Megan Whalen Turner

“... I wanted Ambiades to understand that I considered myself a hierarchy of one.”

“No friend had I made there, but I wasn't with this group to make friends, and besides, he sneered too much. I've found that people who sneer are almost always sneering at me.”

“Sometimes, if you want to change a man's mind, you have to change the mind of the man next to him first.”

“I was not so comfortable with my new authority that I could say 'We eat the chicken now!' but the magus had seen that I was considering it..."My purse is full enough," said the magus, "to keep you supplied with roast chickens.""So, so, so," I said. "We know who the power behind the throne is," and the magus laughed."You eat more than Gen did after prison," he said."I have more sympathy with him all the time. Are you going to finish that drumstick?" I asked."I am. Stop staring at it.”

“Oh, Lady," said the woodcutter, "my hurt is overwhelming because it is someone else's pain that makes me cry.”

“If we truly trust no one, we cannot survive.”

“The Lord of Rags and Tatters.”

“I wonder if people always choose what will make them unhappy.”

“Are you telling me in your own gentle way to stop whining?""Yes.""I don't feel like a hero. I feel like an idiot.""I think heroes generally do, but those men believe in you.""I did wait until I was outside before I threw up.”

“I didn't think about being king,” he said, his voice hoarse.Eddis stared. “Your capacity to land yourself in a mess because you didn't think first, Eugenides, will never cease to amaze me. What do you mean you didn't think about being king? Is Attolia going to marry you and move into my library?”

“But there are other words for privacy and independence. They are isolation and loneliness.”

“I'll be your minister--""Of the exchequer? You'd rob me blind.""I would never steal from you," he'd said hotly."Oh? Where is my tourmaline necklace? Where are my missing earrings?""That necklace was hideous. It was the only way to keep you from wearing it.""My earrings?""What earrings?”

“He whines, he complains, he ducks out of the most obvious responsibility. He is vain, petty and maddening, but he doesn't ever quit.”

“These people make my family look easy to get along with.”

“The Attolians liked to point out with a snicker that there was no sign anywhere of the king's hand at work.”

“All my life they had made choices for me, and I had resented it. Now the choice was mine, and once it was made, I would have no right to blame anyone else for the consequences. Loss of that privilege, to blame others, unexpectedly stung.”

“He didn't marry you to become king. He became king because he wanted to marry you.”

“It isn't an easy thing to give your loyalty to someone you don't know, especially when that person chooses to reveal nothing of himself.”

“He lies to himself. If Eugenides talked in his sleep, he'd lie then, too.”

“I think a good book is a good book forever.I don't think they get less good because times change.”