Tad Williams · 815 pages
Rating: (16.1K votes)
“Of all the songs we Zida'ya sing," she (Aditu) murmured, "the closest to our hearts are those which tell of things lost."
"Perhaps that is because none of us can show something's value until it is gone," said Josua.”
― Tad Williams, quote from To Green Angel Tower, Part 1
“But a mouse can be brave. Small as they are, though, they learn it is wiser not to challenge the cat.”
― Tad Williams, quote from To Green Angel Tower, Part 1
“And you, a king’s daughter, who willingly gave herself to me—who brought me to her bed? Are you so high and pure?” She”
― Tad Williams, quote from To Green Angel Tower, Part 1
“These were madmen, Simon realized, and that was the direst problem of the world: that madmen should be strong and unafraid, so that they, could force their will on the weak and peace-loving.”
― Tad Williams, quote from To Green Angel Tower, Part 1
“That is what I hate about ruling and royalty, Simon. It is living, breathing people with whom a prince plays the games of statecraft.”
― Tad Williams, quote from To Green Angel Tower, Part 1
“Why is it that men think they are brave and women are weak? Women see more blood and pain than men ever do, unless men are fighting - and that is foolish blood.”
― Tad Williams, quote from To Green Angel Tower, Part 1
“One afternoon when the children were on their own, they saw that the macaws on the tree that guarded the entrance had flown up, squawking.
But it was not Furo come to fetch Maia. It was Colonel da Silva with his second-in-command, come to take charge of Bernard Taverner’s posessions.
“Dios!” he said, paddling up to the hut. “What is this?”
So Finn explained, and when he had finished the colonel was laughing so much he looked as if he was going to fall into the water. The idea of the crows bringing a penniless actor to Westwood was the best thing he had heard in ages. “And you, senhorita,” he said to Maia. “A heroine no less.”
― Eva Ibbotson, quote from Journey to the River Sea
“It was unrealistic to expect to be constantly in the happiest place. In real life, you're lucky just to be always somewhere nearby.”
― Sarah Dessen, quote from Saint Anything
“In this land
I have made myself sick with silence
In this land
I have wandered, lost
In this land
I hunkered down to see
What will become of me.
In this land
I held myself tight
So as not to scream.
-But I did scream, so loud
That this land howled back at me
As hideously
As it builds its houses.
In this land
I have been sown
Only my head sticks
Defiant, out of the earth
But one day it too will be mown
Making me, finally
Of this land.
-Charlie's poem”
― Anna Funder, quote from Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall
“No tengo que contarle que Martha siguió engordando durante cada embarazo y posteriormente. Después de que naciera William, ella ya no fingió que pudiera despojarse del enorme peso que colgaba de su cuerpo como grandes masas de grasa. Parecía que había abandonado el cuidado de su aspecto. Una vez escribí de Martha R. que era un bello espécimen del tipo de chica que me gustaba: "La auténtica chica carnosa inglesa, alimentada con carne de buey". Pero todo aquel buey que la alimentaba tuvo un efecto predecible. Si me hubiesen pedido que reescribiese aquella frase en 1874, habría dicho: "Es el perfecto espécimen de enorme buey inglés carnoso y alimentado con carne de chica".”
― Dan Simmons, quote from Drood
“I think the reason lay partly in his idea of immortality, but I think too it belonged to his war against the Inland Revenue. He was a great believer in delaying tactics. “Never answer all their questions,” he would say. “Make them write again. And be ambiguous. You can always decide what you mean later according to circumstances. The bigger the file the bigger the work. Personnel frequently change. A newcomer has to start looking at the file from the beginning. Office space is limited. In the end it’s easier for them to give in.” Sometimes, if the inspector was pressing very hard, he told me that it was time to fling in a reference to a non-existing letter. He would write sharply, “You seem to have paid no attention to my letter of April 6, 1963.” A whole month might pass before the inspector admitted he could find no trace of it. Mr Pottifer would send in a carbon copy of the letter containing a reference which again the inspector would be unable to trace. If he was a newcomer to the district, of course he blamed his predecessor; otherwise, after a few years of Mr Pottifer, he was quite liable to have a nervous breakdown. I think when Mr Pottifer planned to carry on after death (of course there was no notice in the papers and the funeral was very quiet) he had these delaying tactics in mind. He didn’t think of the inconvenience to his clients, only of the inconvenience to the inspector.’ Aunt Augusta”
― Graham Greene, quote from Travels With My Aunt
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