Favorite Quotes from The Girl Who Drank the Moon

Activity Overview

Having students choose a favorite quote or scene from the book allows them to express which parts of the story resonated with them on a personal level. In this way, students are making a text-to-self connection that demonstrates their understanding of the characters and their development or the themes of the novel. Students can share their storyboards afterwards and have a short discussion about what the quotes mean to them.

Some students may end up choosing the same quote, but have different perspectives. This is always interesting for students to see and can open up a discussion as to how not everyone can read the same lines in the same way based on their own perspectives and personal experiences.

Examples of Quotes from The Girl Who Drank The Moon

“Sacrifice one or sacrifice all. That is the way of the world. We couldn’t change it if we tried.”

“Your brother? How could I fight for him? If I had, the Witch would have killed us all and then where would we be? Sacrifice one or sacrifice all. That is the way of the world. We couldn’t change it if we tried. Enough questions. Off with you. Fool child.”

“‘The path to Truth is in the dreaming heart,’ the Poet tells us.”

“We deserve that honor. I mean you deserve it, my dear son.”

“Human babies are only tiny for an instant—their growing up is as swift as the beat of a hummingbird’s wing.”

“I do hope you are able to make at least one person grovel today. It would put to rest so many misgivings among the other Elders.”

“In any case, by denying access, we give our people a gift. They learn to accept their lot in life. They learn that any action is inconsequential. Their days remain, as they should be, cloudy. There is no greater gift than that. Now. Where is my Zirin tea?”

"A story can tell the truth, she knew, but a story can also tell a lie. Stories can bend and twist and obfuscate. Controlling stories is power indeed."

"How many feelings can one heart hold? She looked at her grandmother. At her mother. At the man protecting his family. Infinite, Luna thought. The way the universe is infinite. It is light and dark and endless motion; it is space and time, and space within space, and time within time. And she knew: there is no limit to what the heart can carry."

“Everything you see is in the process of making or unmaking or dying or living. Everything is in a state of change.”

“My love isn't divided," she said. "It is multiplied.”

“Death is always sudden," Glerk said. His eyes had begun to itch. "Even when it isn't.”

“Some of us...choose love over power. Indeed, most of us do.”

“The heart is built of starlight. And time. A pinprick of longing lost in the dark. An unbroken chord linking the Infinite to the Infinite. My heart wishes upon your heart and the wish is granted. Meanwhile the world spins. Meanwhile the universe expands. Meanwhile the mystery of love reveals itself, again and again, in the mystery of you. I have gone. I will return. Glerk”

“It was a fine thing indeed, Luna thought, being eleven. She loved the symmetry of it, and the lack of symmetry. Eleven was a number that was visually even, but functionally not - it looked one way and behaved in quite another. Just like most eleven-year-olds, or so she assumed.”

“And the more they asked, the more they wondered. And the more they wondered, the more they hoped. And the more they hoped, the more the clouds of sorrow lifted, drifted, and burned away in the heat of a brightening sky.”

“When you apologize, however, you may begin healing yourself. It is not for us. It is for you. I recommend it.”

“Curiosity is the curse of the Clever. Or perhaps cleverness is the curse of the Curious. In any case, I am never lacking for either, I’m afraid, which does keep me rather busy.”

“Knowledge is power, but it is a terrible power when it is hoarded and hidden.”