Megan Whalen Turner Quotes

Weak kings who lost their tempers were notoriously destructive.

What would you do if you were King’s Thief, Gen? Chew with your mouth open in the royal presence? Chat with the court ladies, dropping the h’s at the beginning of your words and garbling the ends of m...

Who knows but that you will get up to find that the world has inverted itself yet again?

Who was the Thief that she would love him? A youth, just a boy with hardly a beard and no sense at all... A liar, she thought, an enemy, a threat. He was brave, a voice inside her said, he was loyal.....

Why didn't you tell me to take Attolia's advice from the beginning?I thought you should figure it out. What you learn for yourself, you will know forever, said Eugenides.Pol used to say that, said Sou...

Will you sit down and stop shouting? she asked. I’ll stop shouting. I won’t sit down. I might need to throw more inkpots.

You didn't know I could do that, did you? he asked, conversationally.I did not, Your Majesty, Teleus gasped.My grandfather killed a man that way once, using the edge of the wooden sword.I hadn't reali...

You'll have to pardon me, the magus said. But with your country at war I can't see how any of it really matters.Standing up, Eugenides pulled the papers from the magus's hands. It matters, because I c...

To be underestimated by an enemy is the greatest advantage a man can have.

I asked Ochto what in the name of all that was sacred he thought he was doing.Helping you, said Dirnes.Why?They put the soldier down, and Ochto straightened to look me in the eye. Because I know nothi...

A liar thinks everyone else lies? ... A thief thinks everyone else is stealing from him? ... A philanderer thinks everyone else is philandering.

After one moment of gripped immobility, the queen bent to kiss the king lightly on one closed eyelid, then on the other. She said, 'I love your eyes.' She kissed him on either cheek, near the small lo...

All of my own impulses to balance and move seemed to conflict with those of the guards, and I was jerked and jostled down the portico, just as graceful as a sick cat.

Attolia had brushed Eugenides’s cheek almost shyly before sending him with a wave back to his own couch.

Attolians did not invest much belief in their religion. They dutifully attended temple festivals and used their gods for cursing and little else.

Before you make a decision, he said, I want you to know that I love you.

But does a good man let his circumstances determine his character?

Coming from light into the dark, he was looking ahead of him, not down at me. My lunge, as I came to my feet, took him in the chest as I drove the sword upward with the strength of my legs. Even ruste...

Damn him, damn him, damn him.

He limped slowly over to his own wooden sword and stooped awkwardly to pick it up. Trailing it on the ground behind him, he limped toward the queen, and the courtyard quieted as he approached and was...