Quotes from Naomi Novik

I glared down. Do you want me to go? His hands tightened on my arms. He didn't look me in the face. For a moment he didn't speak. Then harshly he said, No.

It's a lie that matches his desire.

The first was wit; the second beauty, and the third—that fools should recognize neither.

But I had not known that I was strong enough to do any of those things until they were over and I had done them.

I should like to know if he has sunk a frigate, alone, with a Fleur-de-Nuit on his back; and as for distinction, my ancestors were scholars in China while his were starving in pits.

the same kind of calm as going through a crying jag and coming out the other side, where you know nothing's changed and it's all still horrible but you can't cry forever, so there's nothing to do but go on.

Because that's what the story's really about: getting out of paying your debts.

Intent doesn't matter, she'd say, when you've really injured someone else. You need to be open to their pain and anger if you're ever to make things whole between you.

her fire was roaring, her silhouette raising showers of orange sparks with a hammer made of shadow.

It turns out that magical mice high on incense are really good at not being caught.

No one had made her talk to me, or be in my company. I couldn't understand why she would have gone to the trouble just to be unpleasant.

We're going home tomorrow. I'm going home. And my mother is going to be so happy, and for a long time, she won't care about anything, except that I'm back. But then she's going to want me to want the right things again. The things that the family think are the right things. She stopped, and took a deep breath and let it out. But I'm not going to. I'm going to want the things I want, and help them the way I can help them. And those are going to be the right things, too.

I watched them roam awhile, and had a small weep, but even grief had its limits. By dinner-time I was horribly bored.

The Wood knew I was here: even now its creatures were moving towards me, stealthy padding feet through the forest, walkers and wolves and worse things still. I suddenly was sure that there were things that never left the Wood at all, things so dreadful no one had ever seen them. And they were coming.

My lady, I did not think you could answer it, when I took you from your home without your leave, and set value only on your gift. But I am answered truly. You have given fair return for insult thrice over and set your worth: higher than my life and all my kingdom and all who live therein, and though you send my people to the fire, I can claim no debt to repay. It is justly done.

I was so tired that I was nothing but my body: the steady dull throb in my thighs, the tremor all along my arms, the thick grime of dust muffling my skin.

In Sapienta Umbraculum — in Wisdom, Shelter

I felt argument coiling in my belly.

El, I love you so much.

I will lay my hand upon the flow of time, if need be, that you shall have however much of it you seek.

I wasn't alone anymore. They were saving me, and I was going to save them. It felt more like magic than magic.

I've got quite well-developed willpower when it comes to doing necessary work. I just have very little willpower when it comes to indulging petty resentment:

I stood panting with my hands clenched at my sides, still ringing head-to-foot, and said, Is that magic enough to put me on the list? Or do you want to see more? They stared at me, and in the silence I heard shouts outside in the courtyard, running feet. The guards were looking in with their hands on their sword-hilts, and I realized I'd just shaken the king's castle, in the king's city, and shouted at the highest wizards of the land.

They were all delightedly hoping to give me exactly the post-Scholomance life I'd dreamed of for years. The bastards.