The Goose Girl Quotes

“She closed the book and put her cheek against it. There was still an odor of a library on it, of dust, leather, binding glue, and old paper, one book carrying the smell of hundreds.”

“No more crying. It’s all wetness and no comfort at all.”

“She wished, not for the first time, that she had been born with the gift of people-speaking. Ani was sure that Selia could have gotten past those guards with a few seductive words.”

″‘You’re Enna,’ said Ani. ‘That’s somebody.’ Enna smiled. ‘So’s Isi.’ Is she? thought Ani. Then I’d like to be her. I’d like to be somebody. ‘She is, you are,’ said Enna, as though she had heard Ani’s doubt.”

“Her eyes lingered a moment on Selia, and she found herself thinking, She would be better at playing princess than I am. The thought stung. Ani wanted so badly to do it right, to be regal and clever and powerful. But too often her only truly happy moments were the bursts of freedom, stolen afternoons on her horse’s back, brief, breathtaking rides past the stables to where the gardens turned wild, her lungs stinging with the cold, her muscles trembling with the hard ride.”

″‘It’s a payback,’ she said, grabbing a cold bean pie. ‘They put colored eggs in one of my chickens’ nests for a week. I poured every medicine I knew down that poor hen’s throat and laid witch-bought charms around her nest until I finally spotted a bit of point on some hay. Devilish, they are.‘”

“Ani laughed. ‘A goose girl should feel honored to be mistaken for a lady with land to put a horse on, sir.’ ‘You didn’t say ‘sir’ when you stole my horse. Geric. My name’s Geric.‘”

“Jok made the sounds indicating he was ready to sleep, so she took off her hat and unwound her hair, scratched her head, and sighed. The weight of her hair on her back reminded her that she was not who she was. That she was a secret.”

“You saw my leg?” “How can a man help what he sees?” he said. “And, if I could add, you possess a very fine leg.”

“Geric,” she called. He turned back around. “What kind of flowers were they?” “I don’t rightly know,” he said. He made faltering gestures with his hands, forming their size and shape from the air. “They were yellow, and smallish, and had lots of petals.” “Thank you,” she said. “They were beautiful.”

“When the queen at last set down the parchment and met her daughter’s eyes, Ani was expecting an accusing stare and was surprised by the sorrow that weighed down her features. She could not tell if the sorrow was for her father or for her. A thought buzzed in Ani’s head: I do not know this woman at all. Her stomach turned uneasily.”

“If we don’t tell strange stories, when something strange happens we won’t believe it.”

“Poor gosling. It hurts to be lost. And worse to be home with no kind of homecoming. You’re my good-luck bird, Jok. I’ll be lucky if I can do as well as you when this is all done, just a bit out of breath, a bit bruised and scratched, a bit wiser and sadder for it all.”

“Ani lay down and, putting one arm over her face as though it were a wing, tried to shut out the world where she did not belong.”

“I can see that one can never pay back Gilsa for the fear that she will give again.”

″‘Fraud?’ said Selia. ‘Royalty is not a right, Captain. The willingness of the people to follow a ruler is what gives her power. Here, in this place, by this people, I have been chosen. These men are tired of being told whom to follow. Now they have a choice, and they use that choice to call me Princess.’ Selia’s words seemed seductively convincing. Even Ani, peering through pine boughs, had to stop herself from nodding. But Adon stepped up beside Talone and challenged her.”

“Ani thought perhaps it was that she cared too much. She was constantly worried about what others thought of her, and how every word she spoke could condemn her further. Ani thought how to explain that to Selia and decided that she could not. Selia’s ease with strangers and friends alike made Ani sure she would not understand.”

“I, Geric-Sinath of Gerhard, declare that you’re beautiful and you’re perfect and I’ll slay any man who tries to take you from my side. Goose girl, may I kiss you?”

“Is this why you kept me away from my siblings all these years? Not because you were training me to be queen, but rather protecting them from me because you knew you would be sending me away? Separation, elevation, delegation- it was all just a ruse.”

“Ani tried to respond with friendly attentiveness. Ani felt as dumb at conversation as she had over Gilsa’s cooking pot that day she prepared the lunch, the contents turning blacker and smelling fouler despite her anxious attempts. She had no practice at making friends. And, she discovered, her own trust had been drained dry.”

“Ani was eager to learn the voice of every bird that nested on the palace grounds, but the swan pond drew her return day after day. She loved to watch them swim so slowly that the water hardly rippled and watch every silent, mild movement shimmer into meaning. Soon her throat and tongue could make nearly all the sounds of the swans, and she trumpeted gleefully.”

“The queen shook her head. ‘You should never have been only a little girl, you should have always been a crown princess.‘”

“Ani rode. She did not see the trees that dashed by her and the branches that moved like executioner axes just above her ducking head. There was no purpose to the direction the horse ran—except away.”

“Just think of it, Crown Princess, you can start a new life with new possibilities. You will decide who you are.”

“The winter breeze still brushed against her cheek, and again she heard her name— Princess—and what had laid on her tongue since the morning of her birth now loosened.”