Quotes from Jacqueline Carey

For this too I learned, that a storyteller's tale may end, but history goes on always. These events, so distant in legend, play a part in shaping the very events we witness about us, each and every day.

There are those who do not hold that there is any innate goodness to mankind. To them I say, had you lived my life, you would not believe it. I have known the depths to which mortals are capable of descending, and I have seen the heights. I have seen how kindness and compassion may grow in the unlikeliest of places, as the mountain flower forces its way through the stern rock.

It's the same questions we ask of our existence, and the answer is always the same. The mystery lies not in the question nor the answer, but in the asking and answering themselves, over and over again, and the end is engendered in the beginning.

It is not wise to meddle with D'Angelines in matters of love.

Love child! What else? You will find it and lose it, again and again. And with each finding and each loss, you will become more than before. What you make of it is yours to choose.

Are you a minor character in my tale, or am I a lesser figure in yours?

I would that I could have stopped time and preserved that day forever. It was a perfect day. There was the shadow of sorrow, yes. It would always be there. But that was the nature of life. The bright mirror and the dark, reflecting one another. And today there was so much brightness.

I had begun to think my ripening body would wither untasted on the vine.

To my surprise, Joscelin rose. 'Phedre-' He began, then halted. Sitting below him, I watched him smile to himself, quiet and private. 'Phedre yields with a willow's grace,' he said softly. 'And endures with the strength of mountains. Without her, life would be calm; and yet lack all meaning.

Sidonie, I know you don't remember it, but you once promised to trust me beyond all reason. And I swear to you that all that I am, all that I possess, including this gem-stone, is yours. I need you. I can't do this alone. Forget your memories. Look into your heart. And if you can find somewhere there, some lingering spark of trust that owes naught to reason, I beg you to speak the word written here.

Love is hard, harder than steel and thrice as cruel. It is inexorable as the tides, and life and death alike follow in its wake.

We pay for sins we do not remember, and seek to do a will we can scarce fathom. That is what it is, to be a god's chosen.

Well, I was living it, but a shared dream half-lived is a hollow thing

Some chains are forged for us - those are the hardest to bear.

For every victory there is a price.

What's the point of being a grown-up if you can't indulge the kid inside you every now and then?

Joscelin, is love supposed to make you feel like you're sick and dying, and mad enough to hit someone and drunk with joy, and your heart's a boulder n your chest trying to burst into a thousand pieces all at once?" "Mm-hmm." He finished his ale. "That would be love.

To recongnize that the treachery of one member of a house does not taint all born within it

And Kushiel sends no punishment that we are not fit to bear.

My lord. It is too much, and not enough

Battle for the sake of honor may be a fine thing for bards to sing of, but it is no way to preserve one's homeland

Those that yield are not always weak

Only insofar as you enjoy being sorry, my dear, which, while it is a considerable amount, occurs only after the fact, thus making it a singularly ineffective deterrent, yes?

I preferred a hard truth to a well-meant lie.