Kings of Paradise Quotes

“What…do I want?” Ruka put his hands to his awful face and closed his golden eyes, shuddering with what could have been a laugh, or a sob. “I want a world where love is not a crime, Priestess, a world where children are not doomed to misery because they are different. I want only laws with mercy, and justice, and wisdom...but I will settle for your pink insides in my palm, and your brains on a rock.”
― Richard Nell, Kings of Paradise

“For now, though, Priestess,” the man’s top lip peeled to show sharp, angled teeth, “I will settle for your pink insides in my palm, and your brains on a rock.”
― Richard Nell, Kings of Paradise

“Faith is the desire for virtue. The pursuit is worthy of respect, if not the conclusions. Try not to judge those who have been led astray.”
― Richard Nell, Kings of Paradise

“a thing once done held much less fear, as the mystery of the unknown vanished.”
― Richard Nell, Kings of Paradise

“She couldn’t imagine eating bats, even if she was starving.”
― Richard Nell, Kings of Paradise

“Returning to ash was just a dream. What is ash, but dust, spread out over the fields and streets in the wind?”
― Richard Nell, Kings of Paradise

“Like all thoughts, once he’d imagined it, it was strangely hard to change, and impossible to forget.”
― Richard Nell, Kings of Paradise

“As always, if he beat them, he allowed himself to strangle his Kunla doll. She hadn’t killed his mother, yes he knew that, but she had killed his father, and that made his mother weak enough that Ruka’s curse could finally destroy her. Killing her would not change things, he knew, but it was a start, and the thought of it made him salivate even now. He would kill her as cleanly as possible to keep her body whole, build her a grave, and then she would be his. He would kill her over and over and over in his Grove in every possible way. He would build a torture chamber just for her, and he would learn if the dead could scream.”
― Richard Nell, Kings of Paradise

“I’ll be part of your book, Mother, but not like Egil or Haki or Rupa. I’ll be Omika, the giant. I’ll be the monster who frightens little girls. That’s what I am. I’ll butcher the whole world one by one with my bare hands, and when they’re all dead, the lawmakers and priestesses and all their servants, then I’ll go to the afterlife and find you, and I’ll make you their queen.”
― Richard Nell, Kings of Paradise

“Love is the very worst reason for a prince to marry, especially the daughter of a rival. What secrets might you whisper in the night to what is all but a spy?”
― Richard Nell, Kings of Paradise