Tiamat's Wrath (The Expanse, #8)

by James S.A. Corey

she gave me the tools to live through it too. She taught us to use everything shameful in our lives as a weapon to humiliate people who would diminish us. That’s the secret, you know.” “What’s the secret?” Kajri smiled. “The people who have power over you are weak too. They shit and bleed and worry that their children don’t love them anymore. They’re embarrassed by the stupid things they did when they were young that everyone else has forgotten. And so they’re vulnerable. We all define ourselves by the people around us, because that’s the kind of monkey we are. We can’t transcend it. So when they watch you, they hand you the power to change what they are too.”

“I’ll die so that people can be fuckups and still find mercy.

And also feeling the deep unease that came from the reminder that being familiar wasn’t the same as being understood.

There’s a moment that everyone eventually experiences when they see that their parents are just people. That these mythic figures in their lives are also struggling and guessing. Doing their best without knowing for certain what their best is.”

I focused so hard on the thing I was afraid of, I ran straight into its arms every single time.”

Wars never ended because one side was defeated. They ended because the enemies were reconciled. Anything else was just a postponement of the next round of violence.

“I’m sorry we couldn’t run away together.” “Maybe in our next lives.”