The Dragon Keeper Quotes

“That is true. I could not prevent what was done to me, nor can I change what people made of me. But I know what I am and have decided to continue being what I am.”
― Robin Hobb, The Dragon Keeper

“Even the homeliest girl secretly dreams that a man might fall in love with her inner spirit.”
― Robin Hobb, Dragon Keeper

“Reality is often unkind to legends.”
― Robin Hobb, Dragon Keeper

“Some memories are best left undisturbed. Sometimes, if you forget something, it's because it's better forgotten.”
― Robin Hobb, The Dragon Keeper

“I’ve only been sensible for a few months now, and I’m already heartily sick of it.”
― Robin Hobb, The Dragon Keeper

“It is irony, is it not, that you live so short a time, and waste so much of it being stupid?”
― Robin Hobb, Dragon Keeper

“All that is of dragons belongs only to dragons.”
― Robin Hobb, The Dragon Keeper

“She fell silent, overcome at what humans, in their ignorance, had done.”
― Robin Hobb, The Dragon Keeper

“Death fed life.”
― Robin Hobb, Dragon Keeper

“I haven’t forgiven anything. And I don’t believe in the "us" you think I might take vengeance on. You didn’t do this to me. But even if you had, killing you would not undo it.”
― Robin Hobb, The Dragon Keeper

“And I'd like to sleep!"
"Sleep, then. It's good practice for death.”
― Robin Hobb, The Dragon Keeper

“I need to measure myself against the world. Prove that I can stand up to it and be something.”
― Robin Hobb, Dragon Keeper

“It took so little to make him happy. Her words didn't have to be kind, even, just not cruel. She tried not to wonder what his early life had been like that mere neutrality seemed like friendship to him.”
― Robin Hobb, The Dragon Keeper

“I’m sorry,” she said, and then wondered at her words. She wasn’t sorry, not at all, and yet she could not keep herself from apologizing. When had it become so ingrained in her to apologize whenever she wanted something for herself?”
― Robin Hobb, The Dragon Keeper

“I like to be alone; I’ve learned a great tolerance for it. I’m very good at it, actually.”
― Robin Hobb, The Dragon Keeper

“It came, he knew, from the unremembered dreams of the night before. He reached for them, but the tattered shreds became threads of cobweb in his mind’s grasp, and then were gone.”
― Robin Hobb, The Dragon Keeper

“Hate you?" Paragon slowly digested her words before he spoke again. He did not turn to look at her, but kept his eyes focused on the river ahead of him as the ship moved steadily against the current. "Why would I waste my time with hate? What was done to me was unforgivable of course. Completely unforgivable. Those who did it are no longer alive to be punished or to apologize. Even if they were and did, it would not undo what they did. The torments I endured cannot be undone. The stolen future cannot be given back to me,”
― Robin Hobb, The Dragon Keeper

“Wherever there is change, a clever man can find a profit.”
― Robin Hobb, Dragon Keeper

“She felt silence growing in her. Sometimes it reminded her of a fast-growing ivy; silence covered her and cloaked her, and she suspected that one day she would smother in the silences Hest could create. It was an effort to break through that strangling quiet, but she did it.”
― Robin Hobb, The Dragon Keeper

“Vultures and peacocks might both have feathers and beaks, but one did not confuse the two creatures.”
― Robin Hobb, The Dragon Keeper

“He wants to be the leader of the dragon keepers, so he just asks as if he is. And hopes everyone will fall into line. It's so infuriating that some of them do. The truth is no one was put in charge among us. We're all free to do our own jobs. But Greft is very good at causing discord among those who refuse to concede to him. Like Tats and Me. Usually Tats and I get along very well. Then Greft came along and he just seems to enjoy making trouble and maniupating people. Sometimes it seems if he can't force us to do what he wants he focuses on making us as miserable as possible.”
― Robin Hobb, The Dragon Keeper

“Look at her. The sun soaks right int her and shines back out of her. She’s magnificent.”
― Robin Hobb, The Dragon Keeper

“Any human who dared to attack a dragon deserved to die himself. And dead, of what use was he, unless someone ate him? She didn’t see why leaving a human to be eaten by worms was more acceptable.”
― Robin Hobb, Dragon Keeper

“For Captain Leftrin had broken into a hearty boom of laughter at her words. “Oh, not at you, my dear, I assure you. It’s the idea of Althea Vestrit dismissed as ‘Captain Trell’s wife’ that is a rich jest for me. She’s every bit as much a captain as Trell is, not that Paragon needs a captain at all these days. There’s a liveship that has decided to be in charge of himself !”
― Robin Hobb, Dragon Keeper

“As always happens, or so her father said, the wealthy patrons of the artists began to frequent the Bird Nests. Not content to purchase merely what the artists made, the patrons began to buy their lifestyles as well. Soon the sons and daughters of the wealthier Rain Wild Trader families were living among them, behaving as if they were artists but creating nothing save noise, traffic, and a wild reputation for the Bird Nests. Their families were able to pay much higher rents than her father could afford. The wealthy folk who had holiday homes among them demanded safer walkways and wider branch roads, and so they were taxed accordingly. Shops and cafés moved into adjacent trees. The artists who had established themselves were delighted. They were becoming wealthy and well known. “But the high rents pushed us right out. We couldn’t afford to pay the taxes anymore, let alone eat in the cafés. We had to sell off all the art my father had received as barter, take what coin we could get, and move up again.”
― Robin Hobb, Dragon Keeper

“But you should know I’m not the sort that will short myself for the sake of being nice to someone else. For one thing, I’ve learned it’s seldom appreciated. For another, I know that my ability to hunt is based on my strength. If I weaken myself to be a nice fellow today, perhaps all of us will go hungry tomorrow if I’m too slow or distracted to kill my quarry. So I protect my own interests today, to be in a better position to help everyone tomorrow.”
― Robin Hobb, Dragon Keeper

“The Paragon? Don’t look at me like that, Alise. Everyone in Bingtown knows this liveship and his reputation. He rolled and killed his entire crew, what, five times?”
― Robin Hobb, Dragon Keeper

“Some prince of the far Six Duchies had unearthed the dragon, digging him out of an icy grave for reasons of his own, ones that did not matter to her. The black drake had not been dead after all; he had risen from his long and icy sleep and taken Tintaglia as his mate. They had flown off together to hunt and feed and mate.”
― Robin Hobb, Dragon Keeper

“and Rapskal, who had attached himself to them like a tick on a monkey, added enthusiastically, “My blanket’s blue. My favorite color. How lucky is that?” “They’re all blue,” Tats replied, and Rapskal nodded again. “Like I said. I’m lucky my favorite color is blue.” Thymara tried not to roll her eyes. It was well known that some who were heavily marked by the Rain Wilds had mental problems as well. Rapskal might be a bit simple, or simply have an aggressively optimistic outlook.”
― Robin Hobb, Dragon Keeper

“One could read about addiction and still fall prey to it.”
― Robin Hobb, The Dragon Keeper