Quotes from Naomi Novik

Justice is expensive," Tharkay said. "That is why there is so little of it, and that reserved for those few with enough money and influence to afford it.

Fire wouldn't burn he; blade wouldn't cut her, no matter how long we hacked away.

though if Fanshawe had not spoken in so unbecoming a way, Laurence would have liked to keep Carver out of it, as he knew the boy had a poor head for heights, which struck him as a grave impediment for an aviator .

I swung my feet off the bed and got on my shoes, and then Liu opened the door and we all jumped back, because Orion was standing right outside like a creeper. He jumped himself, so it wasn't that he'd actually been planning to ambush me; I could only guess that he'd been standing there working himself up to knocking.

And they didn't stop at safety, either. They wanted comfort, and then they wanted luxury, and then they wanted excess, and every step of the way they still wanted to be safe, even as they made themselves more and more of a tempting target, and the only way they could stay safe was to have enough power to keep everyone off that wanted what they had.

There were forest depths in her eyes, green and unending.

I laughed; I couldn't help it. It wasn't mirth, it was bitterness. "So the fairy silver brought you a monster of fire for a husband, and me a monster of ice. We should put them in a room together and let them make us both widows.

and if they were both outcast for the same reason, they might at least have the pleasure of each other's society for compensation.

They looked at me and saw someone out of a story, who might ride by and be stared at, but didn't belong in their lives at all.

I can't, I said. I have a crown. If it means anything, it means this. Then leave it, she said. Leave it, Irinushka. It's only sorrow on sorrow. I bent and kissed her cheek. Help me put it on, I said softly, and she went and took it with tears in her eyes

Mum told me she'd helped her resolve a corruption of perception that had lodged itself too deep into her imagination. If that doesn't tell you much, just avoid consuming too many alchemical substances in unreal spaces and it won't happen to you.

And if you have been lying about it, Iskierka put in, having roused enough from her napping to follow the conversation, with slitted eyes, you may be quite sure you will all be sorry: if anything has happened to my egg, I will burn everything between here and whatever house Napoleon is hiding in, and then I will set *that* on fire, too.

there is no sense your trying to put out sakura blossoms, when you are a bamboo.

Dragon intelligence was a mystery to men who made a study of the subject; he had no idea how much the dragon would hear or understand, but thought it better to avoid the risk of giving offense.

It's very easy to claim you've summoned something that's invisible and incorporeal.

How did you," he said, pushing himself up on an elbow, indignation finally dawning, and I pushed him back down and kissed him.

Uma casa que não tinha pelo menos dois ou três livros exibidos com orgulho nas paredes era uma casa pobre.

He looked at me, baffled and for the first time uncertain, as though he had stumbled into something, unprepared. His long narrow hands were cradled around mine, both of us holding the rose together. Magic was singing in me, through me; I felt the murmur of his power singing back that same song. I was abruptly too hot, and strangely conscious of myself. I pulled my hands free.

I don't know if anyone who hasn't tried it can properly appreciate just how horrible it is to be constantly surrounded by people who believe in absolutely everything

So I put together a street-going rig and came up with the courier.

This wasn't about truth at all. The court didn't want truth, the king didn't want truth. Any truth I could give them, they could ignore as easily as the rest. It wouldn't change their minds.

All of magic essentially involves sneaking something you want past reality while it's distracted and looking the other way.

He demanded, grimly, "Enough?" I opened my mouth to say yes, to say please. "No," I whispered, horribly afraid now. I could feel the faint quicksilver trace of the shadows still inside me. If we stopped now, they would curl up deep, hiding in my veins and my belly. They would take root and grow and grow and grow, until they strangled all the rest of me.

she didn't even have time to scream, just gave a startled "Oh!" and was gone