236 Quotes by Megan Whalen Turner

The Attolian king obviously had a deep well of spite and I would’ve appreciated his low cunning more if I hadn’t thought the Attolian was about to wring my neck.

She pulled the bedclothes up as far as they would go and suppressed a perverse wish to have her old nurse come to chase away the darkness, perverse because she didn’t know if she wanted the shadows to be empty or not.

The younger one looked to be completely useless.

If an author’s account of any man is tidy, you must believe it has been made so in contrast with the truth, which is rarely clear and never simple.

On the bed, Eugenides stirred restlessly. “Upset at the sight of blood?” he said. “Not my wife, Ornon.” “Your blood,” the ambassador pointed out. Eugenides glanced at the hook on his arm and conceded the point. “Yes,” he said. He seemed lost in memory. The room was quiet.

The king lifted a hand to her cheek and kissed her. It was not a kiss between strangers, not even a kiss between a bride and groom. It was a kiss between a man and his wife, and when it was over, the king closed his eyes and rested his forehead in the hollow of the queen’s shoulder, like a man seeking respite, like a man reaching home at the end of the day.

The Attolian waited, far and away the best non-speaker I think I have ever known.

Safety is an illusion, Costis. A Thief might fall at any time, and eventually the day must come when the god will let him. Whether I am on a rafter three stories up or on a staircase three steps up, I am in my god’s hands. He will keep me safe, or he will not, here or on the stairs.

My father thinks that we should forget the old gods. He says that a country with two sets of gods is like a country with two kings. No one knows which to be loyal to.