The Heretic Queen Quotes

“You'll know if he loves you by how long he's willing to fight.”
― Michelle Moran, The Heretic Queen

“This is how memories are; what seems so clear and unforgettable at one moment vanishes like steam the next.”
― Michelle Moran, The Heretic Queen

“You want it to feel like a surprise. You want to keep him guessing whether he'll make you smile entirely so that when you do, he will feel like he's been given a gift.”
― Michelle Moran, The Heretic Queen

“Now you are no longer a giggling child, smiling at whoever comes along. You are a woman with power. Learn to control your smile, and you can control what men will think about you.”
― Michelle Moran, The Heretic Queen

“the one for whom the sun shines.. -Ramses II”
― Michelle Moran, The Heretic Queen

“That's because I've learned how to use it [smile], Woserit said. I don't pass it out like an old woman giving free milk to the village cats. It's something that must be controlled, and for you especially. You use it on anyone. You must learn to be more judicious.”
― Michelle Moran, The Heretic Queen

“Her beauty might fascinate men, but it was difficult to charm them when she stood mute. . . .”
― Michelle Moran, The Heretic Queen

“These will be my last moments of peace. . . . From now on, my love. . . will bring nothing but chaos.”
― Michelle Moran, The Heretic Queen

“My love is unique and none can rival her . . . Just by passing, she has stolen away my heart.”
― Michelle Moran, The Heretic Queen

“And although I’d always thought I would feel like an animal released from its cage when my student days were finished, I felt more like a bird that had been pushed from its nest and told it must fly.”
― Michelle Moran, The Heretic Queen

“If the gods cannot recognize your names,” she warned, “they will never hear your prayers.”
― Michelle Moran, The Heretic Queen

“On a wall of her burial chamber, Ramesses summed up his love for her as such: "My love is unique and none can rival her ... Just by passing, she has stolen away my heart.”
― Michelle Moran, The Heretic Queen

“Then she guided me to a long stone bench where she packed my womb with linen.”
― Michelle Moran, The Heretic Queen

“She was speaking about an aging of the soul, when a person's ka is a thousand years older than her body.”
― Michelle Moran, The Heretic Queen

“It's true," He whispered.

Suddenly, I was aware of how close we were standing, so close I could touch the square of his jaw or the chiseled planes of his face.

"What's true?"

"You are as beautiful as I remembered. Nefer," he said, and his breath came quickly. "Perhaps you want to simply remain my friend, but when I was gone, all I could think about was you. When I was supposed to be thinking about the rebellion, or how my men would find fresh water in the desert, all I could think of was how you wanted to be hidden away in the Temple of Hathor. Nefer," he said passionately, "you can't be a priestess."

I wanted to close my eyes and step into the shelter of his embrace, but beyond the column the entire court was gathering.

"But if I'm not to be a priestess," I asked him, "where will my place be in Thebes?" I held my breath, waiting for the right answer to come, willing it into his heart. Then he took me in his arms and brushed his lips against mine.

"With me," he said firmly. "As my queen.”
― Michelle Moran, The Heretic Queen

“RAMESSES II is one of the most well-known and widely written-about kings of ancient Egypt. A copy of his Treaty of Kadesh, written in cuneiform and discovered in the village of Hattusas, hangs in the United Nations building in New York as the world’s earliest example of an international peace treaty. It is also believed that Ramesses is the Pharaoh responsible”
― Michelle Moran, The Heretic Queen