Snake-Eater Quotes

“It was a small kindness you did,” they said. “But you and I are both small creatures”
― T. Kingfisher, Snake-Eater

“Fortunately, some things stay true whether we believe in them or not.”
― T. Kingfisher, Snake-Eater

“C’mon, Padre, didn’t the Lord promise something about floods?” “He promised not to destroy the world. Individuals are still expected to get to high ground.”
― T. Kingfisher, Snake-Eater

“It was terrible wine,” said Grandma with dignity, “so I felt obliged to save the rest of you.”
― T. Kingfisher, Snake-Eater

“Finally one of my teachers took me aside and said: ‘Manuel, you are not God. You aren’t omnipotent. Wanting to help is good, but this belief that you, personaly, have so much power to affect the universe is starting to border on personal idolatry.’” He snorted. “He wasn’t wrong.”
“Did that help?” Selena asked.
“Not really, but at least then I felt guilty about feeling guilty, which is very catholic.”
― T. Kingfisher, Snake-Eater

“Copper gazed at her soulfully and attempted to convey that she had never been petted, not once, but would like to experience it.”
― T. Kingfisher, Snake-Eater

“This is what comes of reading The Clan of the Cave Bear at a formative age.”
― T. Kingfisher, Snake-Eater

“Selena believed, with every fiber of her being, that a person’s worth was not defined by how hard they worked or how productive they managed to be. She also believed just as strongly that this did not apply to her.”
― T. Kingfisher, Snake-Eater

“I like you. I don’t like who you turn into when he’s in the room.”
― T. Kingfisher, Snake-Eater

“Dunno,” she said finally. “It’s like telling apart people, I guess. You might not recognize someone after the first time, but the third or fourth or tenth time, you know who they are. It’s the same with plants. You just have to get good at looking at them.”
― T. Kingfisher, Snake-Eater

“Once or twice, the thought came to her that there was something she was supposed to be doing, someone she was supposed to be concerned about, but it faded quickly. There was no one else to worry about. There might be no one else living in the entire world. Strangely this did not concern her. The purpose of the world was to be walked through, and she was the one who did that. There was no need for anyone else.”
― T. Kingfisher, Snake-Eater

“No. I’m broken, but I’m not useless.”
― T. Kingfisher, Snake-Eater

“But she couldn’t say that. If somebody asked if you were okay, you said you were fine. That was the script. That was always the script. If she had been in a car accident and they’d cut her arm off with the Jaws of Life, she still would have said, “I’m fine.”
― T. Kingfisher, Snake-Eater

“It was the simple kind of crazy, though, the can’t-cope-anymore crazy, the kind that has you bursting into tears at small setbacks and contemplating your own mortality with sneaking relief. You could fake your way through life with that kind of crazy.”
― T. Kingfisher, Snake-Eater

“Making friends,” he said”
― T. Kingfisher, Snake-Eater

“You believe there are monsters?” she asked. “Like—really?” “Of course,” said Father Aguirre. “There have always been monsters. The ones in the desert are a bit more straightforward than the ones in men”
― T. Kingfisher, Snake-Eater

“Meep meep, motherfucker.”
― T. Kingfisher, Snake-Eater

“her place was to give and give until there was nothing left of her at all.”
― T. Kingfisher, Snake-Eater

“Meep meep”
― T. Kingfisher, Snake-Eater

“Selena took a deep”
― T. Kingfisher, Snake-Eater

“powers. I truly cannot say.” “The odds are fifty-fifty,” Grandma Billy said. “Either we win or we don’t.” “That is not how odds work,” Selena said. “You ever won any money gambling?” “No?”
― T. Kingfisher, Snake-Eater

“You’re right,” she said. “Of course. I’m being stupid.” “No”
― T. Kingfisher, Snake-Eater

“Grandma Billy didn’t seem like a good candidate for a cult”
― T. Kingfisher, Snake-Eater

“Selena believed”
― T. Kingfisher, Snake-Eater

“If I was going to describe the platonic ideal of a Kingfisher horror novel”
― T. Kingfisher, Snake-Eater

“Finally one of my teachers took me aside and said”
― T. Kingfisher, Snake-Eater

“If she were wearing gloves, it would help. I’m thinking about gloves while I’m pushing a load of possessed owl skins to the church. Of course I am.”
― T. Kingfisher, Snake-Eater

“All it took was one run of bad luck and it didn’t matter how hard you’d worked your whole life”
― T. Kingfisher, Snake-Eater

“Was it more humiliating to go insane or to take someone’s gray cornmeal? Selena did not feel that she was cut out for this kind of social arithmetic. Clearly they were far beyond scripts, so she stuck to the bare facts. “There was a man wearing green stripes in the garden. He had something on his head, and then he vanished when I looked away.”
― T. Kingfisher, Snake-Eater

“Does that work?” “Probably not. Brains aren’t big enough to shove gratitude into. Still, never hurts to try.” She scooped the creature up with a spatula and shoved the frying pan handle into Selena’s hand. The scorpion sat inside the pan, looking sullen (although Selena was willing to admit that she might be projecting a bit).”
― T. Kingfisher, Snake-Eater