Quotes from Megan Whalen Turner

You are wary of treachery? More wary of stupidity.

Unkingly, in so many ways, My King.

No, he said. Relius was right and I was wrong. You are My Queen. Even though you cut my head from my shoulders, with my last breath as a noose tightens, to the last beat of my heart if I hang from the walls of the palace, you are My Queen. That I have failed you does not change my love for you or my loyalty.

The queen had passed him, so close he'd felt the stir of air, and he guessed that if she had turned her head, only a little, and met his eyes, he might have died right there.

Your Majesty, what I am saying is that I have never seen him driven, and rarely led either. However, if you were to twist him around your finger and could conceivably grind him under your heel in the process, you have to know that I would be eternally grateful. I would die a happy man.

Everything I said he agreed with, which was trying, and his flute playing would make the deaf wince, but I think the real problem with Hyacinth was that he reminded me of myself. He read poetry. He flinched at loud noises. In addition to having no musical skills, he had no martial skills. He avoided any situation that might require physical effort on his part. Seeing him, I found it no wonder that my father despised me.

If these were death agonies, they were fake ones, Costis thought, and was sure of it when they reached the shallow stair at the far end of the reflecting pool. No one on the verge of death has the strength to pile one foul word on top of another like a man compiling a layered pastry of obscene language, from the the bottom step all the way to the top.

Perhaps you can bring out better in them? Eugenides shook his head. I pulled the carpet out from under them very thoroughly. They will not cross me, but they won't love me, either. I am not Eddis. People do not hand me their hearts. Sounis wondered. He would have given Eugenides his heart on a toothpick, if asked. He remembered Ion's obvious wince at being rated somewhat less significant to Gen than his boots.

The Magus must had eyes like a thief because he told Pol to stop and dismount to walk alongside me, one hand resting just above my knee ready to shake me if I fell asleep. He shook hard and resorted to pinching periodically.

What he brought out was a wooden gag they put in someone's mouth before doing something drastic, like cutting off a leg.

Welcome," said the magus. "Would you like some dried beef, some dried beef, or some dried beef for lunch?" "Oh, I'll take stuffed pigeons in sauce, thank you, and some decent wine to drink. None of that cheap stuff, please." The magus handed me an almost empty paper package of dried beef and half of a loaf of bread. "Enjoy your meal," he said.

I stayed only two days in the capital. I was welcomed by a cheering citizenry, who threw flowers at my head. It was disconcerting to think I could have put almost any young man in my retinue on a white horse and they would have thrown flowers at him instead. It was not me they cared about, only what I meant to them: a cessation of hostilities, a chance for prosperity, food on the table.

If she pardons people because she loves them, someday someone that she loves will betray her and all of Attolia with her. A queen must make sacrifices for the common good.

You know- Eddis hesitated, not sure how far to push the Attolian Queen. Go on. Attolia inclined her head. I was going to say that you look like a polecat when you smile like that. Do I? Attolia still smiled. You look a little vulpine yourself. The two queens sat for a moment in happy agreement.

That he'd seen...two people, a young man and a woman, sitting on invisible furniture with their feet up, reading books and eating chocolates.

Coming from light into the dark, he was looking ahead of him, not down at me. My lunge, as I came to my feet, took him in the chest as I drove the sword upward with the strength of my legs. Even rusted, the sword slid through him, and I found, for the first time, how easy it is to kill a man.

Oh, Lady, said the woodcutter, my hurt is overwhelming because it is someone else's pain that makes me cry.

Of course," she said, "Your Majesty." I admired the way she could make the words sound so much like "You Idiot.

I will forgive him because I have heard him scream when someone pulled a sword out of him that could have just as easily gone into me. --Sophos

You will make the boy Thief king? he said. When you could have had me? Attolia allowed a slight smile. A fine revenge for the loss of a hand, said the Mede, close to snarling. I will have my sovereignty, said Attolia thinly. Oh, yes, a fine one-handed figurehead he will make, spat Nahuseresh. Then he remembered Attolia's flattery earlier that morning. Or do I insult your lover? he asked. Not a lover, said Attolia. Merely my choice for king.

We could make a treaty without a marriage. No, he said. You are sure? Yes, he said.

Costis followed, telling himself that it wasn't true that he and the king and even the stone under their feet were nothing but tissue, transparently thin, and that for a moment, the only real thing in the universe had been there on the parapet with the king.

A natural! A natural!

I am so sick of people who all seem to be smarter than I am and know more than I do. I wanna go back to the farm. These people make my family look easy to get along with.