Susan Kay > Quotes

“None of us can choose where we shall love...”
― Susan Kay, Phantom

“My mind has touched the farthest horizons of mortal imagination and reaches ever outward to embrace infinity. There is no knowledge beyond my comprehension, no art or skill upon this entire planet that lies beyond the mastery of my hand. And yet, like Faust, I look in vain, I learn in vain. . . . For as long as I live, no woman will ever look on me in love.”
― Susan Kay, Phantom

“And it's really very difficult to kill someone when all your inner instincts would oblige you to take off your hat first!”
― Susan Kay, Phantom

“All beauty must have its imperfections, all happiness its share of sorrow.”
― Susan Kay, Phantom

“I had reached up and pulled the castle of dreams down around him.”
― Susan Kay

“Great beauty is often perceived by human senses as pain.”
― Susan Kay

“She wanted an Angel of Music . . . an angel who would make her believe in herself at last. I'd been the Angel of Doom for the khanum. There was no reason in the world why I could not be the Angel of Music for Christine. I couldn't hope to be a man to her, I couldn't ever be a real, breathing, living man waking at her side and reaching out for her . . . But I could be her angel' -Erik”
― Susan Kay, Phantom

“In point of fact I was a perfectly devoted and dutiful little Catholic—until the day I learned that animals have no souls.”
― Susan Kay, Phantom

“Wherever this shadowed path might lead, we were both irrevocably committed to follow it to the end.”
― Susan Kay, Phantom

“You must expect to make enemies."
"I never expect to make anything else," he said.”
― Susan Kay, Phantom

“Is the mask magic?" he demanded with sudden, passionate interest.
"Yes." I bowed my head, so that our eyes no longer met. "I made it magic to keep you safe. The mask is your friend, Erik. As long as you wear it, no mirror can ever show you the face again."
He was silent then and when I showed him the new mask he accepted it without question and put it on hastily with his clumsy, bandaged fingers. But when I stood up to go, he reacted with panic and clutched at my grown.
"Don't go! Don't leave me here in the dark."
"You are not in the dark," I said patiently. "Look, I have left the candle ..."
But I knew, as I looked at him, that it would have made no difference if I had left him fifty candles. The darkness he feared was in his own mind and there was no light in the universe powerful enough to take that darkness from him.
With a sigh of resignation I sat back on the bed and began to sing softly; and before I had finished the first verse, he was asleep.
The bandages on his hands and wrists showed white and eerie in the candle-light, as I eased my skirts from his grasp.
I knew that Marie was right.
Physically and mentally, I had scarred him for life.”
― Susan Kay, Phantom

“A dark and towering shadow, rising like the phoenix from the ashes...malevolent...omnipotent...The Phantom of the Opera!”
― Susan Kay, Phantom

“Killing is like riding, you see. One never really loses the knack.”
― Susan Kay, Phantom

“None of us can chose where we will love.”
― Susan Kay, Phantom

“I am not forsaken! I'm no longer alone in the darkness! Before my eyes I see a thousand little devils lighting black candles along the path which leads toward the edge...the blindingly beautiful edge.”
― Susan Kay, Phantom

“He saw the Queen and saw her for the first time with the mask of friendship removed, a figure suddenly as ruthless and terrible as ever her father had been... All their dazzling intimacy was an illusion, a mere straw in the wind, for in the last resort he was but a subject, as her mother had been.”
― Susan Kay, Legacy

“Men like Robin were never content, and men like Robin were all she would ever love, grasping, ambitious reflections of herself... He would begin to plot and scheme behind her back, building up a court faction... To emerge from that final conflict as the victor, it would be necessary to kill him. And she knew she was capable of doing it-- it was as simple as that.”
― Susan Kay, Legacy

“I want you to take off the mask, Erik, do you hear me? I want you to take it off right now.
-Luciana”
― Susan Kay

“Ah, well...hell is full of burning boats, did you know that, Nadir? I daresay that's what makes it so bloody hot.”
― Susan Kay, Phantom

“I'm not concerned with paid assassins ... mindless, soulless animals who excel at nothing else. But you, Erik ... you love all the beauty in this world ... you are a genius in so many different fields. Why do you set yourself beyond the pale of humanity by such a despicable crime?"
He took off the mask and turned slowly to let me see.
"This face which has denied me all human rights also frees me of all obligation to the human race," he said quietly. "My mother hated me, my village drove me from my home, I was exhibited like an animal in a cage until a knife showed me the only way to be free. The pleasures of love will always be forbidden to me ... but I am young, Nadir. I have all the desires of any normal man.”
― Susan Kay, Phantom

“If the lion knew his true strength it were hard for any man rule him.”
― Susan Kay, Legacy: The Acclaimed Novel of Elizabeth, England's Most Passionate Queen -- and the Three Men Who Loved Her

“Words spoken in the heat of the moment may be forgiven; words preserved for ever on parchment may overreach their mark once passion has abated.”
― Susan Kay, Legacy: The Acclaimed Novel of Elizabeth, England's Most Passionate Queen -- and the Three Men Who Loved Her

“I saw him glance briefly round the chamber as though to make sure he had not overlooked anything that might appertain to my comfort. He went across to close the wooden shutters at the window and, when he returned to set a glass of water on the table beside the bed, I reached up on impulse to squeeze his cold hand. "You're a good boy, Erik," I said fondly, "I'd like to think you won't ever let anyone persuade you otherwise." He held on to my fingers for a moment, enclosing them between his palms and I became aware that he had started to tremble. My God ... the boy was crying ... crying because I had spoken kindly and touched him with affection!
"Erik ..." I whispered helplessly.
"I'm sorry!" he stammered, dropping my hand and stepping back from the bed hastily, "I'm very sorry! Please forgive me!"
And before I could say a word to stop him he fled from the room.”
― Susan Kay, Phantom

“To Renard's suspicious eye, Elizabeth's nebulous role at court had taken on a new and sinister signifiance. This unspoken Protestant heir presumptive was suddenly the greatest obstacle to Prince Philip's path to England and Renard had already resolved to dispose of her at his earliest conveneicne. Accordingly, he invited her to dance and tried his hand at a little subtle flattery. They manoevered delicately down the Hall, like two scorpions locked in mortal combat, but no matter how he tried, he could not get close enough to sting.”
― Susan Kay, Legacy

“My mother had a dog once. She used to make it jump through a burning hoop to prove its devotion to her, until she found my father did it better. He jumped through that hoop for over six years. When he finally got tired of performing for her amusement he killed her. And that's what makes men such interesting pets, Markham - you never know when they're going to turn and bite.”
― Susan Kay, Legacy

“I tell you this, madam, no man at court will be able to fart soon without asking Cecil first.”
― Susan Kay, Legacy: The Acclaimed Novel of Elizabeth, England's Most Passionate Queen -- and the Three Men Who Loved Her

“When lovers play for kingdoms desire is not enough.”
― Susan Kay, Legacy: The Acclaimed Novel of Elizabeth, England's Most Passionate Queen -- and the Three Men Who Loved Her

“Suspicion, like bread, rises rapidly in a warm environment.”
― Susan Kay, Legacy: The Acclaimed Novel of Elizabeth, England's Most Passionate Queen -- and the Three Men Who Loved Her

“She was English, with all the characteristics that word implies.”
― Susan Kay, Phantom

“is a poor substitute for food to a child with an empty belly.”
― Susan Kay, Legacy: The Acclaimed Novel of Elizabeth, England's Most Passionate Queen -- and the Three Men Who Loved Her