River of Blue Fire Quotes

“She had to find her own story, and she could make it whatever shape she thought best.”
― Tad Williams, River of Blue Fire

“As I continued through the streets, through the smoke of the burnings and the rubble of the fires and explosions--for during the chaos of the quarantine parts of the city had become something like war zones--my heart began to perceive that there was a wound in the material world that no amount of science could heal, that in fact science itself was only the helpful lie told to a dying man.”
― Tad Williams, River of Blue Fire

“If someone had told her that she would be transported to what was for all purposes a magical land, where history could be rewritten at a whim, or people could suddenly be shrunk to the size of poppy seeds, but that at least for this moment, her most pressing concern would have been the absence of cigarettes, she would have thought them mad.”
― Tad Williams, River of Blue Fire

“During its timeless hours of movement and inspection, as it floated on the number-winds and learned from their shape and force, it had become aware of something else, something so far from the conceptual map of the environment it had originally been given as to briefly constitute a new danger to the Nemesis program's logical integrity.”
― Tad Williams, River of Blue Fire

“Always choosing one side of the coin, instead of simply choosing the coin itself. Both have so strongly rejected the other’s side that they will regret it one day.”
― Tad Williams, River of Blue Fire

“Read books? That’s like eating mielie pap—it start out bad, then it get no better.” Joseph took a deep breath and let it out slowly, overburdened by the mere thought of literature.”
― Tad Williams, River of Blue Fire

“So I danced, for that is what I do when my spirit is hungry.”
― Tad Williams, River of Blue Fire

“There was a certain type of hero for whom virginity was a source of great power. Given a choice, Orlando hadn’t really wanted to be that kind of hero.”
― Tad Williams, River of Blue Fire

“Out of silence, a story. Out of chaos, order. Out of nothingness, love . . .”
― Tad Williams, River of Blue Fire

“Ah, but this is Venice.” Eleanora was swaying just a bit. “We are not like Britain, not at all. We know how to dress, we know how to fall in love . . . and we know how to cook.”
― Tad Williams, River of Blue Fire

“Ramsey leaned forward and waggled his fingers in a peacemaking gesture at the dog. Misha’s eyes sprang wide in incredulous fury, then he leaped to his feet in the space behind his mistress’s ankles and began to bark as if he had been scalded.”
― Tad Williams, River of Blue Fire

“Just one moment, then.” She stopped in front of the inner door. “Something is going to happen now. Are you easily frightened?” He couldn’t puzzle out her expression. “Frightened?” Good God, what was this woman going to show him? Could all this secrecy and worry be justified after all? She opened the door and a tiny, furry thing rushed out, claws scrabbling on the polished floorboards. To his shame, Ramsey flinched. As though door and mouth were somehow connected, once released the tiny, furry thing began to bark. It had the voice of a much larger animal. “Misha is very fierce,” she said, and he realized that she had been fighting back a smile. “However, he is not as terrifying as he looks.” She slid through and the door closed behind her, leaving him alone with the small, bat-eared dog, who darted back and forth just out of Ramsey’s reach, emitting loud noises of loathing and distrust.”
― Tad Williams, River of Blue Fire

“The young could not understand the horror of being old. That was nature’s way of protecting them from uselessly harmful knowledge, just as the atmosphere around the Earth created a blue sky that shielded humanity from constant exposure to the naked unconcern of the stars. Old age was failure, limitation, marginalization—and that was just the beginning. Because every moment was also a step closer to nothingness, as Death drew ever nigh.”
― Tad Williams, River of Blue Fire

“That was one of the differences between the rich and everyone else, she decided. These Otherland people could lavish money and attention on anything that struck their fancies. Unlike ordinary people, they could afford to be crazy.”
― Tad Williams, River of Blue Fire

“One does not have to have seen a gun or a motorcar to think that humanity should not rely too greatly on that which it makes, as opposed to that which it is.”
― Tad Williams, River of Blue Fire

“That was the great drawback of the net, as well as its glory—anybody could get hold of anything and make whatever they wanted out of it; it was a treasure trove for amateurs, cranks, and outright loonies.”
― Tad Williams, River of Blue Fire

“My sin had been that I believed that I was the measure of the universe”
― Tad Williams, River of Blue Fire

“my heart began to perceive that there was a wound in the material world that no amount of science could heal, that in fact science itself was only the helpful lie told to a dying man.”
― Tad Williams, River of Blue Fire

“How had little Zunni from the Wicked Tribe put it? “Kill monster, find jewel, earn bonus points. Wibble-wobble-wubble.” Not much like real life, maybe, but who wanted real life? Or even this bizarre variation? No rules, no goals, and no idea even of where to begin.”
― Tad Williams, River of Blue Fire

“And, discovering this truth, she felt it burning inside her. It was so right. She had turned away from a gift, thinking it did not matter, but in fact a gift—and specifically the gift of love—was the only thing that did matter.”
― Tad Williams, River of Blue Fire