“Can you define "plan" as "a loose sequence of manifestly inadequate observations and conjectures, held together by panic, indecision, and ignorance"? If so, it was a very good plan.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Ring of Solomon
“Besides, if you're going to die horribly, you might as well do it with style.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Ring of Solomon
“Then again, Solomon was human. And that meant he was flawed (Go on, take a look at yourself in the mirror. A good long look, if you can bear it. See? Flawed's putting it mildly, isn't it?)”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Ring of Solomon
“Hippo in a skirt: this was a comic reference to one of Solomon's principal wives, the one from Moab. Childish? Yes. But in the days before printing we had limited opportunities for satire.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Ring of Solomon
“Not bad in short, though the last one [understanding the language of animals], isn't half as useful as you might expect, since when all's said and done the language of the beasts tends to revolve around: a) the endless hunt for food, b) finding a warm bush to sleep in the evening, and c) the sporadic satisfication of certain glands. (Many would argue that the language of human kind boils down to this too)”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Ring of Solomon
“It's the same with spirit guises; show me a sweet little choirboy or a smiling mother and I'll show you the hideous fanged strigoi it really is. (Not always. Just sometimes. *Your* mother is absolutely fine, for instance. Probably.)”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Ring of Solomon
“In recent weeks it has come to my attention that many caravans have met with disaster; they have not gotten through."
I grunted wisely. "Probably ran out of water. That's the thing about deserts. Dry."
"Indeed. A fascinating analysis. But survivors reaching Hebron report differently: monsters fell upon them in the wastes."
"What, fell upon them in a squashed-them kind of way?"
"More the leaped-out-and-slew-them kind. (...)”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Ring of Solomon
“Her clarity gave her purpose and her purpose gave her clarity.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Ring of Solomon
“Me, I was still in the pygmy hippo in a skirt, singing lusty songs about Solomon's private life and a giant stone back and forth through the air as I climbed out of the quarry at the edge of the site.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Ring of Solomon
“Zealots: Wild eyed persons afflicted with incurable certainty about the workings of the world, a certainty that can lead to violence when the world doesn't fit.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Ring of Solomon
“The Evasive Cartwheel ™ © etc., Bartimaeus of Uruk, circa. 2800 B.C.E. Often imitated, never surpassed. As famously memorialized in the New Kingdom tomb paintings of Ramses III— you can just see me in the background of The Dedication of the Royal Family before Ra, wheeling out of sight behind the pharaoh.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Ring of Solomon
“En pleine bagarre, vous vous en tenez au strict nécessaire, à savoir étriper l’adversaire en faisant en sorte que ce dernier ne vous arrache pas les bras pour vous assommer avec.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Ring of Solomon
“Ich für meinen Teil denke während einer Verfolgungsjagd gern nach. Keiner stört einen, man ist allein und all die Problemchen werden bedeutungslos. Das wichtigste Thema heißt natürlich: "Wie bleibe ich am Leben?", aber auch andere Dinge sieht man in neuem Licht, was zu ganz neuen und manchmal überraschenden Erkenntnissen führt.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Ring of Solomon
“Wenn man schon eines grässlichen Todes sterben muss, sollte man wenigstens einen stilvollen Abgang hinlegen.”
― Jonathan Stroud, quote from The Ring of Solomon
Jonathan Stroud
Born place: in Bedford, The United Kingdom
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“Honestly, Bob: how do you carve a scream?”
― Ilsa J. Bick, quote from Drowning Instinct
“She was talking to a tree. Just talking to a tree. Totally normal. People probably did it every day here. They're only trees. She fought an insane urge to laugh.”
― Ruth Frances Long, quote from The Treachery of Beautiful Things
“Hunter tossed another piece of wood onto the fire, sending up a spray of live coals, a few of which fell in Tom’s lap. Tom scrambled backward and tried to shake them off, no easy feat with his hands tied behind him. In the process he lost his balance and toppled sideways.
Hunter squatted by the fire and draped his arms over his knees, his gaze fixed on the feeble flames while Tom struggled to sit back up. The Comanche’s eyes shone with that peculiar light Loretta was coming to recognize as laughter. After a long while he said, “When the sun rises, we will leave. You will be set free, old man.”
Tom didn’t look as if he believed that.
His eyes still glowing with that somber amusement she hated so much, Hunter glanced at her. “I make no grief behind me.”
The muscles along Tom’s throat stood out as he struggled to speak. When he finally did, the words came out in a squeak. “And what about her?”
“She goes with me.”
“I’ll b-buy her from ya. R-rifles, I can get rifles. And cartridges.”
There was no mistaking the interest that bit of information sparked in the Comanche. Loretta’s heart soared with sudden hope. “You have rifles?”
“I--um, no. B-but I can git ’em.”
Hunter studied Tom at length, then slid his gaze to Loretta.
“Please,” Tom whispered. “There’s other gals you can steal. Don’t take this one. Let her go home to her family.” Breaking off, he licked his lips. “She ain’t done you no harm.”
After a long while, Hunter returned his attention to the fire. “This Comanche does not sell his women. Not even for rifles. She goes with me.”
“Why this girl?”
Hunter tossed a sliver of wood onto the flames. “Another will not do.”
― Catherine Anderson, quote from Comanche Moon
“He tells them he and his wife are keeping the baby, because it’s the last link to their little girl or some cowpuckie like that.”
― Julia Spencer-Fleming, quote from In the Bleak Midwinter
“Massa Jesus take care of it in His own time, His own way.”
― Lynn Austin, quote from Candle in the Darkness
La verdad sobre el c...
The Good Daughter
Averno
These Shallow Graves
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