Bec McMaster > Bec's Quotes

“If you can repress for a moment your spinster-like longing to meddle in my affairs,’ said Lymond cuttingly, from the door, ‘I am waiting to go.”
― Dorothy Dunnett, Pawn in Frankincense

“He’d heard of this woman. The Dame de Doubtance, they called her: a madwoman and a caster of horoscopes. Gaultier gave her house-room and men and women came to her from all the known world and had their futures foretold—if she felt like it. She had given some help once to Lymond, on her own severe terms, because of a distant link, it was said, with his family. Plainly, a crazy old harridan. But if she was going to tell Lymond he ought to find a nice girl and marry her, Jerott wanted very much to be there.”
― Dorothy Dunnett, Pawn in Frankincense

“Then Lymond’s voice, the chill gone, said, ‘Don’t be an ass, Jerott? You know I can’t do without you.’ It was an obvious answer. But it was also something Jerott had never had from Lymond before: an apology and an appeal both at once.”
― Dorothy Dunnett, Pawn in Frankincense

“Philippa’s letter, from an afflicted conscience, was not very much longer. … if I don’t look for him, no one else will. You know I’m sorry. But I couldn’t leave that little thing to wither away by itself Don’t be sad. We’re all going to come back. And you can teach him Two Legs and I Wot a Tree, and save him the top of the milk for his blackberry pie. He’ll never know, if we’re quick, that nobody wanted him.… Which had, Kate considered as she scrubbed off her tears, a ring of unlikely confidence about it, as well as rather a shaky understanding of the diet of one-year-old babies.”
― Dorothy Dunnett, Pawn in Frankincense

“It doesn’t do my self-esteem much good though, does it?’

‘Your self-esteem has had a lifetime of steady attention,’ said Philippa abstractedly.”
― Dorothy Dunnett, Checkmate

“They always gives me bath salts," complained Nobby. "And bath soap and bubble bath and herbal bath lumps and tons of bath stuff and I can't think why, 'cos it's not as if I hardly ever has a bath. You'd think they'd take the hint, wouldn't you?”
― Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

“OH, THERE HAS TO BE SOMETHING IN THE STOCKING THAT MAKES A NOISE, said Death. OTHERWISE, WHAT IS 4:30 A.M. FOR?”
― Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

“I opened a writing app and began typing what I knew about Pierce.
Vain. Terminal fear of T-shirts or any other garment that would cover his pectorals.
Deadly. Doesn't hesitate to kill. Holding him at gunpoint would result in me being barbecued. Whee.
Likes burning things. Now here's an understatement. Good information to have, but not useful for finding him.
Antigovernment. Neither here nor there.
Hmm. So far my best plan would be to build a mountain of gasoline cans and explosives, stick a Property of US Government sign on it, and throw a T-shirt over Pierce's head when he showed up to explode it. Yes, this would totally work.”
― Ilona Andrews, Burn for Me

“Yes, I'm a hermit. Mostly I brood," Mad Rogan said. "Also, I'm very good at wallowing in self-pity. I spend my days steeped in melancholy, looking out the window. Occasionally a single tear quietly rolls down my cheek.”
― Ilona Andrews, Burn for Me

“If you’re really hard up, I can introduce you to my grandmother. She’s a fan.” Adam blinked. “She doesn’t typically sleep with pretty young things, but she would make an exception in your case. You might even learn a trick or two.”
― Ilona Andrews, Burn for Me

“[Phoebe Broome] 'Well,' she said at last. 'You've now met my father. At his worst.'
[Lord Vladimir] 'Being myself widely considered my family's most difficult member, I would not presume to comment.'
'That is... gentlemanly of you.”
― Alison Sinclair, Lightborn

“Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.”
― Anton Chekhov

“Riley, you're the Devil, and I'd gladly sell you my soul, if you didn't already own it..." - Luc Wade”
― Bec McMaster, Nobody's Hero

“Kidnapping you was the worst idea I ever had." - Luc Wade”
― Bec McMaster, Nobody's Hero

“I will give you my days... but, my dear sorceress, your nights are mine.”
― Bec McMaster, Shadowbound

“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

“It was one of the occasions when Lymond asleep wrecked the peace of mind of more people than Lymond awake.”
― Dorothy Dunnett, Queens' Play

“The coast's a jungle of Moors, Turks, Jews, renegades from all over Europe, sitting in palaces built from the sale of Christian slaves. There are twenty thousand men, women and children in the bagnios of Algiers alone. I am not going to make it twenty thousand and one because your mother didn't allow you to keep rabbits, or whatever is at the root of your unshakable fixation."

"I had weasels instead," said Philippa shortly.

"Good God," said Lymond, looking at her. "That explains a lot.”
― Dorothy Dunnett, Pawn in Frankincense

“I have learned,’ said Lymond, ‘that kindness without love is no kindness.”
― Dorothy Dunnett, Pawn in Frankincense

“And the English army, wheeling, started south at a gallop over the hill pass into Ettrick, followed by twenty men and eight hundred sheep in steel helmets.”
― Dorothy Dunnett, The Disorderly Knights

“Kate viewed him suspiciously. “I don’t see why I should abandon my entertainment because of your conscience.”

“It isn’t quite conscience so much as horrified admiration,” said Lymond.”
― Dorothy Dunnett, The Game of Kings

“Depose him,’ said Will Scott, astonished.

‘The Grand Master’s holy office terminates with his life.’

‘And can nobody think of an answer to that?’ said Will Scott.”
― Dorothy Dunnett, The Disorderly Knights