“He waved to the city and said good-bye.
The city responded by carrying on the way it always did, traffic moving forward uninterrupted, without slowing, as if it were trying to demonstrate its permanence and show him it would still be there if he ever wanted to return. That promise was the best and only thing he could ask of it.”
― Matthew J. Kirby, quote from The Clockwork Three
“Giuseppe would miss them as well, but in a different way than he would miss the city. A city would stay the same. The same buildings. The same streets. Not forever, but for a great long while. But Frederick and Hannah would never again be the people they were right now, standing on the dock, wishing him farewell. Tomorrow they would wake up and be a little bit different and a little bit different the day after that, and in no time they might become people he did not recognize. Giuseppe knew it because they were already different from when he had first met them. He knew it because he was different from when they had first met him.”
― Matthew J. Kirby, quote from The Clockwork Three
“Clockwork could not run counter to its nature. The seconds, minutes, and hours moved only forward. Patient, precise, and unstoppable. Memory was an indulgence, an illusion that broke like a wave upon the juggernaut of time. The past remained the past.”
― Matthew J. Kirby, quote from The Clockwork Three
“In the early morning hours, Hannah read at the table by the dim light of dawn. She leaned in close to the pages, chin resting on her folded arms, eyes racing over the words, like chasing butterflies over the hills, to catch as many as she could before going to work. She wondered at how such tales of magic could be contained by mere paper and ink for her to read again and again.”
― Matthew J. Kirby, quote from The Clockwork Three
“I hate them!' she cried. 'It's not fair!'
'No, it isn't,' Frederick said gently.
'I can't do it all!'
'No. You can't.' After a long moment he said, 'But you can do what you can.'
'And what if that isn't enough?'
Frederick held her shoulders and took a step back. He looked in her eyes. 'Enough for what?'
'For my family.'
'What more could they ask for than what you've given?”
― Matthew J. Kirby, quote from The Clockwork Three
“Sharing his memories felt like handing over a sharp knife. A knife that others might handle carelessly. A knife that could be used to hurt him.”
― Matthew J. Kirby, quote from The Clockwork Three
“The hours trampled her on their way through the day.”
― Matthew J. Kirby, quote from The Clockwork Three
“It was his fault too,” Fredrick said. “He never really asked her why. It was like he didn’t want to know.”
― Matthew J. Kirby, quote from The Clockwork Three
“You see, in all his travels through the fallen ruins of civilizations, he picked up this notion that mankind is insignificant. That nothing we create will last. That we will all turn to dust. And it is only in nature that we find constancy and immortality.”
― Matthew J. Kirby, quote from The Clockwork Three
“Giuseppe was not tied down, not by rope, not by fear. He stood up, and spoke with a loud voice in the language of his parents, his brother and sister. "You kidnap children because they're the only ones you can bully. You tie up an old reverend and think you're getting back at a city that hates you. You try and make everyone afraid of you because you think that makes you powerful." Giuseppe looked him up and down. "I say you're weak. I say you're a coward.”
― Matthew J. Kirby, quote from The Clockwork Three
Matthew J. Kirby
Born place: The United States
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“Dad always says, 'If you can't stand out, then you should just sit down.”
― Karsten Knight, quote from Wildefire
“No one is moral among the god-controlled puppets of the Iliad. Good and evil do not exist.”
― Julian Jaynes, quote from The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind
“Whisking through the clouds as the birds pass by
Ignoring all the storms that try to ruin the sky
Chasing the setting sun
Forever
And ever
Never let the day be done
No never
Never”
― Shannon Messenger, quote from Let the Storm Break
“If even the false war we pretend to fight has created so much hate between our peoples, what would a real one do?”
― Taran Matharu, quote from The Novice
“They are surely gods who speak to him
With steady voices
A glance from him drives men to their
knees
His sigh brings cities to ruin
I wonder if he dreams of surrender
On a bed of white flowers
Or is that the mistaken hope
Of every would-be conqueror?
The world was not made for beauty like
his.”
― C.S. Pacat, quote from Prince's Gambit
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