Steven Brust > Steven's Quotes

“History has remembered the kings and warriors, because they destroyed; art has remembered the people, because they created.”
― William Morris

“I’ve no surety that it is. I know only parts of what I feel; I may be misnaming the whole. You dwell in my mind like a household spirit. All that I think is followed with, ‘I shall tell that thought to Eddi.’ Whatever I see or hear is colored by what I imagine you will say of it. What is amusing is twice so, if you have laughed at it. There is a way you have of turning your head, quickly with a little tilt, that seems more wonderful to me than the practiced movements of dancers. All this, taken together, I’ve come to think of as love, but it may not be.

It is not a comfortable feeling. But I find that, even so, I would wish the same feeling on you. The possibility that I suffer it alone–that frightens me more than all the host of the Unseelie Court.”
― Emma Bull, War for the Oaks

“Sometimes, she reflected, she dressed for courage, sometimes for success, and sometimes for the consolation of knowing that whatever else went wrong, at least she liked her clothes.”
― Emma Bull, War for the Oaks

“She lifted her head. "It's easier," she said, slowly, "to be angry on someone else's behalf than on my own. And yet I find I have a well of anger in me, that I have been filling for years from my own hurts. If I spill it out in defense of another, I can deny it's mine.”
― Emma Bull, Finder

“It occurs to me to wonder: do I believe in any god, or even positively not believe, as James does? I believe in systems and methods. I believe in the beauties of philosophy and poetry. I believe that the work we do and leave behind us is our afterlife; and I believe that history lies, but sometimes so well that I can't bring myself to resent it. I believe that truth is beauty, but not, I'm afraid, the reverse. It doesn't seem sufficient to sustain one in life's rigorous moments. Perhaps I shall embrace Islam. Its standards for poetry seem very high.”
― Emma Bull, Freedom & Necessity

“Coincidence is the word we use when we can't see the levers and pulleys.”
― Emma Bull

“She has her own glamour, Willy lad. All poets do, all the bards and artists, all the musicians who truly take the music into their own hearts. They all straddle the border of Faerie, and they see into both worlds. Not dependably into either, perhaps, but that uncertainty keeps them honest and at a distance.”
― Emma Bull, War for the Oaks

“You have to break an omelette to make eggs.”
― Emma Bull, Finder

“If you were anyone else, I'd tell you it's unbecoming to gloat."
But you'd tell me..."
That even gloating becomes you. It's a sad thing, an intelligent woman in love.”
― Emma Bull, Freedom & Necessity

“Tattooists are the new priests for the fucked-up and the thrown away. They speak the language of symbol, and administer penance in tiny metallic lashes.”
― Skyler White, and Falling, Fly

“But he’s genuine twenty-first-century and only faking patience.”
― Skyler White, and Falling, Fly

“Beliefs are what you know without choosing to. Just believe.”
― Skyler White, and Falling, Fly

“Desire denied consumes”
― Skyler White, and Falling, Fly

“You’ll have to excuse Harry. He has what I call ‘chauffeured child syndrome.’ ” “He’s been driven all his life?” “That is correct. He has no drive of his own at all.”
― Skyler White, and Falling, Fly

“I meet the answering machine’s small, steady stare. “What do you do when God tells you no?” I ask. But it doesn’t answer me, so I undress for bed”
― Skyler White, and Falling, Fly

“The whole island is spotted with derelict cottages and abandoned churches like this one. They sit in pastures as invisible to the Irish as a mother is to a teenage girl.”
― Skyler White, and Falling, Fly

“Besides, two kinds of people have the courage to make someone else's decisions: the hero, who comes to your rescue when you can't even cry out for help, and the tyrant. The only difference between them is the hero listens. As soon as you can talk, he'll put you down if you say so.”
― Skyler White, The Incrementalists

“His laugh was all mustache and no dimple.”
― Skyler White, The Incrementalists

“He shoved the curtains back and looked into the yard like it’d better not have anything to say about it.”
― Skyler White, The Incrementalists