Quotes from Nicola Griffith

Rhoedd is prideful. It is easier on a man's pride to truckle to a great king than to a starveling. And so we preen.

It was like the village all over again; she had won, but still must leave. She could not bear it.

Uncertain firelight, a softer orange, made the shadows dance and sway, so that her face looked hollow and old.

I always ask for as much as I can get. It's a matter of principle.

Her lips were soft and plump as rain and Peretur wanted to plunge her hands deep into her golden yellow hair, deep under her skirts to the soft places beneath, and she could feel their hearts thundering like horss, like hoses yoked and racing together, pulling towards the same goal, beanth tearing in and out.

Twilight ran along the harp's bronze strings and the bard's voice rose and dropped, not unlike the fells to the east, making a twisting, hypnotic rhythm of poised and perfect words.

Her mind was empty of everything but the feel of iron gritting through muscle and cartilege.

We shook hands. My mother showed me a dozen different handshakes. This is the one that means I don't think you're worth my attention: a quick shake, with her hand already sliding from mine before it was properly finished. This one shows I hold you in great contempt: a snakelike up and down, bending at the wrist, fingers stiff as though she couldn't wait to shake off my sweat. There were others. Cordova was a mixture of reserve and haste: fast, light, and whippy.

They took a moment, the grown man in clothes foreign to him and the young girl in splendour she could barely carry, and understood each other. He laughed.

Whoever you are, Peretur, I would have you.

His hazel eyes shone with something. Perhaps it was the reflection of new leaves. She hoped so.

Indifference was her cloak and shield.

The music, when it came, with a rish, a gush of voice seeking its note, ripped away her indifference and tore through her as sudden and shocking as snowmelt.

She felt hot, then cold, then nothing at all, like a bubble rising through water, then floating, then lifting free.