T.J. Klune Quotes
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51. “So I said Malakasham and Flora Bora Slam and Abra Wham, because everyone knew that you had to say magic words until magic happened.”

— T.J. Klune

52. “Our eyes met like a car crash, colliding and breaking away.”

— T.J. Klune

53. “To be fair to Lady Tina DeSilva, it was not a battle she could have won. Because Ryan Foxheart was the dreamiest dream to have ever been dreamed.”

— T.J. Klune

54. “There’s too many other people in the world who want nothing more than to kick you when you’re down. Don’t you dare do that job for them.”

— T.J. Klune

55. “And he was wearing a tie. With rabbits on it. And that did things for Josy.”

— T.J. Klune

56. “My fairy drag mother. The woman who had taught me to trust myself and my instincts. Morgan could teach me magic. My parents could teach me morals. Gary and Tiggy could teach me brotherhood. But Mama taught me that while life had sharp edges, it would only cut you if you allowed it to.”

— T.J. Klune

57. “Things have changed, oh yes. Make no mistake about that. But that’s the funny thing about grief and anger combined; even while buried in newfound happiness, it claws and it whispers. It begs. It howls. It screams. It doesn’t let go. And it demands retribution.”

— T.J. Klune

58. “That’s what is so funny about life. And so scary. It gets in the way and then one day, you open your eyes and a decade has passed. Even more.”

— T.J. Klune

59. “How he closed down like before. How he gave himself over to the wolf. How he didn’t speak for months and months. And yet, the moment he comes home, the moment he sees you again, he finds his voice like he’d never lost it at all.”

— T.J. Klune

60. “Lady Tina DeSilva. The president of the Ryan Foxheart Fan Club Castle Lockes Chapter. And my most mortal of enemies. “Oh look, everyone. Mervin has arrived and he brought the muffins. If past experiences have any prescience as to what we can expect, then they’re sure to be as dry as his conversational skills.” She was also sixteen years old. And evil.”

— T.J. Klune

61. “With the fans, you smile and nod and take selfies and then hope they don’t follow you back to your house and murder you by shoving their underwear down your throat.”

— T.J. Klune

62. “I ground my teeth as I bit back words I knew would hurt. That was the danger with knowing and loving others. You always knew things about them to throw back in their faces.”

— T.J. Klune

63. “You went full-on bitchy and made a dramatic exit?” He sounded way too gleeful over my histrionics. “I have taught you well, my young apprentice.”

— T.J. Klune

64. “Though sometimes, the songs are meant to sing a pack member home. It’s easy to get lost, Ox, because the world is a wide and scary place. And every now and then, you just have to be reminded of the way home.”

— T.J. Klune

65. “Wherever you are, that’s where my home is.”

— T.J. Klune

66. “My path may have been set in stone, but stone crumbles, and sometimes we have to forge our own way through.”

— T.J. Klune

67. “So he pressed his forehead against mine and breathed me in and there was that sun, okay? That sun between us, that bond that burned and burned and burned because he’d given it to me. Because he’d chosen me. And I got to choose him back.”

— T.J. Klune

68. “How do I look?” Gary asked, posing obscenely.”

— T.J. Klune

69. “Roses surrounded the raven, thorns wrapping around its talons. Runes and archaic symbols stretched along my forearms: Romanian, Sumerian, Gaelic. An amalgamation of all those who had come before me. Marks of alchemy, of fire and water, of silver and wind. They had been carved into me by my father over a period of years, the raven being the last. All except for the one on my chest above my heart. That’d been mine. My choice. It wasn’t magic, but it’d been for me.”

— T.J. Klune

70. “When I was a kid, I’d made a wish upon the stars. I wished to be someone important. Someone who mattered. And my wish had been granted. Because I was important, though not in the way I expected. I mattered. And not because of what the gods had placed upon me. I mattered because I was loved.”

— T.J. Klune

71. “Pfft,” I scoffed. “Feelings. I don’t have feelings.” I had so many feelings. None of them were good.”

— T.J. Klune

72. “I’m sorry. Were you just speaking to me? I apologize most profusely. I was distracted by the size of the sweat stains under your arms. Are you overly warm today? It seems unlikely given the cold, dead heart that surely beats in your chest.”

— T.J. Klune

73. “He was hard lines, chiseled flesh, bronzed skin. I was a marshmallow melting in a cup of cocoa.”

— T.J. Klune

74. “I can’t do this anymore, I think, my own voice almost lost in the storm. I can’t do this anymore. I can’t face this on my own. I am drowning in this river and I am haunted in this house my father built and my mind is breaking.”

