Quotes from Naomi Novik

I say to you, here are the dangers. Some are more likely than others. Weigh them, put them all together, and you will know the cost. Then you must say, is this what you owe?

and it came out that this King Arthur and his knights had done nothing of real note but to kill innocent dragons all around Britain: almost certainly a pack of lies, as Forthing admitted they had not possessed even any guns at the time, and unpleasant lies at that.

But wanting cruelty felt like another wrong answer in an endless chain.

No, my dear," he said at last, softly, knowing it was only the truth. "I would rather have you than any ship in the Navy.

One man can go where a group cannot, and manage on very little, particularly a rough adventurer such as he. More the point, he risks only himself when he goes: you much consider that in your charge is an inexpressibly valuable dragon, whose loss must be of greater importance than even this mission. Oh, pray, let us be gone at once, said the inexpressibly valuable dragon, when Laurence had carried the question, still unresolved, back to him. It sounds very exciting to me.

It seems very strange that the ocean is full of things that one can eat as one likes, and on land everything seems to be spoken for," Temeraire said

I didn't know how to answer anything so brazen; the only thing I could have managed would have been an inarticulate hiss.

I didn't really understand what mothers were, because mine was in a tree, but I knew they were very good things and you were very angry and sad if you lost them.

I imagine it's always easier to do something monstrous if you can convince yourself you aren't going to, up to the last minute, until you do.

All maps are fiction when the world is seen from the sky. But if ten thousand dragons choose to believe in this one, I think you will find it nearer truth than otherwise.

We're all greedy, but children make it easier to be. We feel it's only right to give them everything we can grab, even when you know that anything you feed your own child still comes out of someone else's mouth.

The tsar was holding her hands against his chest, the ring on his finger gleaming pale silver like the tears running in silver lines down his cheeks; he was gazing down at her with eyes shining jewel-green, as though she were the most beautiful thing in the world.

I don't have a very good idea of how people behave with their friends normally because I've never had one before. But, on the bright side, Orion hadn't either, so he didn't know any more than I did. So for lack of a better idea, we just went on being rude to each other, which was easy enough for me and a refreshing and new experience for him, in both directions.

I am of the opinion, Tharkay said, that you ought not assign to free will something more likely the consequence of a sharp blow to the skull.

I didn't need this much more to lose.

Oddly enough constantly being on the verge of malnourishment, exhaustion and mortal terror isn't really conductive to romance.

I'm not going to play it safe if you say yes, and I'm not going to do anything dumb if you say no." "What you mean is, you'll do an enormous number of truly stupid things no matter what!

Shrivel up and die, you putrescent sack of larva!

Why don't I just kill them all as they come in? Orion said, without the slightest doubt in his ability to kill a billion mals. Shut up, Lake, I said, having many doubts about his ability to kill a billion mals.

There had been something gentle in her, a pool of magic, not a running stream that had washed away all the ordinary parts of her life.

Laurence felt his face going red; she was sitting there in breeches that showed every inch of her leg, with a shirt held closed only by a neckcloth; he shifted his gaze to the unalarming top of her head and managed to say, "Your servant, Miss Harcourt.

I had a feeling the Summoning wasn't really meant to be cast alone: as if truth didn't mean anything without someone to share it with; you could shout truth into the air forever, and spend your life doing it, if someone didn't come and listen.

He made her give him gold just to live, as if she belonged to him because he was strong enough to kill her. My father was strong enough to kill me but that did not mean I belonged to him.

I hadn't any business agreeing to be with someone who told me in all sincerity that I was his only hope of happiness in the world, at least not until he'd sorted his own head out and diversified.