Alyssa Cole > Quotes

“Women helped each other in ways small and large every day, without thinking, and that was what kept them going even when the world came up with new and exciting ways to crush them.”
― Alyssa Cole, Let Us Dream

“People focused so much on the prince slipping on Cinderella’s lost shoe that they didn’t realize the real happily ever after was the moment she realized she was brave enough to go to the damned ball alone in the first place. “I’m not waiting around for some fuckboy to bring me a shoe. I’m here, working for you. I’m finding my own shoe,”
― Alyssa Cole, A Duke by Default

“People bury the parts of history they don't like, pave it over like African cemeteries beneath Manhattan skyscrapers.”
― Alyssa Cole, When No One Is Watching

“They can break, but they can't erase," Gracie says. "They can build but they can't bury us.”
― Alyssa Cole, When No One Is Watching

“Sydney.” Theo is grinning as he calls my attention back to him, though his eyes are somber. “I need you to channel the confidence of a mediocre white man. I’ll give you mine. We’ll figure it out because we don’t have any other choice.”
― Alyssa Cole, When No One Is Watching

“Excuse me?”
The librarian looked up again.
“I need help now. I need to print this article and . . . do you have any books about dukes?”
The librarian’s eyes went wide and she rubbed her hands together with glee. “We have a fantastic romance section,” she said. “Do you need recommendations? How do you like your dukes? Grumpy? Tortured? Alpha, beta, or alpha in the streets, beta in the sheets?”
“Actually, I meant nonfiction,” Portia said glumly.
The librarian sighed. “Aye. Just a warning, love—the non-fic dukes are not nearly as fun.”
― Alyssa Cole, A Duke by Default

“Your success cannot lie in something so tedious as whether you’re liked.”
― Alyssa Cole, How to Catch a Queen

“Don’t you see?” she asked. “This is our homeland, too. We shouldn’t have to wreak havoc on the land to be seen as citizens! We shouldn’t have to.”
― Alyssa Cole, An Extraordinary Union

“Such finery, paid for at the small cost of human lives and dignity.”
― Alyssa Cole, An Extraordinary Union

“How do you like your dukes? Grumpy? Tortured? Alpha, beta, or alpha in the streets, beta in the sheets?”
― Alyssa Cole, A Duke by Default

“He'd been wrong about her, had seen her as some timid woodland creature who might skitter too close to him if she wasn't careful, and get caught in his snare if he wasn't even more careful than her, but in fact she was simply kind. Nothing so benign as nice or pleasant, but kind. There was nothing soft or gentle about that trait in a world that specialized in crushing it.”
― Alyssa Cole, A Prince on Paper

“It seemed the more he cared for her, the more easily he hurt her. Is that what love was? A finely honed blade that would cut at the slightest pressure?”
― Alyssa Cole, An Extraordinary Union

“This misplaced nationalism was another kind of corrupted love, and it was just as unpalatable.”
― Alyssa Cole, An Extraordinary Union

“I need you to channel the confidence of a mediocre white man.”
― Alyssa Cole, When No One Is Watching

“Your Highness. While I admit that you are a fine specimen of a man, being a lesbian is not the only possible reason a woman wouldn’t respond to your attentions.”
― Alyssa Cole, A Princess in Theory

“We don’t want revenge, Malcolm.” She looked at him like he was the densest bastard to ever walk the earth. “We want life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, just like any damned fool in these United States is entitled to so long as he isn’t Black or Red. So you can keep your outrage. All I can do is try to make a difference.”
― Alyssa Cole, An Extraordinary Union

“people who called instead of texting were a plague on humanity—”
― Alyssa Cole, A Princess in Theory

“My neck and chest go hot in a flash and I look away. I should just start building my cabin alongside Fuckboy Creek because obviously it’s where I intend to spend the rest of my days.”
― Alyssa Cole, When No One Is Watching

“Apparently, oh-sure-I’ll-do-that Ledi had been incinerated by the flames of her frustration and I-wish-a-motherfucker-would Ledi had risen from the ashes.”
― Alyssa Cole, A Princess in Theory

“She wondered if this was some new species of fuckboy, an evolved version that was more effective at luring women into its trap before showing its true nature. If that was the case, it was working.”
― Alyssa Cole, A Princess in Theory

“Trust was a funny thing in that people thought they guarded it closely but were often willing to hand it over at the slightest sign of camaraderie.”
― Alyssa Cole, An Extraordinary Union

“Actually, I need to change what I said. Everybody wants something from you, but sometimes there’s a person you want to give to. Sometimes what you give them makes you better for having given it. And it makes having to give to everyone else not so bad.”
― Alyssa Cole, A Princess in Theory

“What twisted providence allowed people so subjugated to be so kind and thoughtful to the people who kept them under their boot?”
― Alyssa Cole, An Extraordinary Union

“This is ridiculous. You’ve climbed Kilimanjaro. You’ve told the Prime Minister of Belgium to get stuffed. You will not be defeated by a chocolate fondue!”
― Alyssa Cole, A Princess in Theory

“I fight for the Union because America is supposed to be a land where people can be free from tyranny, where families aren’t ripped apart to make a profit, where men aren’t whipped for speaking their mind and women aren’t abused worse than brood mares.”
― Alyssa Cole, An Extraordinary Union

“I care because as long as slavery is sanctioned in this world, either directly or tacitly, we are a doomed species. There is no hope for progress, no hope for a world of peace and prosperity, if some men are allowed dominion over others for as arbitrary a reason as skin color.”
― Alyssa Cole, An Unconditional Freedom

“In all the times I'd moved in New York, I'd only thought about how safe the area was for me, not what my presence meant for people in the neighborhood. Not about what advantages I had that they didn't. I was poor, too, after all, even though I had figured out how not to be, for a little white at least.”
― Alyssa Cole, When No One Is Watching

“Asshole postdocs are temporary, but scientific discoveries are forever.”
― Alyssa Cole, A Princess in Theory

“Someone knew about their relationship, and once people knew something existed they could destroy it.”
― Alyssa Cole, An Extraordinary Union

“Ledi wondered how people had ever mistaken the Swiss for a peace-loving people. They had invented those knives and they knew how to use them.”
― Alyssa Cole, A Princess in Theory