Michelle Sagara West > Quotes

“The gods where like the weather; sometimes good, sometimes bad, and either way, always beyond her.”
― Michelle Sagara West, Cast in Shadow

“I'm missing something, aren't I?"
"Brains", he snapped. "And survival instinct. The Hawklord's been waiting for you for three hours."
"Tell him I'm dead.”
― Michelle Sagara West, Cast in Shadow

“Hope is often bitter, but it drives us, and we cling.”
― Michelle Sagara West

“If I need something you can't give, I need to walk away, because sooner or later, all I'll see is what you can't give. I won't be able to see what you can.”
― Michelle Sagara West

“Is this some sort of test?"
"Everything that doesn't kill you is."
"Mind you," he added, "surviving doesn't always mean you passed.”
― Michelle Sagara West, Cast In Secret

“ Generally, I like to appear smart. I don't admit being stupid when there's any hope I'm not.”
― Michelle Sagara West, Cast In Secret

“Trying," he said at last, "is good. It always is. But failing? Everyone fails, one time or another. It's how you deal with failure that counts, in the end. It's the successes that you're known for-but it's the failures make you what you are.”
― Michelle Sagara West, The Hidden City

“You'll be with me, won't you?"
"indeed."
"Then what could go wrong?"
Lord Sanabalis visibly grimaced. "You clearly do not believe in angry gods.”
― Michelle Sagara West, Cast In Secret

“The truth was only another mask, even if it was the best fit, the closest to skin and all that lay beneath”
― Michelle Sagara West, The Broken Crown

“Manners,[...] are severly underappreciated in my opinion".
"Oh?"
Where practiced well, they remove the probability that someone in my position will be forced to go through the effort of killing someone in yours. Belive that on occasion that much death can become tedious.”
― Michelle Sagara West, Cast in Silence

“No, time has silverted the dark sheen of her hair, and thickened her body, and lined the corners of her eyes and her lips.

He saw in them the hints of the smile he loved, and knew, to be fair, that time had been no kinder to him. Or perhaps, it had been just as kind; for she did not look the part of a young girl, and she was not: she was stronger, wiser, and more just than the fear of youth allowed; she gave him the shelter that he needed, on the rare occasions that that need drove him. She trusted him, always; she looked up to him, still; he strove, in every way, to continue to live up to her expectation. She was the one person in his life he did not wish to disappoint. ”
― Michelle Sagara West, The Broken Crown

“There wasn't a colloquial phrase, or curse, that went something like, "May your day be full of angry dragons" or, "May every dragon you meet today be pissed off." But, there should have been.”
― Michelle Sagara West, Cast in Ruin

“In youth,' he said, speaking as if from a great distance, 'we believe, and the death of belief forces us to disavow all belief. But that disavowal, time softens, and if we do not believe, we hope. Belief is easier to kill, somehow, and its death easier to bear.”
― Michelle Sagara West, The Broken Crown

“If hearts really could sink, Kaylin's was busily rearranging her internal organs.”
― Michelle Sagara West, Cast In Secret

“When you have all eternity, the word hurry is relative."
"And the guards, being mortal, have less of it, and their version of slugglish doesn't approach your version of fast?"
"Something very like that.”
― Michelle Sagara West, Cast In Secret

“Success and failure are two edges of the same blade, two sides of the same coin. To fear one is to forever deny the possibility of the other.”
― Michelle Sagara West, Cast In Courtlight

“I don't make the laws, I just enforce them."
"Then remind me to introduce a new set of laws, since the ones we have clearly assume a level of common sense that's lacking.”
― Michelle Sagara West, Cast in Ruin

“Sanabalis never seemed to eat, and he deflected most of her questions about Dragon cuisine. Then again, he deflected most of her questions about Dragons, period. Which was annoying because he was one, and could in theory be authorative.”
― Michelle Sagara West, Cast in Silence

“Stay," he said abruptly. "Stay, feed me. Read to me, if you like. Do not talk to me of death. Do not offer me your fear. I have fear of my own to drive me, and if my own fear is not strong enough to keep me from my duty, yours will only grieve me, girl. It will give me guilt and no rest, but it won't preserve my life.”
― Michelle Sagara West, City of Night

“No...if the world demanded their deaths in return for safety, she would have watched it burn.”
― Michelle Sagara West, Cast in Fury

“And I’ll stop with the lecture now. I don’t like people much—they irritate and annoy me. But I’m
fascinated by them anyway.”
― Michelle Sagara West, Cast in Fury

“Is there anyone’s life story you don’t want to know?”

