Mammoths at the Gates Quotes

“Sometimes you cannot survive and still be who you were.”
― Nghi Vo, Mammoths at the Gates

“The room looked abandoned, for all that Cleric Thien had only been dead for a few weeks. Somehow, the books and blankets and boxes full of strange curiosities knew that something was over, and they grieved in their own inanimate way.”
― Nghi Vo, Mammoths at the Gates

“She asked me for a favor, to clip the flight feathers of her wings to the quick, and even in my frustration I was shocked. I asked her why she would do such a thing. “For grief, she said. For sorrow. When the world has changed so completely, why should I remain the same? I cannot remain. I cannot stay.”
― Nghi Vo, Mammoths at the Gates

“And Cleric Thien had always said that change hurt, but it was bearable if you watched it; if you accepted it and knew that it was always coming.”
― Nghi Vo, Mammoths at the Gates

“They dashed their tears away with the back of their hand, sniffling hard. What was there to say? Everything and nothing, and either way, it was too late.”
― Nghi Vo, Mammoths at the Gates

“be. To hear of people who can speak and love and reason and to still think that they are beasts, why, only a man could do that.”
― Nghi Vo, Mammoths at the Gates

“I don't need to be popular to be right.”
― Nghi Vo, Mammoths at the Gates

“From time to time, people appeared at the door, the few clerics remaining, the lay brothers and sisters, even Novice Ngoc and their friend Novice Bi. The people hovered, unsure of what to say, but determined to say it. Their sympathy was a weight like heavy wool on Chih's shoulders, and they found themself a guardian of the sympathy and the kind wishes, not always a comfortable place to be when their own grief lurked.”
― Nghi Vo, Mammoths at the Gates

“Because growing up, growing older was always a kind of loss - even if what was gained repaid it all and then some.”
― Nghi Vo, Mammoths at the Gates

“In that moment, they were and weren’t the cleric Chih had grown up with. This was someone new, and something in Chih ached, because growing up, growing older, was always a kind of loss, even if what was gained repaid it all and then some.”
― Nghi Vo, Mammoths at the Gates

“There were many places they had been where that would be reckoned a clean death, a quiet one in bed and attended by people who cared. It was something people offered as a comfort, but dead was dead, and the only comfort—one more word, one more touch—was impossible.”
― Nghi Vo, Mammoths at the Gates

“Sometimes, you cannot survive and still be who you were.”
― Nghi Vo, Mammoths at the Gates