— T.J. Klune

75. “And then he laughed. His head rocked back and he laughed and the birds came back and laughed right along with him.”

— T.J. Klune

76. “Life is like this: it aches. It’s biting, and you ache from it. You are strong, because they tell you that you are. You are stronger than anything they’ve ever seen. You have to be. It is what is expected of you.”

— T.J. Klune

77. “Are they speaking in code?” Mom asked Dad, trying to be quiet but failing miserably. “I don’t know,” Dad said. “I don’t speak wizard.” “Neither do I. I feel like we’ve failed as parents.” “Nah,” Dad said easily. “Look at him. He’s adorable and knows how to put on his own pants. We did good.”

— T.J. Klune

78. “And he should be found at fault for existing? What choice did he have in the matter?”

— T.J. Klune

79. “You don’t have to choose,” he says quietly. “We chose you already.”

— T.J. Klune

80. “I’ve always wanted to see if humans make good fertilizer. It seems like they would.” She eyed him up and down hungrily. “All that flesh.”

— T.J. Klune

81. “Everything is so vast. It’s humbling to remember just how small we really are.”

— T.J. Klune

82. “You breathe. You ache. You live. You die inside, sometimes. These little deaths. It’s how you know you’re still living. That hurt, that damnable pain in your chest that never really goes away, is meant to burn to show you that you’re human. After all, you have these little deaths because you live. You ache, but you’re able to breathe. And if you can breathe, then you can take another step. You can push yourself up and you can take another step.”

— T.J. Klune

83. “His breath on my face. This was Joe. And I was Ox. His nose touched mine. My hands found his waist. He shuddered under the touch. He rumbled deep in his chest. He said, “Mine.” My cheek scraped against his. The wolf growled, “Mine.” It was a great and terrible thing. So I said, “Yeah. Joe. Yeah. Yes.” And.”

— T.J. Klune

84. “There’s nothing like being admonished by a nine-year-old ecoterrorist in training.”

— T.J. Klune

85. “It’s always the ones who are the quietest who often have the greatest things to say.”

— T.J. Klune

86. “It’s better, Benji, to have something burn brightly for a short time than to never have it at all.”

— T.J. Klune

87. “Way gay,” I reassured him. “Like, super gay. I fart and rainbows come out.” Oh, crap.”

— T.J. Klune

88. “Why do you hide?” Because it was easier. Because I’d done it for as long as I could remember. Because it was safer than being out in the sun and letting people in. It was better to hide and wonder than reveal and know the truth.”

— T.J. Klune

89. “I just want to be wherever you are.”

— T.J. Klune

90. “Because it’s always been you, Sam. I promise. I promise. I promise, because when I look upon these stars, there is nothing I wish for more than you.”

— T.J. Klune

91. “Gus wondered if normal people carried their grief like he did. He wondered if normal people carried it for the rest of their lives like he thought he would. It didn’t hurt as much as it once had, but sometimes the scar broke apart and it was all he could do to breathe through it.”

— T.J. Klune

92. “Because for all his bravado, for all the sass and the sarcasm, he is still the greatest wizard I have ever known. He’s the better part of all of us. And I am humbled to be in his presence.”

— T.J. Klune

93. “This is why we fight. To have our voices heard and to let everyone know we won’t be taken lightly. They don’t know who they’re messing with. They want a war? Bring it. Because we are going to be fierce and fabulous, and they’ll never see us coming.”

— T.J. Klune

94. “If I’d known this was going to be a black-tie affair, I would have put on underwear.”

— T.J. Klune

95. “I look like a gay Mormon missionary,” he lamented in the mirror. “Pardon me, have you heard the word of the Lord? It’s fabulous!”

— T.J. Klune

96. “Since it wasn’t polite to ask someone if he could keep them in his pocket, he didn’t.”

— T.J. Klune

97. “Sam Haversford. You had a crush on him.”

— T.J. Klune

98. “He snorted into his radicchio, which I admired because it was a pretty purple. The radicchio was purple, not his snort. Just in case you got confused there. I don’t think it’s possible for people to snort colors. We’re not unicorns, after all.”

— T.J. Klune

99. “He grinned at me again, and the butterflies in my stomach turned into dragons and laid waste to my innards.”

— T.J. Klune

100. “Richard Collins had only taken weeks to destroy the little boy I’d known. He was this shell, okay? This empty shell, and I didn’t know how to fix it. And then, Ox. Oh, and then there was you.” She.”

— T.J. Klune