Katharine McGee QUOTES

1 " That evening, Samantha headed toward a nondescript door that was tucked into the downstairs hallway like an architect's afterthought. It might not look impressive, but this was the Door of Sighs, the royal family's private entrance to the grand ballroom: so named because generations of princesses had lingered there when they were too young to attend, and sighed romantically as they watched the dancing. "

― Katharine McGee , American Royals (American Royals, #1)

2 " When she finally lifted herself up, she was Princess Beatrice no longer. She had become Her Majesty Beatrice Regina, Queen of America, and long may she reign. "

― Katharine McGee , American Royals (American Royals, #1)

3 " Inside was a miniature incandescent, one of the genetically engineered flowers that attracted light the way magnets attract metal. Already it was drawing some of the light from the room toward it, taking on a sort of ghostly glow, though it generated none of the light itself. Incandescents were funny; they’d become much cheaper since they were first bred decades ago, because they only lasted a few hours before dying. But they were truly beautiful if you caught them in the one night they bloomed. "

― Katharine McGee , The Thousandth Floor (The Thousandth Floor, #1)

4 " Her mind was jumbled, everything blurred together and confused; but from the tangled knot of her feelings she had extracted a single crucial thread "

― Katharine McGee , The Thousandth Floor (The Thousandth Floor, #1)

5 " Usually she looked all bright and sunshiny, but the dark stones captured something else in her, the shadows flitting across her face and along the curve of her collarbone. "

― Katharine McGee , The Thousandth Floor (The Thousandth Floor, #1)

6 " The car lurched forward like a living thing, the needle on the speedometer spiking up to fifty, then eighty, then ninety. The entire world seemed to shrink to a silent pinpoint. Rylin lost all sense of time or place. There was nothing but this, the car beneath them and the curve of the road before them and the rush of her blood pumping hot and fast through her veins. The landscape flashed past, a blur of sky and dark forest punctuated only by the yellow line glowing on the road.
The wind pulled her hair in a loose tangle around her shoulders. She could feel Cord looking at her and she wanted to remind him to keep his eyes on the road but something told her she didn’t need to. He let his right hand fall over the middle console, driving only with his left, and Rylin reached for it. Neither of them spoke. "

― Katharine McGee , The Thousandth Floor (The Thousandth Floor, #1)

7 " The touch of his lips on hers was featherlight, tentative, uncertain. She closed her eyes as the kiss sent a thrill through her body, until it felt like her hair was standing on end, like her whole body was a live wire, humming with electricity. "

― Katharine McGee , The Thousandth Floor (The Thousandth Floor, #1)

8 " Good luck in there," he called out, but Avery was already a world away. "

― Katharine McGee , The Thousandth Floor (The Thousandth Floor, #1)

9 " Her arm was outstretched, as though she were reaching for someone she loved, or maybe to ward off some unspoken danger, or maybe even in regret over something she had done. The girl had certainly made enough mistakes in her too-short lifetime. But she couldn’t have known that they would all come crashing down around her tonight.
After all, no one goes to a party expecting to die. "

― Katharine McGee , The Dazzling Heights (The Thousandth Floor, #2)

10 " There was a nebulous, infectious energy to her, as if she were somehow more *alive* than everyone else. As if all her nerves were sparking at once, just below the surface. "

― Katharine McGee , American Royals (American Royals, #1)

11 " There was a downpour coming; Avery could feel it. The wind was already gaining strength, tearing out the last of her hairpins, whipping her dress close to her body. The air was heavy with the scent of rain. Avery's thoughts circled frantically in her mind, pressing so hard she thought she would burst.
A falcon that had been perched farther along the railing turned a beady eye on her, curious. Avery watched it unfurl its wings and take off. She felt a sudden kinship with the bird, the way it flew screaming into the sky like a wild thing. She wished she could follow it straight into the gathering storm. "

― Katharine McGee , The Thousandth Floor (The Thousandth Floor, #1)

12 " If you aren't sure, then you definitely aren't in love. "

― Katharine McGee , The Thousandth Floor (The Thousandth Floor, #1)

