Naomi Novik citations

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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”

“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.”

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

“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”

“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”

“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.”

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

“I do not think you are in any danger of starving," Maximus said. "The surgeon said only two weeks ago that you are too fat."

"The devil!" Berkley said indignantly, sitting up; and Maximus snorted in amusement at having provoked him.”

“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”

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

“I had forgotten to fear him, from too much time spent too close.”

“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.”

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