Quotes from Jacqueline Carey

Years ago, I had a teacher who taught me that all ways lead to the Way," I said slowly, thinking. "That there is a great truth behind all the truths of the world, and the faces of the gods are masks that may be changed at will.

Always, he whispered. The gods do not always answer, but they are always listening.

I cannot blame them, in truth, for desiring... But they were like children, who have only just begun to grasp the idea of a thing. And like children, they had no notion of laboring to create, but only of having... and no thought given to the cost, to others, of taking it.

Let the warriors clamor after gods of blood and thunder; love is hard, harder than steel and thrice as cruel. It is as inexorable as the tides, and life and death alike follow in its wake.

In love, howsoever it is manifest, we are greater than the sum of our parts.

Without plenty, the wealthy lack compassion for the poor, hoarding without sharing. Without law, the strong bully the weak, stealing by force.

Empty yourself of everything," he said. "Let your mind rest at peace. Ten thousand things rise and fall while the self watches. They grow and flourish and return to the source. Returning to the source is stillness, which is the way of nature. The way of nature is unchanging. Practice your breathing and think upon this, Moirin.

Vampire in real life aren't like the ones in the movies. They weren't going to be playing baseball in a thunderstorm.

Feeling foolish, I scowled at her. "Does it amuse you to mock me, my lady?" "A little." Refreshed by sleep, her eyes sparkled unrepentantly. "You are so very serious, my shadow.

Fear and lies fester in darkness. The truth may wound, but it cuts clean.

Would that I could make of heart and soul something other than a battleground!

Pride, desire, compassion, cleverness, belligerence, fruitfulness, loyalty… and guilt. But above it all stands love. And if we desire to be more than human, that is the star by which we must set our sights.

Merely surviving without doing harm seemed chore enough.

The keeping of secrets from adults is oft the only power a child may hope to possess.

Poetry glories in excess. When it's not extolling the virtues of austerity.

Tis a lonely business, being miserable when happiness abounds. I did my best to hide it, although the people who knew me well, knew.

Men will heed words spoken from one in a position of authority that they disdain from other sources.

Non c'è appagamento che non sia reso più dolce dal protrarsi del desiderio.

C'è perspicacia nella follia.

Victory doesn't matter to the dead, nor to the living who mourn them.

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 in your chest trying to burst into a thousand pieces, all at once?" "Mm-hmm." He finished his ale. "That would be love.

You're as bad as your master, he muttered, scarce audible amid the sea-sounds. Worse. At least he didn't ply his words from a courtesan's lips.

It is my fate, it seems, to fall privy to rare and splendid vistas in a state of exhaustion too profound to care.

Is the world so cruel, then, that that is all that is required to move a man to risk his life? Kindness?