“Let me tell you something that I learned from my youth, from a sage called the Road Runner. You can walk off a cliff and the air will hold you. Only, don't look down.”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“Did you know, the man who invented the atomic bomb once said that keeping peace through deterrence was like keeping two scorpions in one bottle? You can picture that, right? They know they can't sting without getting stung. They can't kill without getting killed. And you'd think that would stop them." He gave the book another boot, and it flipped closed with a snick. "But it doesn't." He looked up and his eyes were the color of Cherenkov radiation, the color of an orbital weapon. "You've got a bit of nerve, little scorpion. All I did was invent the bottle.”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“No, blowing up cities doesn't work, not in the long term. You've got to find something that the people in charge aren't willing to give up. A price they aren't willing to pay.
Which leads us to Talis's first rule for stopping wars: make it personal.”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“I'm not a cruel man. I mean, technically I'm not a man at all.”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“There was a space inside me, cupped and still. It was small as cupped hands; it was large as the sky. It was untouched and it was touch itself. It was empty and it was full. I held love there, like a treasure. I held my own name.”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“You made tools of us. Have you never considered: the thing of a tool is that anyone may use it.”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“The root of holiness, it turns out, is to do things deliberately.”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“I wished for impossible things. It was never going to have been a fairy tale for us. There are no fairy tales about two princesses.”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“and of course people started shooting, because that’s what passes for problem-solving among humans. See, guys, this is why you can’t have nice things. It”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“It's a strange word, "twilight." It makes me think of endings, of things done or left undone, of things over, of evening. But there are two twilights in every day, and one of them does not foretell darkness, but dawn.”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“My mother wanted out of politics. And I'll tell you, she got as far out as she could. Down nigh the Licking River."
"The Licking—" said Da-Xia, as if she couldn't believe her luck.
Elián scrubbed a hand over his face. "The south fork."
"Have you at this point heard all the jokes about that?" asked Grego.
"I'll bet there are more," said Thandi.
"Shut up," said Elián, majestically.”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“Then he said: "Y'all really took that Socratic method shit to heart."
"The benefits," I intoned, "of a Precepture education ."
"Yes," deadpanned Grego. "We were raised on Latin and Greek instead of love.”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“Elián, of course, missed it. "How advanced do you need your murders to be? Because I saw Grego die. It didn't look all that hard."
Talis smiled. "Keep snarling at me, Elián Palnik, and we'll see how hard I can make it.”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“He was going to die. He deserved a chance to do it on his terms. No matter what it cost us.”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“How useless are guns against those who are fearless. How foolish, to set force against innocence. Their own strength made them small. And”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“It was strange. We were from opposing nations that were at the brink of war. We were days away from dying for that war. And yet I would have done almost anything for Elián.”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“Stop the press," said Talis. "Ha! I haven't heard that in centuries. 'Stop the presses!' But do." The smile was sharp-edged. "Or I'll have your head on pikes.”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“I- I. Sorry. This is what my father would call a fucking unfortunate image.”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“Cranes traditionally represent a wish for peace. I closed my eyes and wished. Uselessly. Hard.”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“Even as the nannies came into heat—one could tell because they grew louder than roosters and started to sexually assault the water barrels—I”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“Why would I come back to you?”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
“It was once thought that if you died in your dreams you died in life. Thanks to dreamlock, we know this is not true. Most people can die at least six times before something them gives way.”
― Erin Bow, quote from The Scorpion Rules
Erin Bow
Born place: in Des Moines, Iowa, The United States
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“Liam's hands are curled into fists, as if he is ready to throw punches right in the middle of IHOP, which is of course a dumb place to fight. There are children here, and polyester booths, and smiley-face pancakes. Multiple kinds of syrup. Some of the drinks even come with maraschino cherries.”
― Julie Buxbaum, quote from Tell Me Three Things
“What Whileawayans Celebrate
The full moon
The Winter solstice (You haven't lived if you haven't seen us running around in our skivvies, banging on pots and pans, shouting "Come back, sun! Goddammit, come back! Come back!")
The Summer solstice (rather different)
The autumnal equinox
The vernal equinox
The flowering of trees
The flowering of bushes
The planting of seeds
Happy copulation
Unhappy copulation
Longing
Jokes
Leaves falling off the trees (where deciduous)
Acquiring new shoes
Wearing same
Birth
The contemplation of a work of art
Marriages
Sport
Divorces
Anything at all
Nothing at all
Great ideas
Death”
― Joanna Russ, quote from The Female Man
“I imagined more than office jobs. - Gretchen Vitamvas”
― quote from Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure
“The richest fuckin' people in the richest country in the world - you gonna tell them some little guy in a hole in South America can have something they can't? Like shit, man. If the little guy in the hole can be a revolutionary, they can be revolutionaries too.”
― Robert Stone, quote from Dog Soldiers
“I went around the house to the back door thinking, I have been to a dance and a boy has walked me home and kissed me. It was all true. My life was possible.”
― Alice Munro, quote from Dance of the Happy Shades
Love's Suicide
Saga, Vol. 3
Cinder & Ella
The End of the World
Reawakened
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