Masters of Death Quotes

“Things are so much sweeter when they have an ending; things are so much more painful when they can be ripped away.”
― Olivie Blake, Masters of Death

“I forgave him the moment he came back to me. I would love him still, even if he left me again. I would love him through several lifetimes, I think," Fox determined, resigning himself to the truth, "and I would love him in every world, if he asked.”
― Olivie Blake, Masters of Death

“I wish to feel something much, much larger than I am, the girl’s heart replies. I wish to stand on the edge of ruination and defeat, to leap into a chasm full of danger. I wish to feel my blood turn cold with fear and my cheeks burn bright with shame; I wish to feel joy that fills my lungs, and sadness that swells within me like a current. I wish to feel so much and so deeply that it washes over me in waves. I wish to drag myself towards something; I wish to lose pieces of myself along the way. I wish for hunger that drives me, for passion that fulfills me, for sensations of taking and having and losing and wanting, and I wish for all of it to come with a price, and a steep one—and then I wish for the courage to pay. Isn’t it all good because it’s something? she asks. Isn’t it all bad because beneath it—any of it, her wish sighs—I may collapse? Mayra”
― Olivie Blake, Masters of Death

“There is nothing more telling about a person’s character than the silent wishes they keep to themselves, buried in the little nooks and crannies of their hearts.”
― Olivie Blake, Masters of Death

“To love, to forgive, to lose, to live - it was always a choice, and thus, the fact that he was a mortal was finally one worth celebrating. Because it would end! Maybe that was the entire secret, and therefore the whole thing was actually astonishingly simple. That over and over, he was presented with the same impossible decision - live and suffer, love and grieve - but still, every time, with all his being, his answer was and would always be yes. It would be difficult and painful, and however it ended, it would end - but still, he could choose it. To live, to love; it was always a choice, and inherently a brave one, to face down certain doo, with open arms.”
― Olivie Blake, Masters of Death

“Fond as I am of him, he does chronically suffer from a touch of motherfucker.”
― Olivie Blake, Masters of Death

“Brandt Solberg had never been a good man, but what did that matter?
Fox hadn't fallen in love with his goodness.”
― Olivie Blake, Masters of Death

“But two centuries of anger had not served him nearly as well as one day of honesty.”
― Olivie Blake, Masters of Death

“I wish to feel something much, much larger than I am, the supplicant's heart replies.
I wish to stand on the edge of ruination and defeat, to leap into a chasm full of danger.
I wish to feel my blood turn cold with fear and my cheeks burn bright with shame; I wish to feel joy that fills my lungs, and sadness that swells within me like a current. I wish to feel so much and so deeply that it washes over me in waves. I wish to drag myself toward something; I wish to lose pieces of myself along the way. I wish for hunger that drives me, for passion that fulfills me, for sensations of taking and having and losing and wanting, and I wish for all of it to come with a price, and a steep one —and then I wish for the courage to pay.”
― Olivie Blake, Masters of Death

“That pain you feel? That's love.”
― olivie blake, Masters of Death

“Immortality is empty without you,’ Brandt told him, hoping for once in his stubborn, impossible life that Fox D’mora would listen to him. ‘Eternal youth is nothing, Fox, without you—”
― Olivie Blake, Masters of Death

“I am a mortal who was raised by Death. I'm a man who has loved, and been loved, by a god.”
― Olivie Blake, Masters of Death

“Don't call me that," Fox growled, forcing Brandt onto his back. "I'm not a child."
Brandt hit the mattress with a dull thud, tracing the lines of Fox's face with the path of his gaze.
"No, you aren't, are you," he agreed quietly. "But what will I call you, then?"
It took a moment; Fox fought it as resolutely as he could.
"Call me yours," he begged, burying his forehead in the crook of Brandt's shoulder so as not to see him refuse.
Around him, Brandt's arms stiffened for a moment, and then relaxed. They slid tightly around Fox's ribs, holding him steady.
"Some things are just facts," he said, and Fox wished desperately to believe him.”
― Olivie Blake, Masters of Death

