T.M. White > T.M.'s Quotes

“In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

“I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Happy Prince and Other Stories

“How is that cut doing?" His tone had the perfect degree of unconcerned concern.

"Don't worry, my trigger finger is just fine.”
― Bard Constantine, New Haven Blues

“And what exactly is it that you do?"

"I do pretty much what the name implies. I shoot trouble.”
― Bard Constantine, New Haven Blues

“After all, what can a first impression tell us about someone we’ve just met for a minute in the lobby of a hotel? For that matter, what can a first impression tell us about anyone? Why, no more than a chord can tell us about Beethoven, or a brushstroke about Botticelli. By their very nature, human beings are so capricious, so complex, so delightfully contradictory, that they deserve not only our consideration, but our reconsideration—and our unwavering determination to withhold our opinion until we have engaged with them in every possible setting at every possible hour.”
― Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow

“She is dead. Almost certainly dead. Nearly conclusively dead. She is, at the very least, not answering her telephone.”
― Catherynne M. Valente, Radiance

“Buck up, baby blowfish. Just puff up bigger than your sadness and scare it right off. That's the only way to live in the awful old ocean.”
― Catherynne M. Valente, Radiance

“There's more hunger in the world than love.”
― Marjorie M. Liu, Monstress, Volume 1: Awakening

“To quote the poets... we're fucked.”
― Marjorie M. Liu, Monstress, Volume 1: Awakening

“Guilt accretes. It builds and builds, whittling stairways and spires in the heart until a person can carry a city of hopelessness inside them.
My guilt was building a universe.”
― Roshani Chokshi, A Crown of Wishes

“Her eyes snapped open and she was instantly awake, alert, and ready. “Thank you, Ensign,” she said.
Kember saluted unsteadily, her face drained of blood.
“Oh, and Ensign?” Josette said, before the girl left. “That request for you to throw yourself over the side and fall straight to Hell was not a formal order. You may feel free to disregard it.”
― Robyn Bennis, The Guns Above

“Have all beautiful things sad destinies?”
― Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea

“I watched her die many times. In my way, not in hers. In sunlight, in shadow, by moonlight, by candlelight. In the long afternoons when the house was empty. Only the sun was there to keep us company. We shut him out. And why not? Very soon she was as eager for what's called loving as I was - more lost and drowned afterwards.”
― Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea

“I have claimed that Escape is one of the main functions of fairy-stories, and since I do not disapprove of them, it is plain that I do not accept the tone of scorn or pity with which 'Escape' is now so often used. Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls?”
― J.R.R. Tolkien

“Yes, Minister, it turns out that there was a mysterious force that caused that plane to crash. We call it gravity.”
― Daniel O'Malley, The Rook

“According to Thomas, the city [of Bath] had once been a veritable hotbed of manifestations, with every sorcerer, bunyip, golem, goblin, pict, pixie, demon, thylacine, gorgon, moron, cult, scum, mummy, rummy, groke, sphinx, minx, muse, flagellant, diva, reaver, weaver, reaper, scabbarder, scabmettler, dwarf, midget, little person, leprechaun, marshwiggle, totem, soothsayer, truthsayer, hatter, hattifattener, imp, panwere, mothman, shaman, flukeman, warlock, morlock, poltergeist, zeitgeist, elemental, banshee, manshee, lycanthrope, lichenthrope, sprite, wight, aufwader, harpy, silkie, kelpie, klepto, specter, mutant, cyborg, balrog, troll, ogre, cat in shoes, dog in a hat, psychic and psychotic seemingly having decided that this was the hot spot to visit.”
― Daniel O'Malley, The Rook

“You look like Cinderella," said Val in awe.
"Yeah, if she'd been into bondage and had Christian Dior for a godmother.”
― Daniel O'Malley, The Rook

“OMG YOU GUYS it has come to my attention that SOMEONE on the internet is saying that my fictional 19th century zombies are NOT SCIENTIFICALLY SOUND. Naturally, I am crushed. To think, IF ONLY I’d consulted with a zombologist or two before sitting down to write, I could’ve avoided ALL THIS EMBARRASSMENT.”
― Cherie Priest

“It's not like there's a law against flying."

"Yes there is. The law of gravity.”
― Laini Taylor, Daughter of Smoke & Bone

“Hope can be a powerful force. Maybe there's no actual magic in it, but when you know what you hope for most and hold it like a light within you, you can make things happen, almost like magic.”
― Laini Taylor, Daughter of Smoke & Bone

“You threw me to the crows, but it turns out I prefer them to you.”
― Madeline Miller, Circe