Before everything happened I wished I had double voice box like a song bird, so I could sing two songs at once, the way a bird can harmonize with itself. I wanted to sing crystal clear notes. I wanted to sing them one after another in ascending order. And at the same time I wanted to let another fountain of notes descends from my heart.

— Karen Foxlee

Big secrets were catastrophic. However hard you try to hide them, they bob to the surface, and you must go over them again and again. They are taken out so often they become worn smooth as a river stone. You have to carry them around you like a baby. The secret grows until you feel like you are a skin that covers it, a thin skin, easily split, ripe

— Karen Foxlee

If we knew everything would change we would have turned back, but we didn't know. That's how things happen. Especially sunny days hide dark moments in their pockets.

— Karen Foxlee

I would be a wedge-tailed eagle. I would only live for the joy of flight. Furthermore, I would soar at great heights, on top of the wind. Furthermore, I would be above everything, over the little towns clinging to the highway. Furthermore, I would be a part of everything.

— Karen Foxlee

Ophelia,' said the boy. He said it very quietly. She didn't like the way he said that at all. He sounded sad and as though he expected more from her.' And how do you know my name anyway?' she said. 'I never told you it, not once.'' I heard it once, a long time ago.' He was full of mysterious sentences like that.

— Karen Foxlee

Ophelia was surprised by how easily she lied. She had two stolen keys in her pocket, and the lies were sliding off her tongue. Soon, she'd probably be shoplifting. She expected that was how it started.

— Karen Foxlee

The problem with magic was that it made her feel very alone.

— Karen Foxlee

This is because secrets are terrible things. Even the simplest ones

— Karen Foxlee

When she stopped kissing him his hand went to her waist to pull her back. The sun beat down on us. The day quivered. The sky was as deep as the ocean. We breathed underwater.

— Karen Foxlee