“Does the walker choose the path, or the path the walker?”
― Garth Nix, quote from Sabriel
“Touchstone watched, suddenly conscious that he probably only had five seconds left to be alone with Sabriel, to say something, to say anything. Perhaps the last five seconds they ever would have alone together.
I am not afraid, he said to himself.
"I love you," he whispered. "I hope you don't mind.”
― Garth Nix, quote from Sabriel
“Five Great Charters knit the land
Together linked, hand in hand
One in the people who wear the crown
Two in the folk who keep the Dead down
Three and Five became stone and mortar
Four sees all in frozen water.”
― Garth Nix, quote from Sabriel
“Fear and realisation of ignorance, strong medicines against stupid pride.”
― Garth Nix, quote from Sabriel
“Let this be my final lesson. Everyone and everything has a time to die.”
― Garth Nix, quote from Sabriel
“I love you," he whispered. "I hope you don't mind.”
― Garth Nix, quote from Sabriel
“A Kiss," said Mogget sleepily. "Actually, just a breath would do. But you have to start kissing someone sometime, I suppose."
"A breath?" she asked. She didn't want to kiss just any wooden man. He looked nice enough, but he might not be like his looks. A kiss seemed too forward.”
― Garth Nix, quote from Sabriel
“Do not tarry, do not stop, no matter what happens.”
― Garth Nix, quote from Sabriel
“I can see time," whispered Mogget, so softly that his words were lost.”
― Garth Nix, quote from Sabriel
“Ranna," she said aloud, touching the first, the smallest bell. Ranna the sleepbringer, the sweet, low sound that brought silence in its wake.
"Mosrael." The second bell, a harsh, rowdy bell. Mosrael was the waker, the bell Sabriel should never use, the bell whose sound was a seesaw, throwing the ringer further into Death, as it brought the listener into Life.
"Kibeth." Kibeth, the walker. A bell of several sounds, a difficult and contrary bell. It could give freedom of movement to one of the Dead, or walk them through the next gate. Many a necromancer had stumbled with Kibeth and walked where they would not.
"Dyrim." A musical bell, of clear and pretty tone. Dyrim was the voice that the Dead so often lost. But Dyrim could also still a tongue that moved too freely.
"Belgaer." Another tricksome bell, that sought to ring of its own accord. Belgaer was the thinking bell, the bell most necromancers scorned to use. It could restore independent thought, memory and all the patterns of a living person. Or, slipping in a careless hand, erase them.
"Saraneth." The deepest, lowest bell. The sound of strength. Saraneth was the binder, the bell that shackled the Dead to the wielder's will. And last, the largest bell, the one Sabriel's cold fingers found colder still, even in the leather case that kept it silent.
"Astarael, the Sorrowful," whispered Sabriel. Astarael was the banisher, the final bell. Properly rung, it cast everyone who heard it far into Death. Everyone, including the ringer.”
― Garth Nix, quote from Sabriel
“I am Abhorsen..."
He looked at the baby again and added, almost with a note of surprise, "Father of Sabriel”
― Garth Nix, quote from Sabriel
“A hundred hundred heartbeats..." whispered Sabriel, tears falling down her face.”
― Garth Nix, quote from Sabriel
“Our parts now -- which perforce we must play -- are not father and daughter, but one old Abhorsen, making way for the new. But behind this, there is always my love.”
― Garth Nix, quote from Sabriel
“I used to think like that at school," Sabriel answered. "Dreaming about the Old Kingdom. Proper Charter Magic. Dead to bind. Princes to be --"
"Rescued?”
― Garth Nix, quote from Sabriel
“He growled and grimaced as they came to him, and clenched his fists in pain and anger.
"Unusual name," commented Mogget. "More of a bear's name, that growl.”
― Garth Nix, quote from Sabriel
“Prepare a crossing party," snapped Horyse. "A single person to cross. Miss Abhorsen, here. And Sergeant, if you or Private Rahise so much as talk in your sleep about what you may have heard here, then you'll be on gravedigging fatigues for the rest of your lives!”
― Garth Nix, quote from Sabriel
“The Clayr saw me, the Wallmaker made me, the King quenched me, the Abhorsen wields me so that no Dead shall walk in Life. For this is not their path.”
