The Writing Retreat Quotes
"I felt like I was in a dream as I followed Pete down the steps, studying the back of his head."
"You are all amazing people and sometimes I have to pinch myself that I have such an incredible support network."
"What would it feel like to hold your own book in your hands for the first time?"
"The one friend I’d managed to make after my excommunication from Wren’s coterie, and now I’d ruined that too."
I’m so sick of talking about that fucking book," Vallo says suddenly. "You want to talk about ‘Lady X,’ don’t you? The flop? Everyone does.
"You’re going to a monthlong writing retreat with Roza Vallo."
"I was going to Roza Vallo’s monthlong writing retreat with a killer case of writer’s block."
"‘Surreal’ is such a clichéd word, but that’s how it felt."
"Let this be a lesson to everyone. If you’re going to do stupid shit, do it well. Don’t be lazy enough to get caught so easily. Try a little harder. Otherwise you don’t deserve any of it. Okay?"
"The library looked even more majestic in the sunlight."
"The remnants of sleep scattered as terror bloomed in Daphne’s chest."
"The writer’s mind is a channel, dear. When we open, glorious truths can flow in. Rather like Daphne channeling her demoness, wouldn’t you say?"
"If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that the worst conditions are the most conducive to the best work."
"Now you’re dead, trapped in the underworld. You feel empty, stuck. And you know what? It’s actually the most powerful place to be."
"Ghost stories: they reminded me of long-ago sleepovers, whispered tales in the dark, the delicious fear that would climb up your spine as you snuggled in your sleeping bag."
"And then Christina turned to me, and I’ll never forget what she said. She whispered: ‘I think it’s trying to trick us.’"
"Generational. They're encoded in your DNA."
"The appropriate punishments will be meted out to the appropriate people."
"It’s time to take. How can you use what she’s given you?"
"That you were obsessed with her for years."
"We missed the opportunity to behold something incredible all those years before."
"Panic rose, breaking through the icy numbness."
"Supernatural forces. Was that really where my mind was going?"
"Remember: ‘What is to give light must endure burning.’"
"It could’ve showed me the truth, that it was time to admit to—to celebrate—the fact that I was attracted to certain women."
"Most people only have one true masterpiece within them."
"Now everything is laid bare. And when I show you the ultimate Truth, you must be ready."
"The fresh air was sweet as ice cream and I gulped it in."
"The ending glowed inside me, hidden like a small pearl."
"I’m a writer, and no one can take that away from me."
"They could do whatever they wanted to my body, but they couldn’t have my story."
"Before, creeping around the house, sleeping in the library, I’d felt like an animal. But I hadn’t felt like a predator."
"I was only just beginning to process it myself."
"I was still figuring out who I’d become."
"It wasn’t fair that we’d survived, and Zoe, Yana, and Chitra hadn’t."