Quotes from Naomi Novik

Those men want to take Laurence from me, and put him in prison, and execute him, and I will not let them, ever, and I do not care if Laurence tells me not to squash you, he added, fiercely, to Lord Barham. — Temeraire

Mum spent a lot of time in my formative years gently reminding me that people don't think about us nearly as much as we think they do, because they're all busy worrying what people are thinking about them.

It's not seemly for a girl, my grandmother tried, but my grandfather snorted. Gold doesn't know the hand that holds it, he said, and frowned at me, but in a pleased way.

Oh, how I'd enjoyed all that sweet crisp righteous anger, my favorite drug: I'd nearly ridden the high straight into murder.

Would you believe it's harder to find a virgin than a unicorn in New York?

After a moment, he said, in almost marveling tones, 'Are you deranged?

With a demon wanting to devour me, I was feeling inclined to be devout . . .

That is all we can do for each other in the world, to keep the wolf away.

I had hated him, but I wouldn't have reproached him, any more than I would have reproached a bolt of lightning for striking my house. He wasn't a person . . .

But he wasn't going for the sake of corruption or the kingdom. His tower was broken, he'd drunk Spindle-water, and he'd held my hand. So now he was going to run away as quick as he could, and find himself some new stone walls to hide behind. He'd keep himself locked away for ten years this time, until he withered his own roots, and didn't feel the lack of them anymore.

He'd also agreed to be betrothed to the Archduke of Varsha's daughter, a girl of nine who had evidently impressed him a great deal by being able to spit across a garden plot. I was a little dubious about this as a foundation for marriage, but I suppose it wasn't much worse than marrying her because her father might have stirred up rebellion, otherwise.

Of course I was afraid. But I had learned to fear other things more: being despised, whittled down one small piece of myself at a time, smirked at and taken advantage of. I put my chin up and said, as cold as I could be in answer, "And what will you give me in return?

I'm not some sort of pallid romantic who insists on being loved for my shining inner being. My inner being is exceptionally cranky and I often don't want her company myself.

What perfectly sensible advice. It sat in my stomach, an indigestible lump.

It wasn't that I wanted a husband and a baby; I didn't, or rather, I only wanted them the way I wanted to live to a hundred: someday, far off, never thinking about the particulars.

A crowd of women around me doing the ocean of women's work that never subsided and never changed and always swallowed whatever time you gave it and wanted more, another hungry body of water. I submerged into it like a ritual bath and let it close over my head gladly.

I will tell you what we shall do: if ever you need to rescue Catherine, or you Berkley, Maximus, I will help you, and you will do as much for me. Then we do not need to worry, I do not suppose anyone could stop all three of us, at least not before we can escape

Because that's what the story's really about: getting out of paying your debts. That's not how they tell it, but I knew. My father was a moneylender, you see.

I do not care if they do not like me, he said. Maybe then they will let me alone, and I will not have to stay in China. The thought visibly struck him, and his head came up with sudden enthusiasm. If I were very offensive, do you suppose they would go away now? he asked. Laurence, what would be particularly insulting Hammond looked like Pandora, the box open and horrors loose upon the world. Laurence was inclined to laugh, but he stifled it out of sympathy.

Anger was a fire in a grate, and I'd never had any wood to burn. Until now, it seemed.

No; they nearly drowned you, and not even on purpose but only through carelessness. I am not letting them have you back," Temeraire said.

I'm not your dear girl," Kasia said, with a bite in her tone that silenced him.

Maximus] put his head down and said in a conspiratorial whisper, "Tell Temeraire that Lily and I have not forgotten our promise; we will not let them hang you at all. Laurence stared up at the immense Regal Copper. All his crew looked deeply distressed, as well they might, the outlaw remark being perfectly audible several clearings over.

I've been taught any number of ways to manage anger, and they really work. What she's never been able to teach me is how to want to manage it. So I go on seething and raging and knowing the whole time that it's my own fault, because I do know how to stop.