― Garth Nix, quote from Sabriel
“Garth on naming characters "I spend lots of time on all the names in the books... Sabriel herself, I tried many different combinations of different words, trying to create a new name. In fact, her name comes from trying to combine the heraldic term for black which is Sable, because I wanted something that felt dark and mysterious, with the "iel" ending that you find in angels' names.”
― Garth Nix, quote from Sabriel
“A breath?" she asked. She didn't want to kiss just any wooden man. He looked nice enough, but he might not be like his looks. A kiss seemed very forward. He might remember it, and make assumptions.”
― Garth Nix, quote from Sabriel
“Going through the arch, from mud into snow, from bright sun into the pallid luminescence of a snowfall, from her past into her future.”
― Garth Nix, quote from Sabriel
“Volí si stezku chodec, nebo stezka chodce?”
― Garth Nix, quote from Sabriel
“A zlo plodí zlo, zlo zamořuje místa a přitahuje k nim další zlé skutky...”
― Garth Nix, quote from Sabriel
“Millennia of servitude, Abhorsen. Chained by trickery, treachery... captivenin a repulsive, fixed-flesh shape...but there will be payment, slow payment —not quick, not quick at all!”
― Garth Nix, quote from Sabriel
“Everything moved rapidly after the tea was drunk.”
― Garth Nix, quote from Sabriel
“Garth on where Sabriel came from "Sabriel grew very much out of the story... Sometimes people ask me, 'Why did you write a strong young woman character?' I just thought she was more interesting than if she was a young man.”
― Garth Nix, quote from Sabriel
“Fear and realization of ignorance were strong medicines against stupid pride.”
― Garth Nix, quote from Sabriel
“Both of them often turned to gaze at Sabriel.”
― Garth Nix, quote from Sabriel
“I love you,” he whispered. “I hope you don’t mind.”
― Garth Nix, quote from Sabriel
Garth Nix
Born place: in Melbourne, Australia
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“This kindness, this stupid kindness, is what is most truly human in a human being. It is what sets man apart, the highest achievement of his soul. No, it says, life is not evil!
This kindness is both senseless and wordless. It is instinctive, blind. When Christianity clothed it in the teachings of the Church Fathers, it began to fade; its kernel became a husk. It remains potent only while it is dumb and senseless, hidden in the living darkness of the human heart – before it becomes a tool or commodity in the hands of preachers, before its crude ore is forged into the gilt coins of holiness. It is as simple as life itself. Even the teachings of Jesus deprived it of its strength.
But, as I lost faith in good, I began to lose faith even in kindness. It seemed as beautiful and powerless as dew. What use was it if it was not contagious?
How can one make a power of it without losing it, without turning it into a husk as the Church did? Kindness is powerful only while it is powerless. If Man tries to give it power, it dims, fades away, loses itself, vanishes.”
― Vasily Grossman, quote from Life and Fate
“royal blue frock coat covered in gold braid and, even more ridiculously, a top hat. Howell had such an imposing presence that rather than losing dignity in this flunky’s outfit he actually made it seem strangely distinguished. Howell”
― Kate Atkinson, quote from Case Histories
“My dear boy, I love hearing my relations abused. It is the only thing that makes me put up with them at all. Relations are simply a tedious pack of people, who haven't got the remotest knowledge of how to live, nor the smallest instinct about when to die.”
― Oscar Wilde, quote from The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays
“It is not enough that the conditions of labour are concentrated at one pole of society in the shape of capital, while at the other pole are grouped masses of men who have nothing to sell but their labour-power. Nor is it enough that they are compelled to sell themselves voluntarily. The advance of capitalist production develops a working class which by education, tradition and habit looks upon the requirements of that mode of production as self-evident natural laws. The organization of the capitalist process of production, once it is fully developed, breaks down all resistance.”
― Karl Marx, quote from Capital, Vol 1: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production
“Poor Hayduke: won all his arguments but lost his immortal soul.”
― Edward Abbey, quote from The Monkey Wrench Gang
Awry
A Cast of Stones
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The Firebird
The Shattered Dark
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