“Not really.” His expression was unexpectedly serious. “Because people make a story of their lives.
Gains, losses, tragedy and triumph—you can tell a lot about someone simply by what they put into each
category. You can learn a lot about what you put into each category by your reaction to them. They
teach you about yourself without ever intending to do it—and they teach you a lot about life.”
― Michelle Sagara West, Cast in Fury

“Teela turned to Severn. "I'm having trouble remembering why I haven't
strangled her yet."
Severn shrugged. "I have that problem myself some days. At the moment,
though, the only betting pool in the office seems to be on the Sergeant."
"Ha-ha." Kaylin said with a distinct lack of cheer. And then, because she
was a fiefling, "What odds?" He cuffed the top of her head.”
― Michelle Sagara West, Cast In Courtlight

“History is not our guide, it is not our friend. It is a passing stranger, one which shadows legend, sprinkling it with the seeds of truth.”
― Michelle Sagara West, Cast in Shadow

“What would this have been, if it had more power to give?"
"This may come as a surprise to you," he replied dryly, "But I am not an Ancient. Nor am I, human philosophy aside, a living construct."
"Which means you don't know."
"Which means, as you so succinctly put it, I do not know." - Kaylin & Tiamaris”
― Michelle Sagara West, Cast in Silence

“Bellusdeo laughed. It was, for a moment, the only sound in the quiet of the fief’s night, and it was warmer and deeper than the lingering night chill. When her laughter faded, she glanced at Kaylin. “I was not like this before. I thought that the Shadows had not touched me.” She lowered her head a moment.
Kaylin understood this, as well. “It seems so unfair,” she finally said.
“Life is unfair. Which part of it pains you?”
“We suffer, and it breaks something. When we win free—by gaining our name, by crossing a bloody bridge—we still live in a cage of scars. If life were fair, we would never have suffered what we suffered at all; having suffered it and survived, we’re still reacting to things that don’t exist anymore.”
“But they did.”
“Yes. I hate that they still define me.” Voice lower, she said to Bellusdeo, “I want that to change. I don’t know how to change it. But I’m willing to spend the rest of my life trying.” Shaking her head, she forced herself to smile; it was surprisingly easy. There was something about Bellusdeo that she liked. “Home is a strange thing.”
“What do you mean?”
“We lose it, and we think it’s gone forever. That’s how I felt the first time I lost mine. It took me years to understand that I could find—and make—another. I couldn’t do it on my own, though; I don’t think—for me—home exists in isolation.”
― Michelle Sagara West, Cast in Ruin

“On the other hand, the last week had pretty much been one waking nightmare after another; if this kept up, her dreams wouldn't have the power to terrify her.”
― Michelle Sagara West, Cast in Ruin

“It didn't matter. If she was to have any hope of saving Bellusdeo and Maggaron now, she needed to finish what she started; the anger and the self-recrimination would just have to wait. She'd no doubt she'd return to it later; unlike laundry, she's never left self-recrimination undone.”
― Michelle Sagara West, Cast in Ruin

“What did she say?'
'She made her displeasure with his existence clear.'
'That's it?'
'She made some claims about how she was going to alleviate her displeasure.”
― Michelle Sagara West, Cast in Ruin

“It's always easier,' he offered at last, 'when you feel these things yourself; seeing them in other people reveals just how ugly they are.”
― Michelle Sagara West, Lady of Mercy