S.A. Chakraborty > Quotes

“Greatness takes time, Banu Nahida. Often the mightiest things have the humblest beginnings.”
― S.A. Chakraborty, The City of Brass

“In what world do men and women pay the same price for passion?”
― S.A. Chakraborty, The City of Brass

“You're some kind of thief, then?"
"That a very narrow-minded way of looking at it. I prefer to think of myself as a merchant of delicate tasks.”
― S.A. Chakraborty, The City of Brass

“For the greatest crime of the poor in the eyes of the wealthy has always been to strike back. To fail to suffer in silence and instead disrupt their lives and their fantasies of a compassionate society that coincidentally set them on top. To say no.”
― S.A. Chakraborty, The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi

“You don't stop fighting a war just because you're losing battles. You change tactics.”
― S.A. Chakraborty, The Kingdom of Copper

“Not wanting to be destroyed by despair doesn’t make you a coward. It makes you a survivor.”
― S.A. Chakraborty, The Empire of Gold

“I've had enough of men hurting me because they were upset.”
― S.A. Chakraborty, The Kingdom of Copper

“For this scribe has read a great many of these accounts and taken away another lesson: that to be a woman is to have your story misremembered. Discarded. Twisted.”
― S.A. Chakraborty, The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi

“If you rule by violence, you should expect to be removed by violence.”
― S.A. Chakraborty, The Empire of Gold

“Nahri always smiled at her marks.”
― S.A. Chakraborty, The City of Brass

“No, I wasn't afraid. I was tired." Ali's voice broke on the word. "I'm tired of everyone in this city feeding on vengeance. I'm tired of teaching our children to hate and fear other children because their parents are our enemies. And I'm sick and tired of acting like the only way to save our people is to cut down all who might oppose us, as if our enemies won't return the favor the instant power shifts.”
― S.A. Chakraborty, The Kingdom of Copper

“I do not believe ambitious men who say the only route to peace and prosperity lies in giving them more power—particularly when they do it with lands and people who are not theirs.”
― S.A. Chakraborty, The Empire of Gold

“Go steal some happiness for yourself, my friend," she said shortly. "Trust me when I say the chance doesn't always come back.”
― S.A. Chakraborty, The Kingdom of Copper

“Because a lost little girl from Cairo thought she was living in some sort of fairy tale. And because for all her supposed cleverness, she couldn’t see that the dashing hero who saved her was its monster.”
― S.A. Chakraborty, The Kingdom of Copper

“She told me to keep myself whole. That there wasn’t any shame in taking care of yourself in order to help those who needed you.”
― S.A. Chakraborty, The Empire of Gold

“People do not thrive under tyrants, Alizayd; they do not come up with innovations when they're busy trying to stay alive, or offer creative ideas when error is punished by the hooves of a karkadann.”
― S.A. Chakraborty, The Kingdom of Copper

“I'm coming back, Nahri," he promised. "You're my Banu Nahida. This is my city." His expression was defiant. "Nothing will keep me from either of you.”
― S.A. Chakraborty, The City of Brass

“It is not always easy to do the right thing. More often than not, it is a lonely, thankless ordeal. That does not mean it is not worth doing.”
― S.A. Chakraborty, The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi

“Someone steals from me, I steal from others, and I'm sure the people I stole from will eventually take something that doesn't belong to them. It's a circle. - Nahri”
― S.A. Chakraborty, The City of Brass

“Can I swim?” he snapped, as if the very idea offended him. "Can you burn?”
― S.A. Chakraborty, The City of Brass

“You bet on whether or not I kissed your wife?" Ali was aghast. "What is wrong with the two of you?" When his brother and sister only cackled harder, he drew up. "I hate you. "I hate you both.”
― S.A. Chakraborty, The Empire of Gold

“For while the pious claim money doesn’t buy happiness, I can attest from personal experience that poverty buys nothing.”
― S.A. Chakraborty, The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi

“I’m not sure I ever stopped being a nakhudha,” I finally replied. “Our hearts may be spoken for by those with sweet eyes, little smiles, and so very many needs, but that does not mean that which makes us us is gone. And I hope . . . part of me hopes anyway that in seeing me do this, Marjana knows more is possible. I would not want her to believe that because she was born a girl, she cannot dream.”
― S.A. Chakraborty, The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi

“It's not haunted". Wajed countered. "It simply... misses its founding family."

"The stairs vanished under me the last time I was there, uncle," Ali pointed out. "The water in the fountains turns to blood so often than people don't drink it."

"So it misses them a lot.”
― S.A. Chakraborty, The City of Brass

“I find I can get a more accurate measure of a man when he’s not aware he’s being appraised.”
― S.A. Chakraborty, The Empire of Gold

“Luck is a fairy tale we use to make people feel better about the world being unfair as shit.”
― S.A. Chakraborty, The Empire of Gold

“Are you ready?” Nahri asked when she and Munthadir were alone.
He laughed as he strapped a wicked-looking sword to his waist. “Not in the slightest. You ?”
“God, no.” Nahri grabbed another needle-sharp dagger and flipped it into her sleeve. “Let’s go die.”
― S.A. Chakraborty, The Kingdom of Copper

“That made it worse, this passing of a barbed baton between women who, no matter how clever, how powerful, would always be known by the men to whom they were attached.”
― S.A. Chakraborty, The Empire of Gold

“There is no living thing that doesn’t desire freedom.”
― S.A. Chakraborty, The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi

“Eat you?" He made a disgusted sound. "The smell of your blood alone is enough to put me off eating for a month.”
― S.A. Chakraborty, The City of Brass