Quotes from Elizabeth Bear

Selene smelled the old woman's flesh, acrid electronics, and consistency, and it helped drive the dangerous musk from her nostrils.

She pressed to the wall between that window and the door and held her breath, praying like the spider that no eye would fall on her, as Lady Ariane Conn and her knights brought the naked prisoner from Engline.

Pretoria household's residence was already bannered and flowered and gilded to excess when Lesa arrived home, but that wasn't limiting the ongoing application of gaud.

Somebody intelligent enough for space flight already lives on Grail.

Will raised his eyes to the impressive, alabaster masks of two women who had never looked so much like sisters as they did at this moment, for all the Mebd rode sidesaddle, swathed in layers of color-shifting silk and Morgan wore those damned riding breeches that had once so discomfitted Will.

I nudged Whiskey down the far side of the rise, and came among them like Death on my pale horse.

I wish I could say I wasn't proud of it-I know I wouldn't be proud of it when I quit being a temporary psychopath, but it wasn't so easy to stop enjoying it, either.

Rashaquin reproduction. Their entire social order is bult to keep adults well separated, with lots of private space, so they don't accidentally each one another.

I dreamed, and they were the terrible dreams that I had been turning out for twenty ans.

The Queen's voice had dropped, softened. Carel recognized it: the voice of the woman, not the Queen, unheard in seven years. In another circumstance, she might have found it beautiful.

The Earl pressed his lips together and considered long enough that faintness made Will light-headed. And his words sent Will's stomach plunging hopelessly.

As Muire and the pretty gigolo sat down, the landlord appeared from his strategic retreat and came to them across the empty bar.

It appears thou has a thing that belongs to me.

Whiskey pricked up his ears, arching his neck, knowing himself displayed.

She smiled and leaned on him. It would have been nice to earn that smile. Nice to feel the trust, the partnership, the old friendship they had had. Nice to smile back, to reach out, and take her hand.

We were moving fast, but at least we were within lightspeed communication range that wasn't longer than a human lifetime.

Rashaquin reproduction. Their entire social order is bult to keep adults well separated, with lots of private space, so they don't accidentally eat one another.

We learn to let go of our former selves, if we are to live in the world forever. Or we burn.

Elspeth thought he was watching her, and she made her expression intent and ungiving, resisting the urge to toy with her crucifix.

Lies are stories.

Tristen had been alone so long that the affectionate proximity of another organic chipped at his rough edges, like wear smoothing a rusted bearing, and what was left functioned better than the grief-etched surfaces of before.

Regrettable," Salisbury said. "Truly regrettable. But I need them more than I need Marlowe, Master Shakespeare, for the next month or so. Conspiracies are useful-a force that may be directed to profitable service, like a waterfall through a millwheel, but I learned well from my father that they must not be plucked before they are ripe. I mean to use these conspiracies as he would, to secure the future of the realm.

Surely it's a harmless hobby. A way to pass the time, a little cruel pleasure while the world winds down. Surely it is only the cord binding his neck that makes his breath sting when this child catches his eye and-puzzled-frowns as if he thought he knew him. It's like a gift, a little added joy in the end of everything, that Strifbjorn is back for him.

Tomorrow, I won't have to worry about not being real anymore.