“She hadn't ascribed to this modern notion of equality between the sexes. Woman were patently superior.”
― Laura Kinsale, quote from The Shadow and the Star
“If you’re not a criminal, then what are you doing stealing all these swords and things?” For a moment he was silent. Then he rubbed his chin and said, “There’s no name for it in English.” “Oh, is there not? ‘Burglary’ seems descriptive enough.” “Kyojitsu.” He looked levelly into her eyes, not wavering. “False-true.”
― Laura Kinsale, quote from The Shadow and the Star
“To try to let go was to hold more tightly.”
― Laura Kinsale, quote from The Shadow and the Star
“I enjoy Mr. Verne’s work,” she went on brightly. “He writes of such exotic places. But you’ve seen all that sort of thing in person. I suppose it’s nothing to you.”
“Of course. Giant squids. Cannibals. Every day.”
― Laura Kinsale, quote from The Shadow and the Star
“Just—let me hold you. That’s all. Hold you and go to sleep.” He smoothed his thumbs over the back of her hands. “You can tell me everything about tableware.”
She was silent a moment, gazing down at their hands. Then she said, “Would you like to know about holloware or flatware?”
“Flatware. Naturally, flatware.”
“I shall certainly put you to sleep with that. I venture to say you’ll be snoring by the time I get to the runcible spoon.”
“My God. Do I snore?”
“You were decidedly snoring last night, as I was enlightening you upon the nature and arrangement of sideboards. I’m rather a connoisseur of sideboards, but I suppose not everyone enters into my own enthusiasm. Kindly refrain from swearing, if you please.”
“I beg your pardon.” He kissed her nose...”
― Laura Kinsale, quote from The Shadow and the Star
“You had a jumpship and you gave it away?” Nikki’s eyes widened in astonishment. “Do you have any more?” “Not at present. Oh, look, a General-class cruiser.” Miles reached for it. “My father commanded one of those, once, I believe. Do you have any Betan Survey ships . . . ?” Heads bent together, they laid out the little fleet on the floor. Nikki, Miles was pleased to find, was well-up on all the tech-specs of every ship he owned; he expanded wonderfully, his voice, formerly shy around Miles-the-weird-adult-stranger, growing louder and faster in his unselfconscious enthusiasm as he detailed his machinery. Miles’s stock rose as he was able to claim personal acquaintance with nearly a dozen of the originals for the models, and add a few interesting nonclassified jumpship anecdotes to Nikki’s already impressive fund of knowledge.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, quote from Komarr
“Volubility came easily to Max Ophuls, but it was just one of his many techniques of concealment, and he was never more hidden than when he seemed most open. For”
― Salman Rushdie, quote from Shalimar the Clown
“To make no decision in regard to the growth of authoritarian government is already a decision for it.”
― Francis A. Schaeffer, quote from How Should We Then Live? The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture
“Genevieve hunched her shoulders against the storm of sound and fury and struggled to imagine a worse sort of hell. Widdershins, of course, seemed perfectly happy, but Widdershins was weird.”
― quote from Thief's Covenant
“He is not simply looking into the mirror because he is transfixed by what he sees. Rather, the artist’s success depends as much as anything on his powers of detachment, on de-narcissizing himself… Freud… studied his own dreams not because he was a “narcissist,” but because he was a student of dreams. And whose were at once the least and most accessible of dreams, if not his own?”
― Philip Roth, quote from My Life as a Man
BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
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