The Sorcerer's House Quotes

“I have told myself over and over that I must get out of this house, that I have stumbled upon a place where dreams walk by daylight and that those dreams may destroy me. But there’s the money, and I have been so poor for so long. There is a terrible fascination, too. I am a scholar or I am nothing, Millie. I knew an elderly Jewish scholar at the University of Chicago, a Dr. Kopecky. He was robbed on the street, and surrendered his wallet and his watch without a struggle; but when the gang of juveniles who had surrounded him tried to take his bag, containing one old book and his notes, he fought them all. Perhaps you understand.”
― Gene Wolfe, The Sorcerer's House

“I am filthy. So is Doris, but we’ll bathe and change clothes and be clean. Your filth is within you. If it were gone, you’d collapse.”
― Gene Wolfe, The Sorcerer's House

“Urban Trelawny is a bony man of fifty and more, with side whiskers. His eyes say quite plainly that he once trusted someone, that he has been repenting it for longer than you or I have been alive, and that he will never take the chance again.”
― Gene Wolfe, The Sorcerer's House

“There comes a time when a sorcerer must triumph on his own or die.”
― Gene Wolfe, The Sorcerer's House

“Magic,” Martha whispered breathlessly, “is diplomacy. It isn’t just saying the words. It’s who says them, how he says them, and when he says them.”
― Gene Wolfe, The Sorcerer's House

“His eyes say quite plainly that he once trusted someone, that he has been repenting it for longer than you or I have been alive, and that he will never take the chance again.”
― Gene Wolfe, The Sorcerer's House