13 " I believe in happiness. I'm just not sure love will actually get you there. "

― Katharine McGee , The Thousandth Floor (The Thousandth Floor, #1)

14 " Love and trust aren't the same thing. "

― Katharine McGee , The Thousandth Floor (The Thousandth Floor, #1)

15 " I've missed you, Eris. You and me, we kind of deserve each other, don't we? "

― Katharine McGee , The Thousandth Floor (The Thousandth Floor, #1)

16 " It seemed like no time at all had passed, like it was summer again and she and Cord were playing their games—and yet everything was different. It was like an echo of that time, a little less sharp, a little less thrilling. They had both changed too much. "

― Katharine McGee , The Thousandth Floor (The Thousandth Floor, #1)

17 " For an impossibly brief instant, Avery was in the dark while Atlas seemed illuminated from behind—light streaming around him, gilding the edges of his form, making him into something almost otherworldly. It seemed suddenly impossible that he was real, and here, and hers.
And in truth, it was impossible. Everything about their relationship kept proving impossible at every turn, yet somehow they had willed it into being. "

― Katharine McGee , The Dazzling Heights (The Thousandth Floor, #2)

18 " There was nowhere they could go; nowhere that the truth of who they were, the forbiddenness of their love, wouldn’t come chasing them.
Maybe love wasn’t enough after all. Not when every last obstacle was arrayed against you, all the odds stacked to make you fail. When the entire world was keeping you apart.
“Okay,” Avery said, as the universe quietly rent itself in two. "

― Katharine McGee , The Dazzling Heights (The Thousandth Floor, #2)

19 " She couldn’t take it anymore—she flung herself into Atlas’s arms and kissed him, over and over, and this time Atlas returned the kisses, returned them wildly and passionately, and it made Avery’s heart break because she knew deep down that he was kissing her good-bye. She clung tighter to him, pressing her body the whole length of his, trying to hold him so close that he could never leave, as if she might anchor him here through sheer force of will. She wished she could snatch each kiss from the air and tuck it away somewhere safe, because each kiss was one kiss closer to the final kiss of all. "

― Katharine McGee , The Dazzling Heights (The Thousandth Floor, #2)

20 " Verhalen vormen de enige echte magie. Een verhaal kan de onmogelijke afstand tussen individuen overbruggen, ons uit ons eigen leven tillen en in dat van iemand anders zetten, al is het maar voor even. Onze honger naar verhalen maakt ons tot mens. We verlangen in het bijzonder naar verhalen die ons blij maken. Verhalen slaan ergens op, terwijl dat voor de echte wereld niet geldt. Want verhalen zijn de opgeschoonde versie van het echte leven, een gedestilleerde versie van het menselijke gedrag die komischer, tragischer en perfecter is dan het echte leven. In een goed gemaakte holo zitten geen doodlopende verhaallijnen of willekeurige opnames. Als de camera op een detail inzoomt, moet je opletten, want dat detail heeft een cruciale betekenis, die nog duidelijk zal worden. Zo is het echte leven niet. In het echte leven leiden de aanwijzingen niet per definitie tot iets. Wegen lopen dood. Geliefden maken geen heroïsche romantische gebaren. Mensen zeggen lelijke dingen en vertrekken zonder afscheid te nemen en lijden op onzinnige manieren. Verhaallijnen worden zonder ontknoping losgelaten. Soms hebben we een verhaal nodig - één dat goed in elkaar steekt, opbeurend is - om de wereld te helpen weer ergens op te slaan. Er zijn geen gelukkige eindes in het echte leven, omdat er in het leven geen eindes zijn, alleen momenten van verandering. Er is altijd een nieuw avontuur, een nieuwe uitdaging, een nieuwe mogelijkheid om geluk te vinden of weg te jagen. Ik wil holografie studeren omdat het mijn droom is om verhalen te creëren. Ik hoop dat mijn holo's mensen op een dag inspireren om de wereld beter achter te laten dan ze hem aantroffen. Om in ware liefde te geloven. Om dapper genoeg te zijn om voor geluk te vechten. "

― Katharine McGee , The Towering Sky (The Thousandth Floor, #3)