Alanna: All I know is that I'm to jump when I'm told, and I have no free time.

— Tamora Pierce

Alanna didn't approve of lying, but in a pinch a lie was sometimes better than the truth.

— Tamora Pierce

Alan, you seem to think we won't like you unless you do things just like everyone else. Have you ever thought we might like you because you're different?

— Tamora Pierce

All these nice clothes, all these jokes and drinks and food, what good does it do? Tomorrow, folk will be poor and starving and dying with a solder's pike in them, and these people will have another celebration, more nice clothes, more jokes, more gems. The suffering is forgotten or ignored - why sorrow? The war victims aren't our people. And then the wheel turns, and suddenly they are our people.

— Tamora Pierce

And now you're off to Port Can. Watch them sailor lads. They'll have your skirts up and a babe in your belly fore you know what you're about."" Everyone keep warning me about sailors," I complained. "Why can't someone tell the sailors to stay clear of me?" Granny snorted. "Oh, you're the fierce one now! Just take care no one else catches you unawares and knocks you on the nob!

— Tamora Pierce

And she told you something about yourself you really ought to know: that you're beautiful, and worth loving.

— Tamora Pierce

As long as there's life, there's hope.

— Tamora Pierce

Briar: "So I guess I was the last to know." Rose thorn: "Of course you are. You're a man, aren't you?

— Tamora Pierce

Briar: "They never tell you some things. They tell you mages have wonderful power, and they learn all kinds of secrets. Nobody ever mentions that some secrets you don't ever want to learn." Rose thorn: "All you can do is learn good to balance the bad. Learn and do all the good within your reach. Then, if you wake in a sweat, you have something to set against the dream.

— Tamora Pierce

Cats aren’t special advisers. They advise us all the time, whether we want them to or no.

— Tamora Pierce