When you speak the future, you shape the future. - Naomi Novik

But I had not known that I was strong enough to do any of those things until they were over and I had done them. I had to do the work first, not knowing.

I should rather have you than a heap of gold, even if it were very comfortable to sleep on.

The only thing that had ever done me any good in my father’s house was thinking: no one had cared what I wanted, or whether I was happy. I’d had to find my own way to anything I wanted. I’d never been grateful for that before now, when what I wanted was my life.