood. There also was a King – a shepherd by his crook, who reigned over magic and wrote the old book. The two were together, so the two were the same: “The girl, the King, and the monster they became.”

— Rachel Gillig

87. “But his soul carried on, buried deep in Elspeth Spindle, the only woman Ravyn had ever loved.”

— Rachel Gillig

88. “It is important for a squire to carry a knight’s weapons,” he said, the words so stoic I wondered if he’d practiced them on the flight back. “I will carry them for you, Bartholomew. I will shoulder any weight you give me.”

— Rachel Gillig

89. “I was its author.”

— Rachel Gillig

90. “For nothing is safe, and nothing is free. Debt follows all men, no matter their plea. When the Shepherd returns, a new day shall ring. Death to the Rowans.” His gray eyes focused, homing in on Elm. “Long live the King.”

— Rachel Gillig

91. “The pretty one.” Rory’s eyes flitted to me. But the King’s finger, the knighthood’s collective gaze, was trained on Four.”

— Rachel Gillig

92. “There was something enticing about hitting something again and again and not breaking it.”

— Rachel Gillig

93. “What creature is he, he asked, with mask made of stone? Captain? Highwayman? Or beast yet unknown?”

— Rachel Gillig

94. “Had I known they’d be the last words I’d say to him aloud, I might have chosen them differently.”

— Rachel Gillig

95. “Please, Rory. Take it off. I want someone to see me.” I whispered against his lips. “I want it to be you.”

— Rachel Gillig

96. “Nightmare,” he said through his teeth. The monster laughed as he slipped out of the fort. “She’ll live. All I did was pay her back for breaking your nose.” “I didn’t ask you to do that.” “No. But Elspeth did.”

— Rachel Gillig

97. “I have something of love in me.”

— Rachel Gillig

98. “I’d be your King, but always your servant. Never your keeper.”

— Rachel Gillig

99. “Everyone was watching him, brows high. When I looked up, Ravyn’s gaze was on me, his mouth upturned, his teeth tugging at his bottom lip. “Morning.” He looked stupidly handsome, smug to his boots. I hid behind my teacup. “Morning.” Next to him, Elm’s face twisted in a grimace. “What the hell’s wrong with you?” Ravyn took a bite of bread and leaned back in his chair. “What do you mean?” “You’re smiling.” Elm looked over the table. “Does no one else find that incredibly unnerving?”

— Rachel Gillig

100. “The berry of rowans is red, always red. The earth at its trunk is dark with bloodshed. But a Prince is a man, and a man may be bled. He came for the girl... And got the monster instead.”

— Rachel Gillig