"'I do not mourn the loss of my sister because she will always be with me, in my heart,' she says.  'I am, however, rather annoyed that my Tara has left me to suffer you lot alone.  I do not see as well without her.  I do not hear as well without her.  I do not feel as well without her.  I would be better off without a hand or a leg than without my sister.  Then at least she would be here to mock my appearance and claim to be the pretty one for a change.  We have all lost our Tara, but I have lost a part of myself as well.'"
-The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

"'I am tired of trying to hold things together that cannot be held,' Celia says when he approaches her.  'Trying to control what cannot be controlled.  I am tired of denying myself for fear of breaking things I cannot fix.  They will break no matter what we do.'"
-The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

"'Stories have changed, my dear boy,' the man in the grey suit says, his voice almost imperceptibly sad.  'There are no more battles between good and evil, no monsters to slay, no maidens in need of rescue.  Most maidens are perfectly capable of rescuing themselves in my experience, at least the ones worth something, in any case.  There are no longer simply tales with quests and beasts and happy endings.  The quests lack clarity of goal or path.  The beasts take different forms and are difficult to recognize for what they are.  And there are never really endings, happy or otherwise.  Things keep going on, they overlap and blur, your story is part of your sister's story is part of many other stories, and there is no telling where any of them may lead.  Good and evil are a great deal more complex than a princess and a dragon or a wolf and a scarlet-clad little girl.  And is not the dragon the hero of his own story?  Is not the wolf simply acting as a wolf should act?  Though perhaps it is a singular wolf who goes to such lengths to dress as a grandmother to toy with its prey.'"
-The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

"Her throat hurt.  Her chest hurt.  Love hurt.  So why was she happy?"
-The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill