A Crown of Wishes Quotes

“Love is like Death without the guarantee of its arrival. Love may not come for you, but when it does it will be just as swift and ruthless as Death and just as blind to your protestations. And just as Death will end one life and leave you with another, so will Love.”
― Roshani Chokshi, A Crown of Wishes

“A story had no owner ship. A story could break its bones, grow wings, soar out of reach and dive out of sight in the time it took just to draw breath. It meant we weren’t walking a cut path. We carved it into existence with
every step.”
― Roshani Chokshi, A Crown of Wishes

“What was magic anyway, but the world beheld by someone who chose to see it differently?”
― Roshani Chokshi, A Crown of Wishes

“Existence is the gift. Life is a choice.”
― Roshani Chokshi, A Crown of Wishes

“He turned to me, mischief glinting in his eyes. “How
do they celebrate good fortune in Bharata? In Ujijain, we kiss.”
“Look elsewhere.”
“Are you sure? You spend an awful amount of time looking at my
lips.”
“That’s only because I’m horrified at the sheer idiocy of the words
leaping out of them.”
― Roshani Chokshi, A Crown of Wishes

“In that moment, he looked like mischief and midnight,
like a temptation that always slipped away too fast and left you at once relieved and disappointed.”
― Roshani Chokshi, A Crown of Wishes

“A story. This was the key to immortality. The things that made kings quiver and deities distrustful: Nothing but a tale.”
― Roshani Chokshi, A Crown of Wishes

“Guilt accretes. It builds and builds, whittling stairways and spires in the heart until a person can carry a city of hopelessness inside them.
My guilt was building a universe.”
― Roshani Chokshi, A Crown of Wishes

“I donned my armor, lining my eyes with kohl until they were dark as death and patting crushed rose petals on my lips until they were scarlet as blood.”
― Roshani Chokshi, A Crown of Wishes

“Find the one who glows, with blood on the lips and fangs in the heart.”
― Roshani Chokshi, A Crown of Wishes

“It felt silly to say that he couldn’t bear to lose her. He never had her. She was not a thing to be possessed. But her entrance in his life had conjured light. And losing the light of her would plunge him into a darkness he’d never find his way out of.”
― Roshani Chokshi, A Crown of Wishes

“People always think killing requires a force: a cup of poison tipped into a mouth, a knife parting flesh from bone, a fist brought down repeatedly.
Wrong.
Here’s how you kill: You stay silent, you make bargains that peel the layers off your soul one by one, you build a scaffolding of flimsy excuses and live your life on them. I may have killed to save, but I killed all the same.”
― Roshani Chokshi, A Crown of Wishes

“Surviving isn’t just about cutting out your heart and burning every feeling into ash. Sometimes it means taking what ever is thrown at you, beautiful or grotesque, poisonous or blissful, and carving out your life with the pieces you’re given.”
― Roshani Chokshi, A Crown of Wishes

“True war isn’t philosophical.”
“All war is philosophical. That’s why we call it war. Strip it of its paint and it’s nothing more than murder.”
― Roshani Chokshi, A Crown of Wishes

“What do I call you? ” he asked, turning to me. “The ‘Jewel
of Bharata’ just seems too modest, don’t you think? ”
“Call me Gauri.”
“How intimate.”
I glared. “Enjoy it, because that’s as intimate as this will ever get, Fox Prince.”
― Roshani Chokshi, A Crown of Wishes

“Vicious and sweet,” said Vikram, shaking his head. “Beastly girl.”
“You like me, don’t lie,” I teased.
“I couldn’t lie if I tried,” he said quietly.”
― Roshani Chokshi, A Crown of Wishes

“Vikram’s eyes widened. “What’s this? Praise from Her Beastliness in the morning? Are you under a curse that makes you friendly before noon? If so, how do we make it permanent?”
― Roshani Chokshi, A Crown of Wishes

“Stop admiring the view,” he said.
“Critiquing it.”
“What do you find lacking? ”
“Honor.”
“Alas. I must have misplaced it.”
― Roshani Chokshi, A Crown of Wishes

“But for the first time, I wanted to believe in the things that outlasted us: the stories that came to life in a child’s head, the fear of the dark, the hunger to live. Those were the footsteps that not even Time could discover and erase, because they lived far out of reach, in the song of blood coursing through veins and in the quiet threads that made up dreams. I wanted to hold the hope of those tales within me and follow it like a lure all the way back to myself.”
― Roshani Chokshi, A Crown of Wishes

“Have some faith.”
“Between faith and distrust, which one is more likely to keep you alive?”
“And which one is more likely to let you experience living?”
I threw up my hands. “Why is everything so philosophical with you?”
He shrugged. “I like thinking.”
― Roshani Chokshi, A Crown of Wishes

“I never dared to hope for someone who challenged
and respected me, knew me at my worst and still coaxed out my best. And yet I had found that in the unlikeliest of places and most inconvenient of people. Wasn’t that enough to fight for? Could I live with knowing that I’d left him standing in the shadows . . . waiting for me?
I couldn’t. And that was all the answer I needed.”
― Roshani Chokshi, A Crown of Wishes

“But Vikram had seen through every facet, holding me against the light as if I truly were translucent, and instead of making me feel as if I had been looked through and found wanting, I felt . . . seen.”
― Roshani Chokshi, A Crown of Wishes

“Ah, desire. Such a poisonous thing.”
― Roshani Chokshi, A Crown of Wishes

“Beauty, coveted though it was, could not outlive you. Only actions would.”
― Roshani Chokshi, A Crown of Wishes

“And the truth was that he was not afraid of being seen for what he was. He was afraid of being seen as someone who could never be more.”
― Roshani Chokshi, A Crown of Wishes

“He stared at me. “Are you done? ”
“Yes.”
“May I get up? ”
“No.”
“I see you like your men with their egos gutted.”
“Only when I’m feeling generous.”
― Roshani Chokshi, A Crown of Wishes

“The Prince was staring at me strangely. No man had looked at me that way. Men had looked at me in admiration, in fear, in lust. They’d looked at me with disbelief at who I was. He looked at me with disbelief at who I could be.”
― Roshani Chokshi, A Crown of Wishes

“Vikram hated fear. He hated how it fed on him and stripped away his comfortable blindness. Fear forced him to hold up the contents of his heart to the light.”
― Roshani Chokshi, A Crown of Wishes

“Her kiss burned in his bones. And maybe it was the magic of Alaka or maybe his mind was splintering from every thing they’d gone through, but he would have sworn she tasted like cold honey and caught magic.”
― Roshani Chokshi, A Crown of Wishes

“How do you feel? ”
“Like I will die if I don’t eat this apple.”
He considered this. “Then why don’t you bite it? See what happens.”
“Are you mad? ”
“I prefer curious.”
― Roshani Chokshi, A Crown of Wishes