Top 40 Travis Baldree Quotes (2026 Update)

1. “Things don’t have to stay as what they started out as.”

— Travis Baldree

2. “So. I might not deserve you. And you might forgive too much. But I’m damned glad to have you.”

— Travis Baldree

3. “You’ve found a very peaceful place here. A special place. You’ve planted something, and now its blossoming. Very nice. A good spot to rest. My thanks to you for letting an old-timer shade under the branches of what you’ve grown.”

— Travis Baldree

4. “I used to be an adventurer like you.”

— Travis Baldree

5. “People just sat around drinking it from these little ceramic cups, and I had to try it, and... it was like drinking the feeling of being peaceful. Being peaceful in your mind. Well, not if you have too much, then it’s something else.”

— Travis Baldree

6. “Viv didn’t answer for a moment, but then she stared hard at him. “Things don’t have to stay as what they started out as.”

— Travis Baldree

7. “Live long enough, you realize some folks can be handed a problem and some tools, and they’ll sort it out. And I never think twice about hiring that sort of fellow.”

— Travis Baldree

8. “Sometimes the storm clears away the wreckage.”

— Travis Baldree

9. “Viv glanced sidelong at Laney’s mug of tea. “Say, you ever have coffee?” she asked. Laney blinked at her and looked affronted. “Why, I never have. And the way I was brought up, a lady doesn’t talk about her maladies,” she said primly. Viv barked a laugh, to the old woman’s great annoyance.”

— Travis Baldree

10. “The glow in The Perch dimmed, her corner untouched by the blast of light and heat from the hearth across the room, so she asked for a lantern to read by. The kid obliged, and despite the uncomfortable chair and the ache in her leg and the backwater in which she’d been abandoned, she was absorbed. She was transported. She was elsewhere.”

— Travis Baldree

11. “As Hemington paid, Viv handed him a roll on a piece of waxed paper and leveled a glare at him. “If you don’t eat this, it’s possible Tandri or I may have to kill you.” The young man laughed, although the laugh became strangled when Viv didn’t join in.”

— Travis Baldree

12. “At this point, she figured that if enemies from across the sea lay siege to the fortress walls, there would still be a line at Sea-Song. And some of the besiegers would probably be in it.”

— Travis Baldree

13. “While the dough rose, he approached with a nervous twitch of whiskers and whispered, “Latte?”

— Travis Baldree

14. “And as Tandri laughed, waiting for the full story, Viv was grateful for all the wrong times that had led to this right one.”

— Travis Baldree

15. “She thought about what Tandri had said just a day ago about reciprocity. Pain that was ignored, magnified on its return.”

— Travis Baldree

16. “Viv stayed quiet. Sometimes, that was just what you had to do.”

— Travis Baldree

17. “You don’t have to forget who you were, because that’s what brought you here.”

— Travis Baldree

18. “I don’t know if I can explain it, but watching you read what I give you, putting a book in your hands and seeing what happens to you once you put it back down... I can’t make you understand how that gives me something I didn’t know I had to have.”

— Travis Baldree

19. “Hm. What’d you say to me at the docks? “You do it even when some might say it’s wiser not to”, I think? Well. Guess I’ll just say... maybe be unwise a little longer.”

— Travis Baldree

20. “What flames could not consume, never shall be extinguished.”

— Travis Baldree

21. “A pleasure,” said Viv. It wasn’t.”

— Travis Baldree

22. “Accurately slinging a slab of metal and striking a target was squarely within the realm of her abilities.”

— Travis Baldree

23. “As someone whose life had mostly been spent in the service of sharing words, Fern was enjoying keeping them to herself for a while.”

— Travis Baldree

24. “Never trust a writer who doesn’t have too many books to read. Or a reader, for that matter,” said Zelia.”

— Travis Baldree

25. “Always remember, although the unimaginative see life as a thread stretched from one point to another, birth to death, a life truly lived is a glorious tangle. One is never lost. And if one is lucky, one is never found, either.”

— Travis Baldree

26. “Because I’m headed down the hill, and you’re headed up it. I’m just glad we chanced to meet on the way.”

— Travis Baldree

27. “Used to ain’t the same as ought to.′ But he pressed no further, and that was that.”

— Travis Baldree

28. “Every book is a little mirror, and sometimes you look into it and see someone else looking back.”

— Travis Baldree

29. “We goes when is time to be somewhere else,” said Zyll.”

— Travis Baldree

30. “This is what I know, what I’ve always known. I just want to know something else, now. To be something else.”

— Travis Baldree

31. “Ladies’ stockin’s and exotic bean water. Gods help us.”

— Travis Baldree

32. “She slept hard. She slept late. And when she woke, she wanted to eat the whole world.”

— Travis Baldree

33. “You know, there’s a lot of people out there. Lot of noise. I love what I do, love it every day, but none of us sees more than a tiny piece of all the world, like we’re lookin’ out a little-bitty window. And I saw you through mine, and somethin’ inside me said, ‘That’s somebody you oughta know.’ Simple as that.”

— Travis Baldree

34. “If you’re gonna show ’em you got teeth, at least fix it so you can bite when you need to.”

— Travis Baldree

35. “Well, I could always kill him,” said Viv. Tandri just stared at her. “Joking,” muttered Viv. Was she, though?”

— Travis Baldree

36. “Besides, total ignorance never stopped me from trying anything before.”

— Travis Baldree

37. “Little twirls of smoke dotted the rooftops, like freshly extinguished candles.”

— Travis Baldree

38. “Failure to act was as much a decision as any other.”

— Travis Baldree

39. “The combined aromas of hot cinnamon, ground coffee, and sweet cardamom intoxicated her, and as she brewed and smiled and served and chatted, a deep contentment welled up. It was a glowing warmth she’d never experienced before, and she liked it. She liked it a great deal.”

— Travis Baldree

40. “I learned to stay loose and level a long time ago. Things always turn out better that way, usually for everybody.”

— Travis Baldree

41. “Hers was a potent dialect of emotion, rich with meaning, comprehensible only to those intimately aware of its subtleties. Tandri didn’t have to say yes. The language was understood. And when her lips found Viv’s, no doubt could have survived.”

— Travis Baldree