Naomi Novik Quotes

“I am very tired of this Government, which I have never seen, and which is always insisting that I must do disagreeable things, and does no good to anybody.”

“He wasn’t a person, he was a lord and a wizard, a strange creature on another plane entirely, as far removed as storms and pestilence.”

“I had hated him, but I wouldn't have reproached him, any more than I would have reproached a bolt of lightning for striking my house. He wasn't a…”

“There was a song in this forest, too, but it was a savage song, whispering of madness and tearing and rage.”

“You’ve been inexpressibly lucky,” he said finally. “And inexpressibly mad, although in your case the two seem to be the same thing”

“He snorted. “He thinks killing a day-old hydra has made him a hero.” None of the songs had ever mentioned the Vandalus Hydra being one day old: it diminished the story more than a little.”

“Next you will cry about taxation without representation, and throw a basket of tea into the harbor. You are indeed a very Jacobin at heart, and I think I must give up trying to cure you of it; I can but wash my hands and deny responsibility”

“I don't think I can do it alone," I said. I had a feeling thewasn't really meant to be cast alone: as if truth didn't mean anything without someone to share it with.”

“It seems to me that if you wish to apply laws to us, it were only reasonable to consult us on them, and from what you have read to me about Parliament, I do not think any dragons are invited to go there”

“It seems to me after a fellow has been mutinied against three or four times, there is something to it besides bad luck.”

“It comes, I suppose,” I said thoughtfully, speaking to the air, “of spending too much time alone indoors, and forgetting that living things don’t always stay where you put them.”

“Well, I would have struck him, but I would have had to get up. You have no notion how difficult it is to arrange skirts when sitting down; it took me five minutes together the first time.”

“If you don't want a man dead, don't bludgeon him over the head repeatedly.”

“truth didn’t mean anything without someone to share it with; you could shout truth into the air forever, and spend your life doing it, if someone didn’t come and listen.”

“And I wasn't old enough to be wise, so I loved her more, not less, because I knew she would be taken from me soon.”

“I should rather have you than a heap of gold, even if it were very comfortable to sleep on.”

“What an unequaled gift for disaster you have.”

“Listen, you impossible creature," he said, "I'm a century and more older than--"
"Oh, be quiet," I said impatiently.”

“I was a glaring blot on the perfection. But I didn't care: I didn't feel I owed him beauty.”

“I don't want more sense!" I said loudly, beating against the silence of the room. "Not if sense means I'll stop loving anyone. What is there besides people that's worth holding on to?”

“We're meant to go. We're not meant to stay forever.”

“Temeraire said, 'It is very nice how many books there are, indeed. And on so many subjects!”

“But she hadn't been able to take root. She'd remembered the wrong things, and forgotten too much. She'd remembered how to kill and how to hate, and she'd forgotten how to grow.”

“It is quite uninteresting; that is why one comes out.”

“Magic was singing in me, through me; I felt the murmur of his power singing back that same song.”

“I wanted to rub handprints through his dust”

“The Dragon hissed under his breath with annoyance: how dare a chimaera inconvenience him, coming out of season.”

“I’m not stupid, nor a liar,” I said, “and if I can’t do any good, I can at least do something”

“His name tasted of fire and wings, of curling smoke, of subtlety and strength and the rasping whisper of scales.”

“Would you believe it's harder to find a virgin than a unicorn in New York?”

“Those men want to take Laurence from me, and put him in prison, and execute him, and I will not let them, ever, and I do not care if Laurence tells me not to squash you," he added, fiercely, to Lord Barham.”

“Two lords and an archduke had asked her to marry them, and so, she wrote to me in outrage, had Solya.”

“I am beginning to feel the need of a glass of wine to fortify myself against this conversation.”

“He roared at me furiously for ten minutes after he finally managed to put out the sulky and determined fire, calling me a witless muttonheaded spawn of pig farmers-"My father's a wood-cutter," I said- "adOf axe-swinging lummocks!" he snarled.”

“Justice is expensive. That is why there is so little of it, and it is reserved for those few with enough money and influence to afford it.”