New Amsterdam Quotes

“You know," he said, "every time a vampire says he doesn't believe in lycanthropes, a werewolf bursts into flames.”
― Elizabeth Bear, New Amsterdam

“The words were low, more shape than breath.”
― Elizabeth Bear, New Amsterdam

“May I know your name, sir?"
The smile rearranged his face under the terrible scars. "Nezahualcoyotl. Michel Nezahualcoyotl. Charmed.”
― Elizabeth Bear, New Amsterdam

“She rolled her shoulders over a corset that gave her the general appearance of the prow of a battleship, and curled one loose strand around her finger in a gesture that would have been coquettish, were she young.”
― Elizabeth Bear, New Amsterdam

“What’s the symbolic association between a beast killed by a silver bullet and the moon?”
― Elizabeth Bear, New Amsterdam

“Abby Irene ran both hands through her hair, strands pulling between the fingers, the insides of her wrist pale as skimmed milk and veined with blue.”
― Elizabeth Bear, New Amsterdam

“His own blood could not chill, but it might as well have, from the prickling sensation that crept along his arms.”
― Elizabeth Bear, New Amsterdam

“It was perfectly possible to love someone objectly when you could barely stand to be in the room with them. Of all the mysteries of life, Sebastien thought, that one might be the greatest.”
― Elizabeth Bear, New Amsterdam

“There was, they conceded, no point in pretending to be other than they were, as it seemed their presence was not secret and never had been.”
― Elizabeth Bear, New Amsterdam

“The collective resources of an authoress, a sorceress, and a wampyr and his valet are not to be underestimated.”
― Elizabeth Bear, New Amsterdam

“The Parisian attitude toward sorcery-that its public practice was little more interesting and certainly more gauche than sex in the doorways or pissing in the gutter-was refreshing.”
― Elizabeth Bear, New Amsterdam

“There was, as far as Garrett understood, no actual reason why incantations were in Latin or Greek, Aramaic or Hebrew, other than tradition and mystique. But she found the discipline useful.”
― Elizabeth Bear, New Amsterdam

“She thought of him shedding names and lives and lovers across the centuries, and wondered how he bore it. And then he turned and caught her eye and smiled, and thought that rather, perhaps the shedding was how he bore it.”
― Elizabeth Bear, New Amsterdam

“Admit nothing. An iron dignity is an unbroachable defense.”
― Elizabeth Bear, New Amsterdam

“He wondered if a werewolf’s bloodlust, its passion, its compulsion, could possibly be more unendurable than his thirst.”
― Elizabeth Bear, New Amsterdam

“Darling, you’re ridiculous. Drink.”
― Elizabeth Bear, New Amsterdam

“Sebastien was already leaning in, drawn by the enticing heat of blood, when he recollected himself and jerked back.”
― Elizabeth Bear, New Amsterdam

“Abby Irene smiled. And she did, Sebastien loved her, the brittle mortality and all its mad, fragile bravery.”
― Elizabeth Bear, New Amsterdam

“The dead cast no shadows; nor did they reflect.”
― Elizabeth Bear, New Amsterdam

“Sebastien had raised Jack Priest, and for all his fey flighty affection, Garrett’s estimation of the young man was that he was a keenly trained observer, and one who knew that the most relevant clues were sometimes those that seemed incomprehensible at the time. And that that ostensible delicacy masked a galvanized will.

She kept a terrier. She knew the type.”
― Elizabeth Bear, New Amsterdam

“We learn to let go of our former selves, if we are to live in the world forever. Or we burn.”
― Elizabeth Bear, New Amsterdam

“The voice resonated, a sound like the wind scraping the corners of old buildings and racing down the narrow streets.”
― Elizabeth Bear, New Amsterdam

“Another small victory. Pile enough of them together and they became like bricks in the wall.”
― Elizabeth Bear, New Amsterdam

“Sebastien was here for revenge, though he could pretty it up with Justice’s blindfold if he cared to play the hypocrite. The self-absorbed machinations of Duke Richard and Governor Penfold had led to the destruction of a friend. Sebastien…was not always of a forgiving nature.”
― Elizabeth Bear, New Amsterdam

“The radiant globes on their high wrought-iron towers were an advantage to the dark-adapted eye, if one could manage not to be dazzled. For the shadows between were cool and velvet, and a man-or something shaped like a man-in muffling black could vanish into them.”
― Elizabeth Bear, New Amsterdam

“He might be a dead man. He might sometimes find himself grown very tired. But he could not find it in himself to regret the circumstances of his death, no matter how unusual.”
― Elizabeth Bear, New Amsterdam

“Sebastien said nothing, but his lips burned with Jack’s warmth as he shut the door behind himself and turned to face the stair.”
― Elizabeth Bear, New Amsterdam

“Sebastien,” the Englishman purred, hurt or feigning. “What would I have done? He wears your ring, my love.”

“I don’t trust you.” David’s nails scratched Sebastien’s neck, tracing the spine from skull to shoulders. Sebastien shivered.

“Don’t trust me,” David answered. “I need your goodwill. Use me.”
― Elizabeth Bear, New Amsterdam

“Sebastien wondered if David knew he hadn’t touched another of his kind since they parted company, more than a century ago.”
― Elizabeth Bear, New Amsterdam

“He delighted in Sebastien’s jealousy and anger, and always had.”
― Elizabeth Bear, New Amsterdam