Quotes from Ellen Kushner

And Ferris had watched Alec go past him out of the door noted the bones...but he never would have connected that ragged man with the honey-and-acid creature who'd insulted him at Diane's house.

I studied you until I knew you, or at least, the public parts of you: your learning, your passion, the way your voice slows down when you answer a question. I studied your hands, and wondered how they'd touch me; your hair, and how it would smell. I wondered about that and about the rest of you I could not see. I wanted to know you. And I wanted you to know me. I wanted you to see me.

I do not make the rules [. . .] This annoys me, and so I comfort myself by breaking them

Don't just stand there like two posts," she says crisply to us, "or someone'll come along and tie a horse to you.

In the sleepless dark, all things are possible, the worst most likely, all darkness visible

Mistress," the minstrel frowned, "if you were any sharper, we could sell you at the fair for scissors.

Theron had in fact written to Sophia, but his sister had not sent the letter. She did not think it would reassure his mother to be invited to witness the ceremony of his union with his wizard and lover, on the steps of the Great Hall, at the Festival of the Spring Sowing.

Blake Lost his temper. But they didn't do anything to you, did they? He inquired savagely. When they heard your Southern accent and your Southern name, they put you in a cell to think over your poor taste in lovers, patted you on the head, and let you go. You loved this man, Tony, or at least you led us to believe you did. The honorable thing for you to do is hear what he has to say.

Totta puhuakseni en piittaa paljonkaan: hyvä tarina on hyvä tarina, tuli se mistä tahansa.

All the while he's been moving towards her, both stoat to rabbit and moth to flame. And she's staring at him, flame-bright and rabbit-scared, too brave to look away.

Thomas stepped aside to let the tinker enter, asking him sourly, "Why didn't you first tell us you were invited?" "A man likes to be wanted for himself alone. . . ." the gypsy sniveled.

You come from the country?" "You know that." "No," said Theron. "I thought you'd sprung full-grown from the University clock tower.

NICHOLAS GALING DRESSED FOR THE HISTORIANS' debate with all of his usual care. He wore green, for spring, with a waistcoat embroidered with jonquils. In deference to the gravity of the occasion, the green was dark, and he wore no lace.

A great stag woven of rushes and fluttering with green ribbons was borne through the streets to the music of pipe and tabor. Crowds of women surrounded it, leaping and grabbing at the ribbons.

He had no reason to want to avenge Horn, and for Applethorpe no vengeance would ever be enough. It was natural for him to want to hurt the man who had been the instrument of his first adult grief; natural, but not right.

and if Meg or I said anything, she'd fall in a little rage, like a wet hen.

The room was dim, as though drenched in perpetual afternoon.

The Wild Hunt rides tonight." Meg's eyes glinted with her eerie tale. "They ride on horses with nostrils like burning coals, chasing the souls of the wicked, that cannot rest for—" Then her head came up sharp. And, "Gavin," she says, "there's knocking at the door." I thought her saying it was still part of the tale. Then I heard it too, a thud too regular for wind and rain.

MIDWINTER IS THE DREARIEST of the year. Days are short, nights are long, and both are cold and wet with no immediate prospect of relief. Winter's Tail is what the old wives call it, dragging filth at winter's ass.

My raven," she would say, reaching up and rippling it like cloth, "my darkness, my silky child, my night river

It does not become you, my lord, to lie. Not to me." Now two spots of color, like red bites, stained his lover's cheeks. "Because I am a lord? Or because you are so fond of truth?" "Both," said Basil calmly. "And more besides. You, with the blood of kings, and I with—what I have. Now, come here." He held out his hand as if coaxing an animal from the woods. "Come here and tell me about your latest conquest.

Be careful to know yourself when the time comes," he warned the Little King. "The man who fails the test will run for the rest of his life, with the beast still in his heart.

Thanks to you, the leaders of the University branch—Masters Greenleaf and Smith—are safely out of harm's way. As to the Northern branch—well, my agent currently describes it as an association of young men, young and unmarried, who gather in the woods from time to time to celebrate elaborate rituals that draw equally from local folklore and a youthful taste for mysticism and indiscriminate copulation. We're watching them closely.

I could make it not matter.