#31: Whatever it is ….my sister did it! – Anonymous

#30: To know a sister is to know a paradox. — Patricia Foster

#29: Between sisters, often, the child’s cry never dies down.  “Never leave me,” it says; “do not abandon me.”  — Louise Bernikow

#28: Lord, confound this surly sister, blight her brow with blotch and blister/cramp her larynx, lung and liver, in her guts a galling give her. — J. M. Synge

#27: How can an intelligent woman with any delicacy so humiliate a sister? — Leo Tolstoy
(Anna Karenina)

#26: Bless you, my darling, and remember you are always in the heart – oh tucked so close there is no chance of escape – of your sister.  — Katherine Mansfield

#25: Sister, dear sister, come home … — Jessamyn West

#24: For there is no friend like a sister/in calm or stormy weather/to cheer one on the tedious way/to fetch one if one goes astray/to lift one if one totters down/to strengthen whilst one stands. — Christina G. Rossetti

#23: Help one another, is part of the religion of sisterhood.  — Louisa May Alcott

#22: A sister can be seen as someone who is both ourselves and very much not ourselves – a special kind of double. — Toni Morrison

#21: Sisterly love is, of all sentiments, the most abstract.  Nature does not grant it any functions.  — Ugo Betti

#20: Be kind to thy sister. Not many may know the depths of true sisterly love. — Margaret Courtney

#19: There can be no situation in life in which the conversation of my dear sister will not administer some comfort to me.  — Mary Montagu

#18: The mildest, drowsiest sister has been known to turn tiger if her sibling is in trouble.  — Clara Ortega

#17: I would like more sisters, that the taking out of one, might not leave such stillness.  — Emily Dickinson

#16: Sisters is probably the most competitive relationship within the family, but once the sisters are grown, it becomes the strongest relationship. — Margaret Mead 

#15: We acquire friends and we make enemies, but our sisters come with the territory. — Evelyn Loeb

#14: We must stem the tide of malice, and pour into the wounded bosoms of each other, the balm of sisterly consolation. — Jane Austen

#13: Never let an angry sister comb your hair. – Patricia McCann

#12: My sister! My sweet sister! If a name dearer and purer were, it should be thine. — Lord Byron

#11: I had known, from the time when I could speak, that my sister, in her capricious and violent coercion, was unjust to me.  — Charles Dickens (Great Expectations)

#10: It’s a great comfort to have an artistic sister. — Louisa May Alcott

#9: Never praise a sister to a sister; in hope of your compliments reaching the proper ears.  — Rudyard Kipling

#8: With a sister, one can never fear that success will go to one’s head.  — Charlotte Gray

#7: Is solace anywhere more comforting than in the arms of sisters? — Alice Walker

#6: Two scorpions living in the same hole will get along better than two sisters in the  same house. — Arabian Proverb

#5: You know full well as I do the value of sisters’ affections: There is nothing like it in this  world.  — Charlotte Bronte

#4: A ministering angel shall my sister be. — William Shakespeare (Laertes)

#3: Of two sisters one is always the watcher, one the dancer. — Louise Gluck

#2: Big sisters are the crab grass in the lawn of life. — Charles Schultz (or Linus)

#1: Lord help the mister who comes between me and my sister… — Irving Berlin (White Christmas)

Are you a sister? Do you have a sister? Have you ever longed for a sister — or longed to lock your sister in a closet so she would leave you in peace?

Sleeping Beauty’s Daughters is, among other things, a story about sisters. That’s always a complex relationship, as you know if you answered Yes to any of the questions above. And since it’s one month until the book’s publication, I’ve decided to hold a contest dedicated to sisters. It will go like this:

♦Each day until August 27th, I’ll post a quotation about sisters.

♦To be entered in the contest, you can post your own sister quote, or simply write a comment on this post.

♦On the 27th, I’ll pick a random winner for a SIGNED HARDCOVER copy of Sleeping Beauty’s Daughters!

(One caveat: I’ve only found about 20 good quotes so far. So if I like one of yours, I get to use it!)