178 Quotes by Dorothy Dunnett

It was the only field, so far, in which the Pearl of Fortune had shown any precocity, other than the feat of keeping her head, her reason and her sense of the ridiculous amid conditions of civilized lunacy.

After I convinced them that I was a harmless novelist, I actually got them to give me a tour of the harem – which is usually off limits for tourists.

One knows, when all one’s life one has walked in dangerous places, when the silence is that of ambush and when the silence is that of emptiness.

I don’t change from minute to minute. I don’t change at all.

She got in, as she had persuaded Jerott Blyth to bring her half across France, by force of logic, a kind of flat-chested innocence and the doggedness of a flower-pecker attacking a strangling fig.

And deep within him, missing its accustomed tread, his heart paused, and gave one single stroke, as if on an anvil.

You bloody little dictator,’ he said. ‘You’re exactly like Kate.

I should hesitate to attribute anything to him at the moment, even principles,’ said Lord Culter, smiling. ‘But you are free to try.

To succeed as you want, you have to be precise; you have to have polish; you have to carry polish and precision into everything you do. You have no time to sigh over seigneuries and begrudge other people their gifts. Lack of genius never held anyone back,’ said Lymond. ‘Only time wasted on resentment and daydreaming can do that.