Quotes from Madeline Miller

His trust was a part of him, as much as his hands or his miraculous feet. And despite my hurt, I would not wish to see it gone, to see him as uneasy and fearful as the rest of us, for any price.

Exile might satisfy the anger of the living, but it did not appease the dead.

It was as if we found the still heart of the universe. Nothing moved except for us.

It is strange to think of a goddess needing friends." "All creatures that are not mad need them.

The door snicked shut.

And then he pressed his lips onto mine. "Live", he said. "Oh live, my life, my love, live." And that's when I'm supposed to open my eyes like a dewy fawn, and see him poised over me like the sun, and make a little gasping noise of wonder and gratitude, and then he fucks me.

He admired the world like a jewel, turning its facets to catch the light.

If you have to go, you know I will go with you." We slept.

Will you bear my child?" he asked me. I laughed at him. "No, never and never.

Aristos Achaion." Best of the Greeks.

His eyes were unwavering, green flecked with gold. A surety rose in me, lodged in my throat. I will never leave him. It will be this, always, for as long as he will let me.

Achilles makes a sound like choking. "There are no bargains between lions and men. I will kill you and eat you raw.

It was a trick of his, to set a sentence out like a plate on a table and see what you would put on it. But he surprised me by continuing.

The world is an unjust place.

I can please you, I swear it. You will find none more loyal than me. I will do anything." I do think he loved me a little. For before I could say the thousand humiliating things in my heart, all the proofs of passion I had hoarded, the crawling devotions I would do, I felt his power come around me. And with that same flick he had used upon the cushions, he sent me back to my rooms.

Where there is greed, there is hope.

I did not lie dreaming of him during the days, I did not speak his name into my pillow. He was no husband, scarcely even a friend. He was a poison snake, and I was another, and on such terms we pleased ourselves.

Good. I wanted him angry. He would make mistakes that way.

You are wrong about witchcraft," I told her. "It does not come from hate. I made my first spell for love of Glaucos." I could hear her mink-voice as if she stood before me. Yet it was in defiance of our father, in defiance of all those who slighted you and would keep you from your desires.

What makes a witch, then? If it is not divinity?

What do you have to say to me? You threw me to the crows, but it turns out I prefer them to you.

What was I truly? In the end, I could not bear to know.

What makes a witch, then? If it is not divinity?' 'I do not know for certain,' I said. 'I once thought it was passed through blood, but Telegonus has no spells in him. I have come to believe it is mostly will.' She nodded. I did not have to explain. We knew what will was.

His face was like a quiet pool that would hold everything safe in its depth.