In the Cities of Coin and Spice Quotes

“I looked at this man and thought: Oh, how we are going to hurt each other.”
― Catherynne M. Valente, In the Cities of Coin and Spice

“All things are strange which are worth knowing.”
― Catherynne M. Valente, In the Cities of Coin and Spice

“We like the wrong sorts of girls, they wrote. They are usually the ones worth writing about.”
― Catherynne M. Valente, In the Cities of Coin and Spice

“There is always a moment when stories end, a moment when everything is blue and black and silent, and the teller does not want to believe it is over, and the listener does not, and so they both hold their breath and hope fervently as pilgrims that it is not over, that there are more tales to come, more and more, fitted together like a long chain coiled in the hand. They hold their breath; the trees hold theirs, the air and the ice and the wood and the Gate. But no breath can be held forever, and all tales end.”
― Catherynne M. Valente, In the Cities of Coin and Spice

“This is my heart—carry it with you. I will dream of you in the dark, and you will taste it in my tea, and feel it in my shoes.”
― Catherynne M. Valente, In the Cities of Coin and Spice

“Love rarely waits for permission.”
― Catherynne M. Valente, In the Cities of Coin and Spice

“Everything good in the world has feathers and wings and claws.”
― Catherynne M. Valente, In the Cities of Coin and Spice

“A dragon looks like a girl when it is young.”
― Catherynne M. Valente, In the Cities of Coin and Spice

“I think that one morning, the Papess woke in her tower, and her blankets were so warm, and the sun was so golden, she could not bear it. I think she woke, and dressed, and washed her face in cold water, and rubbed her shaven head. I think she walked among her sisters, and for the first time saw that they were so beautiful, and she loved them. I think she woke up one morning of all her mornings, and found that her heart was as white as a silkworm, and the sun was clear as glass on her brow, and she believed then that she could live, and hold peace in her hand like a pearl.”
― Catherynne M. Valente, In the Cities of Coin and Spice

“Did you never wonder why the old books are so full of dragons chasing after maidens? The serpents think the girls are orphans, and long to get them away in a lair so that they may grow up strong and tall.”
― Catherynne M. Valente, In the Cities of Coin and Spice

“This maze is laid out such that should you step through the correct path, by its end you will have learned the most extraordinary dance, such that any coronation would be proud to see you at the height of its feast, such that any holy dervish would weep and call you his devotion."
"I think that is very strange—"
"All things are strange which are worth knowing.”
― Catherynne M. Valente, In the Cities of Coin and Spice

“In the beginning there was Dust, and in the end there will be Dust, and in the middle there is Dust, Dust, Dust!”
― Catherynne M. Valente, In the Cities of Coin and Spice

“We treat our stone wives with much more care than they treat their warm ones, anyway. I personally dust mine once a week, and I know Khaamil gives them presents when I am not looking. These are yours - they are in your care, and you must be faithful.”
― Catherynne M. Valente, In the Cities of Coin and Spice

“I've always had enough, even if my enough and your enough are as different as an elephant and a minaret.”
― Catherynne M. Valente, In the Cities of Coin and Spice

“What is it, Master Calligrapher, that little girls do in the way that spiders weave?" sleeve asked primly.
The Calligrapher coughed, for his room was very dusty, and there was dust even on his eyelashes, and said: "It is right and proper," he said, "for a girl to read as many books as there are bricks in this city, and then, when she is finished, to begin to write new ones which are made out of the old ones, as this city is made of those stones.”
― Catherynne M. Valente, In the Cities of Coin and Spice

“Is there anything which does not do as you say?" the girl asked archly. He blushed.

"You know my cry. I do not know yours," he mumbled, not meeting her gaze.”
― Catherynne M. Valente, In the Cities of Coin and Spice

“The calligrapher coughed, for his room was very dusty, and there was dust even on his eyelashes, and said: “It is right and proper,” he said, “for a girl to read as many books as there are bricks in this city, and then, when she is finished, to begin to write new ones which are made out of the old ones, as this city is made of those stones.”
― Catherynne M. Valente, In the Cities of Coin and Spice

