Jacqueline Carey
Spontaneity is the province of youthCollection: Youth
We are meant to taste of life ... and drink the cup of it to the dregs, bitter and sweet alike.Collection: Life
Garner knowledge, by any means possibleCollection: Mean
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.Collection: Kindness
When Love cast me out, it was Cruelty who took pity upon meCollection: Pity
All paths are present, always... and we can but choose among them.Collection: Philosophy
My lord. It is too much, and not enoughCollection: Too Much
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.Collection: Yield
A little truth seasons a lie like salt.Collection: Lying
True friendship must be akin to romance, I think. only without all the anguish and anxiety.Collection: True Friend
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.Collection: Heart
All exiles carry a map within them that points the way homeward.Collection: Home
It's funny, how one can look back on a sorrow one thought one might well die of at the time, and know that one had not yet reckoned the tenth part of true grief.Collection: Sad
There are those who are awkward in the face of sorrow, fearing to say the wrong thing; to them, I say, there is no wrong in comfort, ever. A kind word, a consoling arm ... these things are ever welcome.Collection: Awkward
I had begun to think my ripening body would wither untasted on the vine.Collection: Thinking
I can see patterns in events, and behaviors; in mathematics, I follow slowerCollection: Math
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.Collection: Memories
Well, I was living it, but a shared dream half-lived is a hollow thingCollection: Dream
Beauty is at its most poignant when the cold hand of Death holds poised to wither it imminently.Collection: Hands
It is not wise to meddle with D'Angelines in matters of love.Collection: Wise
After you, it's all cheap tequila.Collection: Tequila
Like a falling star, he descended on the Tarbh Cró, a Cassiline berserker, his sword biting and slashing like a silver snake.Collection: Stars
If I had to fall from Cassiel's grace, at least I know it took a courtesan worthy of Kings to do it.Collection: Kings
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?Collection: Sorry
If you will not die for us, you cannot ask us to die for you.Collection: Loyalty
Nothing spoils idle pleasure like too much awarenessCollection: Too Much
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.Collection: Play
Happiness is the highest form of wisdom.Collection: Love
A nervous silence loosens tonguesCollection: Sex
And for a price, I will pretend absolutely nothing.Collection: Sex
Stupid to speak of blame when the wills of the immortals are involved.Collection: Stupid
For every victory there is a price.Collection: Victory
Some chains are forged for us - those are the hardest to bear.Collection: Bears
What is fear but courage's shadow?Collection: Shadow
Truly, it is in loss that we learn a thing's true value.Collection: Loss
But slight mistakes accumulate, and grow to gross errors if unchecked.Collection: Mistake
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.Collection: Pay
One must gauge one's trust carefully.Collection: Gauges
To recongnize that the treachery of one member of a house does not taint all born within itCollection: House
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.Collection: Wedding
There are those who hold that there is a pattern to all that is said and done in this world, that no thing happens without reason nor out of time. As to that, I cannot speak, for I have seen too many threads cut short to believe it, but of a surety, I have seen too the weft of my fate shuttled on the loom. If there is a pattern, I do not think there is anyone among us who can stand at a great enough distance to discern it; yet I will not say that it is not so.Collection: Distance
It's funny, because in deference to conventional wisdom, I spent my struggling writer years trying to suppress my naturally baroque literary voice and write clean, spare prose. I finally gave up and embraced my baroque tendencies when I wrote the Kushiel series.Collection: Wisdom
Whip us 'till we're on the floor, we'll turn around and ask for more, we're Phèdre's Boys! We like to hurt, we like to bleed, daily floggings do we need, we're Phèdre's Boys! Man or woman, we don't care, give us twins we'll take the pair! We're Phèdre's Boys! ...But just because we let you beat us, doesn't mean you can defeat us, we're Phèdre's Boys!Collection: Hurt
Fear and lies fester in darkness. The truth may wound, but it cuts clean.Collection: Lying
We may not have demon fathers dangling offers of infernal power before us, but everyone understands what it means to struggle with temptation or resist the urge to give in to our baser natures.Collection: Father