Ellen Kushner > Quotes

“Let the fairy tale begin on a winter's morning, then, with one drop of blood newly-fallen on the ivory snow: a drop as bright as a clear-cut ruby, red as a single spot of claret on the lace cuff.”
― Ellen Kushner, Swordspoint

“Not being the sort to throw a book, she pounded her fist on her cushion.”
― Ellen Kushner

“There's the road to heaven, and there's the road to hell, and there? That's the road to Faerie.”
― Ellen Kushner, Thomas the Rhymer

“He said, 'They're only whores,' as though their very availability rendered them worthless.”
― Ellen Kushner, The Privilege of the Sword

“Richard knew he was fighting for his life, and he was terribly happy.”
― Ellen Kushner, Swordspoint

“Across the troubled maelstrom of time, people always need a beer.”
― Ellen Kushner, The Fall of the Kings

“although he was at core a rotten being, no one could fault him for style.”
― Ellen Kushner, The Privilege of the Sword

“But I saw the pair of them, along with everyone else. Hard to miss. Him towering like a raggedy scarecrow in that flapping black scholar's gown, and the sword always quiet next to him, sweet as honey, and poison with it.”
― Ellen Kushner

“What was it about scholarship and learning, he wondered, that seemed to wither the hearts of University men, leaving them incapable of loving anything as imperfect and fallible as an actual human being?”
― Ellen Kushner, The Fall of the Kings

“The time of testing, and of playing, was over. This was the final duel for one of them. Now they were fighting for their lives--for the one life that would emerge from this elegant battle. . . . For the moment the two of them were evenly matched, arm against arm. Michael prayed that it would never stop, that there would always be this moment of utter mastery, beautiful and rare, and no conclusion ever be reached.”
― Ellen Kushner, Swordspoint

“I let the insults go by. A good swordsman doesn't pay attention to words in a fight.”
― Ellen Kushner, The Privilege of the Sword

“Que comience el cuento de hadas una mañana de invierno, en tal caso, con una gota recién caída en la nieve marfileña: una gota tan brillante como un rubí bien cortado, roja como una solitaria mancha de clarete en un puño de encaje. Y lo que aquí se sigue, por consiguiente, es que el mal acecha detrás de cada ventana rota, maquinando malicia y encantamiento; mientras que detrás de los postigos cerrados los justos duermen sus sueños a esta temprana hora en la Ribera. Pronto despertarán para ocuparse de sus quehaceres; y uno, tal vez, será tan adorable como el día y estará armado, como lo están los justos, para enfrentarse a un triunfo predestinado...”
― Ellen Kushner, Swordspoint

“Maybe someone would write a play just for me, one where a real woman could fight with her sword, and had many fine adventures and changes of costume.”
― Ellen Kushner, The Privilege of the Sword

“I wonder if you men have any idea of how insulting it is to women when you assume that all we can offer is our bodies?”
― Ellen Kushner, Swordspoint

“Have you seen Marcus?" he asked his ugly friend.
"Yes, he was stoping some people in the Violet Room from climbing the curtains."
"What for?"
"They were not professionals."
"Oh.”
― Ellen Kushner, The Privilege of the Sword

“(Humans, take note: You can refer to the Realm as “Faerie” without causing offense, but do not make the mistake of referring to its citizens as “fairies”—unless you want to be punched.) Elfhaeme”
― Ellen Kushner, Welcome to Bordertown

“Every man lives at swordspoint.”
― Ellen Kushner

“Every man lives at swordspoint, Ferris intoned.”
― Ellen Kushner, Swordspoint

“He had nothing against debauchery in the abstract, but he was particular about the details.”
― Ellen Kushner, The Fall of The Kings

“I mean, there’s like a natural law, like the law of gravity. But you don’t go to jail for violating gravity, right?” She snorted. “No, usually you go to the hospital for trying to violate gravity.”
― Ellen Kushner, Welcome to Bordertown

“In the sleepless dark, all things are possible, the worst most likely, all darkness visible. There he lay, as near as comfort, as far as the other side of death, silent and far away in sleep.”
― Ellen Kushner, Thomas the Rhymer

“It was not for Halliday to judge another's personal relationships: everyone in the city was strange, if you looked deeply enough.”
― Ellen Kushner, Swordspoint

“She is all that is gracious, Her spirit is comely, The work of her hands is fair.”
― Ellen Kushner, Thomas the Rhymer

“He had no reason to want to avenge Horn, and for Applethorpe no vengeance would ever be enough. It was natural for him to want to hurt the man who had been the instrument of his first adult grief; natural, but not right.”
― Ellen Kushner, Swordspoint

“What’s your name?” I ask. I’m expecting something different from what we usually get down here in Soho, newbie runaways styling themselves Shadesong or Spartacus or whatever. But”
― Ellen Kushner, Welcome to Bordertown

“Alec’s hand was at his lips. “You’ve got to go!” His voice cracked. “They won’t let you walk out of this, they don’t dare! I know them, Richard!” Richard tightened his arm around Alec’s shoulders, wordlessly trying to comfort, to drain the tension from the anguished spirit. But the touch was not enough. “Richard, I know them— they won’t let you live!” He turned his face in to Richard’s chest, his body clenched again in a frozen spasm not of weeping but of fury. At a loss, Richard turned again to the words that still flowed through his mind like water: Day followed day, with never night between: Feasting and all manner of delight Hedged him ’round like hounds their quarry’s heart—”
― Ellen Kushner, Swordspoint

“—Ellos tienen las espadas. —Lord Halliday sonrió mirándose las manos—. Nosotros tenemos todos los demás. Las cosas se igualan, no obstante, con una punta de acero en la garganta.
—Todo el mundo vive a punta de espada —entonó Ferris.”
― Ellen Kushner, Swordspoint

“—Los duelos sólo son a muerte cuando lo que hay en juego es una de estas dos cosas: poder o dinero.
—¿Qué hay del honor?
—¿Qué se puede comprar con el honor? —preguntó cínicamente la duquesa.”
― Ellen Kushner, Swordspoint

“I do not make the rules [. . .] This annoys me, and so I comfort myself by breaking them”
― Ellen Kushner, The Privilege of the Sword

“Blood—” I rasped. “The earth cannot hold all the blood that’s shed on it. And so the stream flows below. We have passed through it now; soon it will be gone from you.”
― Ellen Kushner, Thomas the Rhymer