Quotes from Jacqueline Carey

How strange it must be, I thought, to be wed not merely as husband and wife but Cruarch and Queen, trading men's lives and the wealth of nations as love-tokens.

You should tell them," Joscelin said shortly. "Tell them the truth. Fear and lies fester in darkness. The truth may wound, but it cuts clean.

Fancy wording, right? That's what comes from hanging out with a six-hundred-year-old Eastern European nobleman.

It is a thing I have noted, that men will compete with one another even when there is no prize to be gained. Mayhap women are no better, on the whole, but we are more subtle about it, and quicker to reckon the stakes. And quicker to play men for fools.

I bid you to aid one another. Let the wealthy have charity for the poor. Let the strong have mercy on the weak. And I promise, if we are victorious, such a time shall never come again.

It all seemed very unfair. I'd never asked for a destiny

You've a way of putting matters into perspective." "You're young." Urist smiled slightly. "You'll learn the trick of it.

You claim to see. Have you ever glimpsed a vision of the future that proved true?" I hadn't. I hadn't, because every dire vision I'd been afforded, I'd found a way to avert.

Wide grey eyes and a mop of red-gold curls, a charming sprinkle of freckles across the bridge of her nose—there is a limit, within the canons, of the number allowable for beauty.

And it is possible to love more than one person.

What becomes of this emotion we call envy when it is uncoupled from fear and malice? Does it remain a sin? Or is it simply an honest assessment of the human condition?

But Quintilius Rousse's sailors grinned in the saddle, saluting, and rode out in a thunder, horses trampling their own long shadows as they set their heads to the east.

I, and thou; our hands meet and a world engendered.

Stone and sea, the folk of the world hold a great many peculiar beliefs!

Tis strange how many leavetakings one life can hold.

My soul might be black with sin, but my flesh was clean.

It involved Melisande, and the razor-sharp blades they call flechettes, and a good deal of me screaming ... I have dreams about it still, and Elua help me, some of them are exquisite.

They say the gods use their chosen hard. Apparently, the gods are part of a vast conspiracy to share their chosen, too.

Sometimes when the gods thirst, blood is the only sacrifice.

I had Joscelin, my Perfect Companion, the compass by which I fixed my heart. No one could ask more.

That which yields is not always weak

It occurred to me, trying not to hobble in my too-tight slippers, that attire was another form of concealment.

Take care of her," he bid his servants, weariness and profound satisfaction draining his voice, shrugging into silk robes, bowing in my direction. "Treat her gently." They did, I trust; I don't remember it, in truth. I saw faces approach, awe-stricken. They understand, in Kusheth, what it is to serve Kushiel. I hurt, in every part of me. And I was content. I closed my eyes, then, and let the deeper tide of unconsciousness claim me.

mayhap if I played at being the kind and gentle husband long enough, it would become true. Master Piero once told us that we might embody those qualities we desire to possess by embracing them, over and over, until the line between seeming and being is no more.