“I see you go bare-shod. This is most likely extremely sensible. Shoes are no end of trouble for girls. . . . How many have danced to death in slippers of silk and glass and fur and wood? Too many to count—the graveyards, they are so full these days. You are very wise to let your soles become grubby with mud, to let them grow their own slippers of moss and clay and calluses. This is far preferable to shoes which may become wicked at any moment.”
― Catherynne M. Valente, In the Cities of Coin and Spice

“I do not rightly know where the first goldfish heard that this waterfall was anything but an unfortunate drop in the river table. But gossip travels among us quickly; this is the nature of fish. And some red-finned fellow had heard it whispered by the trout, who had it from the pike, who had been assured by the thorny-boned catfish, who had listened rapt to the drumfish’s clacking tongue, who knew the eel would never lie, who was in awe of the adventures of the bass. And all of these agreed, that if a goldfish could but leap over this waterfall, she would become a dragon.”
― Catherynne M. Valente, In the Cities of Coin and Spice

“(...) Tell me a tale in which a woman is wed, and she is happy." The boy's lip trembled, and there was pity in him like a stranging vine. He knelt at Dinarzad's bare feet, and held her hands in his. "I do not know any stories like that", he whispered.”
― Catherynne M. Valente, In the Cities of Coin and Spice

“The Sirens flicked their wings at the wall, inscribing it with their own blue ink: Even in penance is beauty; blessed are all the ocean’s drowned!”
― Catherynne M. Valente, In the Cities of Coin and Spice

“My old friends, you must help me! Tell me what it is that a girl does in the way that a spider weaves, so that Solace will not grow up to be the wrong sort of girl.” We like the wrong sorts of girls, they wrote. They are usually the ones worth writing about.”
― Catherynne M. Valente, In the Cities of Coin and Spice

“Lawlessness doesn’t mean there’s no law, you know, it just means that there are a lot of different laws slugging it out in the streets, and none of them have come out on top yet.”
― Catherynne M. Valente, In the Cities of Coin and Spice

“I knew his face when he came. Of course I knew it. Even a Star dreams. I have been dreaming a long time, and I watched the glittering cord of that man’s life spool out until it intersected with mine, and how the sparks lit the grass at my feet! I looked at this man and thought: Oh, how we are going to hurt each other. But Stars, you know, are fixed in their courses, and we can no more change the throttling paces of orbit than a rabbit can shorten its ears. I saw his cord lashing and snapping in the dark, and could do nothing.”
― Catherynne M. Valente, In the Cities of Coin and Spice

“they climbed their ladders to wheedle and prune the trees into holiness”
― Catherynne M. Valente, In the Cities of Coin and Spice

“We think . . . that girls ought to sing. They ought to sing, and dance while they're singing. But we are not girls, and so can be almost certain that we know nothing about the matter.”
― Catherynne M. Valente, In the Cities of Coin and Spice

“...what maiden knows how the world is skewed to spare any testing of her virtue?”
― Catherynne M. Valente, In the Cities of Coin and Spice

“I never saw the King—I did not expect to, yet a tiny part of me, the part which imagined him leading his troops with raven plumes blown back from a silver helmet, was disappointed. The King cloistered himself in his castle, it was said, surrounded on all sides by rivers, one white, and one black. It sounded like a child’s story, and in the days to come I wondered if there had ever been a King, if we were not simply marching and fighting and digging and eating horrors of worm and centipede and mud to keep starvation at our backs because someone, somewhere, had once simply dreamed of a King with a golden crown.”
― Catherynne M. Valente, In the Cities of Coin and Spice

“The science of innocence is complex and technical—I shall not worry your little ears with such talk. Suffice it to say the hymen is irrelevant, as irrelevant to us as trousers. The word innocent means without harm—did you know? Your mother ought to have taught you what a dictionary was. There is some debate, when unicorns gather, as to what, exactly, the definition ought to be: one who has not been harmed, or one who has done no harm. The smell is different, of course, and everyone has their tastes. I have always held that those who do no harm are the most rarefied creatures—which is why we draw back in such horror when the huntsmen come. Suddenly the dove who opened its little wings to us is a dove no longer, but a thing which has caused harm, great harm, which has brought arrows and knives, and smells like burning crusts, scorched flour.”
― Catherynne M. Valente, In the Cities of Coin and Spice

“I think this is very strange --"
"All things are strange which are worth knowing (...).”
― Catherynne M. Valente, In the Cities of Coin and Spice