Naomi Novik > Quotes

“You intolerable lunatic," he snarled at me, and then he caught my face between his hands and kissed me.”
― Naomi Novik, Uprooted

“If you don't want a man dead, don't bludgeon him over the head repeatedly.”
― Naomi Novik, Uprooted

“truth didn’t mean anything without someone to share it with; you could shout truth into the air forever, and spend your life doing it, if someone didn’t come and listen.”
― Naomi Novik, Uprooted

“But I had not known that I was strong enough to do any of those things until they were over and I had done them. I had to do the work first, not knowing.”
― Naomi Novik, Spinning Silver

“What an unequaled gift for disaster you have.”
― Naomi Novik, Uprooted

“And I wasn't old enough to be wise, so I loved her more, not less, because I knew she would be taken from me soon.”
― Naomi Novik, Uprooted

“Listen, you impossible creature," he said, "I'm a century and more older than--"
"Oh, be quiet," I said impatiently.”
― Naomi Novik, Uprooted

“But the world I wanted wasn't the world I lived in, and if I would do nothing until I could repair every terrible thing at once, I would do nothing forever.”
― Naomi Novik, Spinning Silver

“We're meant to go. We're not meant to stay forever.”
― Naomi Novik, Uprooted

“I was a glaring blot on the perfection. But I didn't care: I didn't feel I owed him beauty.”
― Naomi Novik, Uprooted

“I should rather have you than a heap of gold, even if it were very comfortable to sleep on.”
― Naomi Novik, His Majesty's Dragon

“I love having existential crises at bedtime, it's so restful.”
― Naomi Novik, A Deadly Education

“I don't want more sense!" I said loudly, beating against the silence of the room. "Not if sense means I'll stop loving anyone. What is there besides people that's worth holding on to?”
― Naomi Novik, Uprooted

“But she hadn't been able to take root. She'd remembered the wrong things, and forgotten too much. She'd remembered how to kill and how to hate, and she'd forgotten how to grow.”
― Naomi Novik, Uprooted

“It comes, I suppose,” I said thoughtfully, speaking to the air, “of spending too much time alone indoors, and forgetting that living things don’t always stay where you put them.”
― Naomi Novik, Uprooted

“Hush, sweetheart. You don't have a mother anymore, but let me to speak to you with her voice a minute. Listen. Stepon told us what happened in your house. There are men who are wolves inside, and want to eat up other people to fill their bellies. That it what was in your house with you, all your life. But here you are with your brothers, and you are not eaten up, and there is not a wolf inside you. You have fed each other, and you kept the wolf away. That is all we can do for each other in the world, to keep the wolf away.”
― Naomi Novik, Spinning Silver

“I am very tired of this Government, which I have never seen, and which is always insisting that I must do disagreeable things, and does no good to anybody.”
― Naomi Novik, Throne of Jade

“READER, I RAN the fuck away.”
― Naomi Novik, A Deadly Education

“A robber who steals a knife and cuts himself cannot cry out against the woman who kept it sharp.”
― Naomi Novik, Spinning Silver

“There was a song in this forest, too, but it was a savage song, whispering of madness and tearing and rage.”
― Naomi Novik, Uprooted

“But it was all the same choice, every time. The choice between the one death and all the little ones.”
― Naomi Novik, Spinning Silver

“And more to the point, I was reasonably certain he wasn’t going to try and devour my soul. My expectations for a husband had lowered.”
― Naomi Novik, Spinning Silver

“They all had stories. They had mothers or fathers, sisters or lovers. They weren't alone in the world, mattering to no one but themselves. It seemed utterly wrong to treat them like pennies in a purse. I felt the soldiers understood perfectly well that we were making sums out of them-- this many safe to spend, this number too high, as if each one wasn't a whole man.”
― Naomi Novik, Uprooted

“Temeraire said, 'It is very nice how many books there are, indeed. And on so many subjects!”
― Naomi Novik, His Majesty's Dragon

“I leaned against his side, his irritation oddly comforting. After a moment he grudgingly put his arm around me. The deep quiet was already settling back upon the grove, as if all the fire and rage we'd brought could make only a brief interruption in its peace.”
― Naomi Novik, Uprooted

“I decided that Orion needed to die after the second time he saved my life.”
― Naomi Novik, A Deadly Education

“Magic was singing in me, through me; I felt the murmur of his power singing back that same song.”
― Naomi Novik, Uprooted

“He darted a look at the uncovered basket behind me, saw what I was eating, and glared at me. "That's appalling," he said.
"They're wonderful!" I said. "They're all coming ripe."
"All the better to turn you into a tree," he said.
"I don't want to be a tree yet," I said.”
― Naomi Novik, Uprooted

“He would only shrug and look at me expectantly again, waiting for high magic: magic that came only when you made some larger version of yourself with words and promises, and then stepped inside and somehow grew to fill it.”
― Naomi Novik, Spinning Silver

“Was I starting to feel evil? Yes, now I was worrying I'd be turned to the dark side by too much crochet.”
― Naomi Novik, A Deadly Education