Quotes from Tanith Lee

Roilant caught himself, with exasperation, slipping into vacuous philosophy, a sure sign his opinion of life was at its very lowest.

I do not think I was afraid. There must be substance to breed fear, and I was hollow.

ONE NIGHT, AZHRARN Prince of Demons, one of the Lords of Darkness, took on him, for amusement, the shape of a great black eagle. East and west he flew, beating with his vast wings, north and south, to the four edges of the world, for in those days the earth was flat and floated on the ocean of chaos.

Les Vazdru ne pleurent pas. - Chaque parole prononcée fut une larme.

Condemned and executioner are not coupled in a primitive rite.

It had occurred to me I was not courageous, had never been brave, only arrogant or unthinking.

But be sure, the age of Innocence was ended.

Why hope to be happy? Before, it had been like a tide of water, (life), not especially fast, passing over her. Not happy. Not unhappy. Indifferent. There was music and there were books. The rest was an interruption. Live second-hand.

Fleur de feu. Oh flower of fire. That fire is not hate or fear, which makes flowers come, not terror or anger or lust, it is love that is the fire of the Bite-Me-Not, love which cannot abandon, love which cannot harm. Love which never dies.

It would appear that those who win your love are greatly unfortunate. Do not let it trouble you, said Azhrarn. The misfortune is not yours.

It was usual to be obedient to authority, to obey a legal letter. But Rachaela left her bills unpaid until the threats began. She ignored the money-envelopes stuck through the door for starving children and the sick.

No man to lord, no child to hold.

Strange, that when we feel we understand all things, we understand nothing. Strange, that when we feel we understand nothing we have begun, at last, to understand.

Standing by the frozen glass, he stared down at the icy, barely lit streets running towards the river Seine, the bell-clanging local church, then to the sky like black lead. (Israbel)

The graves are, he suggests, only stone bookmarks left in pages of earth.

Death is God, I said. Life is Man. The day we are born begins our love affair with death.

Despair, the worst of all the deadly sins, since it is denial of the self, of the god-in-self, since it is so seductive, like the snow-death, so warm. Ah, who would tear himself to pieces when he might lie down in such arms, in comfort, and cease. Bless you, my despair, my dear and loving despair. So painlessly you take my pain away. Oh Father, by no means dash the cup from my lips -

When will they fight?" I asked. "Tomorrow. Daybreak. It is man's work." I laughed. "I too have fought and killed, Kotta. It is the work of fools, not men.

What is reality after all, he said. Did we not invent all this, are we not God, any and all of us? He spread his own elegant hand on the table. I could pass my hand through the wood as if through water. Any man, any woman, could do it. No chains, no bindings. It's a world of chaos restrained solely by the human mind, which then, afraid of itself, steps back and says, see this colossal machine over which I have no power at all.

Jane," he said. "Jane, a pane of crystal, the sound of rain falling on the silken grain of marble, a slender, pale chain of a name.

There's a saying in High Egypt: The sky won't listen, so complain all you like.

Sometimes, you can't help seeing yourself as the hero of your own story.

All the Scarabae—all but one—were crowded in the garden. They watched her. Their grim old faces gave away nothing. Like elderly kiddies at a play they did not understand yet knew to be important, they regarded her as she stood behind the gate. Goodbye, she thought. Goodbye for ever.

Thinta flew safely, and I realized how much I preferred being with Hergal and feeling the blood drain out of my head with fright. Actually when I'm with Hergal I always realize how I prefer being with Thinta and not feeling the blood drain out of my head with fright.