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Megan Whalen Turner Quotes
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Megan Whalen Turner is an American writer of fantasy fiction for young adults. She received her BA with honors in English language and literature from the University of Chicago in 1987. She is best known for her series of young adult novels primarily revolving around a character named Eugenides. Turner has no name for the series herself, but fans have coined it The Queen's Thief. The first book in the series, The Thief, won a Newbery Honor award. The second, third, and fourth books in the series are The Queen of Attolia, The King of Attolia, and A Conspiracy of Kings. The latest book in the series is Thick as Thieves. Turner has also published a collection of short stories, Instead of Three Wishes. Additional work includes the short story, "The Baby in the Night Deposit Box," published in a collection called Firebirds, edited by Sharyn November. "The Baby in the Night Deposit Box" was selected for The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror. She has also written three uncollected short stories, Thief!, “Destruction,” and "Eddis," which are set in the world of The Queen's Thief.

Her husband is the cognitive scientist Mark Turner.

✵ 1965   •   Other names מייגן ויילן טרנר
Megan Whalen Turner photo
Megan Whalen Turner: 95   quotes 0   likes

Megan Whalen Turner Quotes

“I thought that being king meant I didn't have to kill people myself. I see know that was another misconception.”

Megan Whalen Turner The King of Attolia

Source: The King of Attolia

People

“Who knows but that you will get up to find that the world has inverted itself yet again?”

Megan Whalen Turner The King of Attolia

Source: The King of Attolia

World

“I know that if you don't look for an alternative, Sophos, you certainly won't find one.”

Megan Whalen Turner book A Conspiracy of Kings

Source: A Conspiracy of Kings

“She was the stone-faced queen, then and ever after. She had needed the mask to rule, and she had been glad to have it. She wondered if Eugenides was glad of his.”

Megan Whalen Turner The Queen of Attolia

Source: The Queen of Attolia

“We are taught to treat a practice sword with all the respect of a real weapon, so no thoughtless mistakes are made"
"Oh… In Eddis, we learn to keep tack of the weapon we have in our hand.”

Megan Whalen Turner The King of Attolia

Source: The King of Attolia

Learning

“That one,"-he nodded toward the closed door-" will rule more than just Attolia before he is done. He is an Annux, a king of kings.”

Megan Whalen Turner The King of Attolia

Source: The King of Attolia

“The younger one looked to be completely useless.”

Megan Whalen Turner The Thief

Source: The Thief

“The queen!" someone shouted in alarm, and the King erupted like a wild animal caught in a snare.”

Megan Whalen Turner The King of Attolia

Source: The King of Attolia

Animals

“The queen was settling on the edge of the bed, ungainly with hesitation and at the same time exquisite in her grace, like a heron landing in a treetop.”

Megan Whalen Turner The King of Attolia

Source: The King of Attolia

Time

“The Thieves of Eddis don't have breaking points. We have flash points instead, like gunpowder.”

Megan Whalen Turner The King of Attolia

Source: The King of Attolia

“If I couldn't be Eddis, I would be Attolia. If they needed to see my uncle in me, then I would show him to them. And I would take Attolia's advice because if I identified my enemy and destroyed him, Sounis would be safe.”

Megan Whalen Turner book A Conspiracy of Kings

Source: A Conspiracy of Kings

“That was the message. For me, alone among mortals, the gods send their messenger to tell me to stop whining. That’ll teach me to go hide in a temple.”

Megan Whalen Turner The Queen of Attolia

Source: The Queen of Attolia

God

“Today, she had yielded the sovereignty of her country to Eugenides, who had given up everything he had ever hoped for, to be her King.”

Megan Whalen Turner The King of Attolia

Source: The King of Attolia

Hope , Country

“As a ten-year-old boy, the Thief of Eddis could stop a grown man in his tracks with a single look. Where had that look gone?”

Megan Whalen Turner The King of Attolia

Source: The King of Attolia

Boy

“I wouldn't destroy an entire house to destroy one man. But I would destroy a man to destroy a house.”

Megan Whalen Turner The King of Attolia

Source: The King of Attolia

Housing

“Wrong arm, dear.”

Megan Whalen Turner The King of Attolia

Source: The King of Attolia

“As soon as the guards where gone, I lay down on my stone bench and dumped the king and his threats out of my head without ceremony. They were too unpleasant to worry over anyway.”

Megan Whalen Turner The Thief

Source: The Thief

“The factory doesn't like to hear too much talk about things it doesn't believe in. Contrary to what you may have heard, the factory has never found a single problem caused by ghosts. So if you meet any ectoplasmic spirits up there in the high crane, I suggest you be polite and they'll probably be polite right back. You're up there alone for fourteen hours a day, and you might find it's nice to have someone to talk to.”

Megan Whalen Turner

The Foreman
Instead of Three Wishes, Factory

Problem

“If a man who claims to see the future is a fool,
how much more so, the man who believes he can control it?
We think we steer the ship of fate,
but all of us are guided by unseen stars.”

Megan Whalen Turner book Thick as Thieves

Enoclitus (Epigraph)
Thick as Thieves

Fate , Future , Star , Fools

“In the shocked aftermath, I said, "We'll give them a second chance."”

Megan Whalen Turner book A Conspiracy of Kings

With my right hand, I reached to the other pocket. I had known as soon as I lifted the false bottom of the gun case and looked underneath what it meant. I had tried without ceasing to find some alternative to Attolia's ruthless advice, and I had failed. Gen's fit reassured me that iI had not failed for lack of trying. He had seen no other solution himself.
I lifted out the matching gun and read the archaic inscription. Realisa onum. Not "The queen made me," but "I make the king."
A Conspiracy of Kings

Chance

“You have heard the queen's advice. My gift is below. Would you wait to see it until you have decided what you will do with hers?”

Megan Whalen Turner book A Conspiracy of Kings

Eugenides to Sophos
A Conspiracy of Kings (2010)

Waiting

“In my experience, the more you know of the gods, the more you know what you cannot understand.”

Megan Whalen Turner book A Conspiracy of Kings

Eddis
A Conspiracy of Kings (2010)

God , Understanding

“Nothing mortals make lasts; nothing the gods make endures forever.”

Megan Whalen Turner The Queen of Attolia

An unnamed goddess
The Queen of Attolia (2000)

God