The Killing Moon

True peace required the presence of justice, not just the absence of conflict.

Suffering is part of life,' she said. 'All the parts of life are jumbled up together; you can't separate out just the one thing.' She parred his hand again, kindly. 'I could let you kill me now, lovely man, and have peace and good dreams forever. But who knows what I get instead, if I stay? Maybe time to see a new grandchild. Maybe a good joke that sets me laughing for days. Maybe another handsome young fellow flirting with me.' She grinned toothlessly, then let loose another horrible, racking cough. Ehiru steadies her with shaking hands. 'I want every moment of my life, pretty man, the painful and the sweet alike. Until the very end. If these are all the memories I get for eternity, I want to take as many of them with me as I can.

The shadows of Ina-Karekh are the place where nightmares dwell, but not their source. Never forget: the shadowlands are not elsewhere. We create them. They are within.

It was said that the gods favored fools because they were entertaining to watch.

True dreamers are both geniuses and madmen. Most lands can tolerate only a few, and those die young.

Real love lasts years. It causes pain, and endures through it.

All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.” —T. E. Lawrence, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph

Evil was the most contagious of diseases, so virulent that no herb, surgery, or dream-humor could cure it. One’s sense of what was normal, acceptable, became distorted by proximity to wrongness; entire nations had succumbed this way, first to decadence, then collapse.

Four are the tributaries of the great river. Four are the harvests from floodseason to dust. Four are the great treasures: timbalin, myrrh, lapis, and jungissa. Four bands of color mark the face of the Dreaming Moon. Red for blood. White for seed. Yellow for ichor. Black for bile.

Did you know that writing stories down kills them? Of course it does, words aren't meant to be stiff, unchanging things.

Embrace love while you have it, priest--from whichever direction it comes, proper or improper, for however long it lasts. Because it always, always comes to an end.

There is peace in submission, but sometimes greater peace—lasting peace—in resistance.

Suffering is part of life,” she said. “All the parts of life are jumbled up together; you can’t separate out just the one thing.

His faith sustains him—and faith is so easy to break.

He wanted only for Ehiru to wake up and shush him and hold him, as he had on that long-ago day when they’d first met. I would die for you, he had thought on that day… He had done it all to make himself worthy of this man, who was the closest thing to a father he had ever know. The closest thing to a lover he had ever wanted. There were no words for what Ehiru was to him.

Can a bird return to its egg? You call me brother, but we have not been that for decades.

There is peace in submission, but sometimes greater peace — lasting peace — in resistance.

In the dark of dreams, a soul can die. The fears we confront in shadows are as reflections in glass. It is natural to strike a reflection that offends, but then the glass cuts; the soul bleeds. The Gatherer’s task is to save the soul, at any cost. (Wisdom)

There will never be enough, she thought bitterly, and let the grief close about her like a fist.

They birth and shape the dreamers of the world. What better courtship can a man offer than worship?

It’s useful for unifying and motivating a population. But to understand ourselves and the universe, we need to explore other schools of thought—the complexity of the human consciousness, the limits of science, and more. I believe we will eventually need to interact with other intelligent entities, and exchange ideas. And we need to be wary of the ways in which letting others do this thinking and learning for us can come back to bite us on the ass. So if there’s any one religious theme in my work, it’s that.

I still have love, though. Take it, daughter of Kalawe. As much as you need.” There will never be enough, she thought bitterly, and let the grief close about her like a fist.

That which threatens peace is corruption. War is the greatest of evils.

Since I am by no means an expert, this makes it entirely possible that one or more of my characters has a name that means “beloved of cheese” or something similar. My apologies if so.