“Wait a minute. Did you just offer me a bite of an immortal apple?"
"I did."
"Why?"
"Seemed rude not to."
"That's an insane thing to say."
"Well, we all have our flaws.”
― Olivie Blake, Masters of Death

“Fuck is a good work, Fox. I like it. It fits nicely in my mouth. I like the way it feels like a weapon.”
― Olivie Blake, Masters of Death

“Where does Death reside? In the dead, of course, and in the souls of the living; in their fears of the future and in the losses of their pasts. Death lives in the too-quiet silences, in the deepest parts of night. Death makes a home in the moments of stiffness, the seconds before a fall; in the heavy-hearted candor on the surgeon's hands, the archer's bow, the executioner's axe, the injectioner's needle. Death lurks, he stalks, he waits - or so we would believe, anyway, in our selfish vanities and prides, because Death lives so vibrantly in our consciousness that it is exceedingly difficult to imagine he might actually have a home of his own.”
― Olivie Blake, Masters of Death

“There's something about women, and in particular, women whose survival depends on conscienceless men. Men who have everything are careless with trinkets, and so those trinkets, like Mayra Kaleka, learn to care for themselves, and sometimes, if they are either very blessed or very cursed, they learn to care for others.”
― Olivie Blake, Masters of Death

“All the monotony of being mortal is in the trying-to-live bits before you realize the whole thing is your life.”
― Olivie Blake, Masters of Death

“You can never truly know a culture until you've been bitten by one of its myths.”
― Olivie Blake, Masters of Death

“Fuck is a good word, Fox. I like it. It fits nicely in my mouth. I like the way it feels like a weapon.”
― Olivie Blake, Masters of Death

“It’s a generally accepted philosophy that there’s no finishing college when one has eaten any portion of one’s research advisor,”
― Olivie Blake, Masters of Death

“No,” Brandt agreed. “There are no others,” he said, a declarative statement so rare and precious Fox wished he could capture it in his hands; hold a feast in its honor; commit the occasion to stone beneath his feet; “and there never will be.”
― Olivie Blake, Masters of Death

“There is a game that the immortal play.
It is played around tables that open at dusk, and close at dawn.
The stakes are impossibly high, and yet laughably low.
There is only one secret: The more you have to lose, the harder it is to win.
There is only one rule: Don't lose.”
― Olivie Blake, Masters of Death

“Brandt had traveled all of the worlds, carrying nothing but a book and the knowledge of the places Fox liked to touch and where he liked to be touched. Of where he sought to conquer and where he laid himself adrift in Brandt’s so often shaking hands.”
― Olivie Blake, Masters of Death

“Isis, smartly: “Well, I’m a demon. I’m always right, especially when it’s annoying.”
― Olivie Blake, Masters of Death

“You can't simply look at time as a function of comings and goings. Time is always in motion, even if you personally opt to desist. Whether you come or go or leave or stay, time continues. People are left. People are found. To think that resigning yourself to permanence is itself a state of permanence is already made in error.”
― Olivie Blake, Masters of Death

“Funny how you repeatedly insist that things will change, but some things are just a tale as old as time, aren't they?”
― Olivie Blake, Masters of Death

“I will always be the one to find in you what nobody else can see.”
― Olivie Blake, Masters of Death

“I have no powers, but I have known bliss and grief and suffering, and for two hundred mortal years, I have felt every facet of it all.”
― Olivie Blake, Masters of Death

“You believed in me when I was a ghost," he reminded her, "so I don't see why your faith in me should somehow lessen when you have me in your hands."
"Do I?" she asked. "Have you?"
"In the palm of your hand," he said, and it sounded suspiciously like a promise, but she shook her head, pulling away.
"This is the game," she said. "Isn't it?"
"Do you feel something?" he asked. "It doesn't feel like a game to me."
"But it is," she insisted. "And I think I understand it now."
And she did.
(Don't lose.)
(Gamble everything, but don't lose.)”
― Olivie Blake, Masters of Death