Quotes from Megan Whalen Turner

Keeping a private guard this large is like using a wolf to guard the farm. It may keep off the other wolves, but sooner or later it will eat you.

He looked up at her. "I can't tell you why. She may be a fiend from hell to make me feel this way, but even if I have to hate myself for the rest of my life, this is what I want." He shook his head, perhaps in self-contempt, and shrugged. "I dream about her at night." Eddis looked down at him and said dryly, "We have heard you screaming.

I want my breakfast.

I was captivated. My own hair was easily as long as Olga's, but it frizzed and knotted at every opportunity. When it was combed, it didn't float in perfect fans down to my shoulders.

The Attolians liked to point out with a snicker that there was no sign anywhere of the king's hand at work.

I spent hours dreaming of the sunshine, the way it soaked into the city walls and made the yellow stones hot to lean on hours after the day had ended

The king's attendants remained, digesting the fact that their helpless, inept king had promised his wife to destroy the house of Erondites in six months and had done it in ninety-eight days.

Upset at the sight of blood? he said. Not my wife, Ornon. Your blood, the ambassador pointed out. Eugenides glanced at the hook in his arm and conceded the point. Yes, he said.

In the evening, after we dance, he rarely returns to the throne; he dances with others or he moves from place to place through the room. The court thinks he is trying to be gracious, sharing his attention. Only I see that he moves always toward the empty spot and the court moves always after him. He is like a dog trying to escape its own tail. He indulged himself in one brief moment of privacy and almost died of it. Relius, he hates being king.

The only thing I knew was that I didn't know anything, really, about the king of the Attolians, and I didn't trust him.

Weak kings who lost their tempers were notoriously destructive.

If only wars could be won on the strength of the cheering when they begin, instead of the blood and the pain and the horror that feed the gods of discord.

I'm sure Gen has a plan," Sounis said as he held Eddis in place. "If that doesn't frighten you, it should," said Eddis, glowering.

Useless the Elder was looking at me in amusement. "Not exactly stalwart, are you?" he said.

Cowardice has its own rewards

Your Majesty! Hilarion was close to begging. Everyone is waiting. Tell them I died. Your Majesty... Died, Hilarion. In the night, peacefully. Why would I do that? Because then you could all go away and leave me alone.

Even a steadfast enemy was better than a waffler.

Least said, soonest mended.

Attolians did not invest much belief in their religion. They dutifully attended temple festivals and used their gods for cursing and little else.

At one point I muttered, "You learn something new every day." "What are you learning?" Sophos asked. "To keep my mouth shut, I hope.

She is not so secure on her throne that she can risk offending her people's gods. No woman can be.

Even before I recognized him, I smiled politely. Well trained, I would have smiled so at my executioner.

I do believe that Akretenesh saw no differences between a woman who was a queen and one who was a seamstress, though he would recognize all the differences in the world between a prince and a farmer.

I asked her to leave with me on our wedding night." "What?" my grandfather said, his composure further weakened. He too had believed this was all a childish bluff and suddenly felt the ground shifting under his feet. "Oh, yes. We could have been in the Epidi Islands by now, or Mur. I would have taken her anywhere she wanted," Eugenides assured him. "She wouldn't abandon her people—she knew how Erondites would rule if she did.