A.J. Demas > Quotes

“In Luth poetry, there was a formula used to indicate a very beautiful woman: you would fall off your horse trying to keep looking at her, as you rode past. That was what the Phemian Adares was like. He had a face like one of the gods painted on the Kossian urns that stood in the summer hall of the kahar- except that unlike them he was always breaking into a smile. And such a smile. You would fall off your horse.”
― A.J. Demas, Something Human

“That reminded Rus of Kuth saying the Kossians didn't respect their women. Neither did the Luth, really, when you scratched beneath the surface. You didn't use "womanly" as an insult for men if you truly esteemed women. It made him sad to think about.”
― A.J. Demas, Something Human

“Does a physician wish for a plague so he can exercise his skill?”
― A.J. Demas, Sword Dance

“I want a reliable, honest man who is not too desperate to be looked after nor too keen on taking care of me, but just a little of both. Those are the things I care about. And if I found a man like that, and he were also the sort of man I would lie awake at night thinking about when he wasn't sharing my bed - then I would know the gods had truly blessed me.”
― A.J. Demas, One Night in Boukos

“It was odd to be on a night mission - behind enemy lines, so to speak - with a fellow you wanted to kiss all the time.”
― A.J. Demas, Sword Dance

“[Philosophers] would say that it was natural for men to desire women, but if you spent too much of your time with women, or took them too seriously, it made you unmanly. Men ought to reserve their purest affections for other men, they said. But they meant something quite specific by that...Their idea of the virtuous man was someone who didn't love anyone, male or female, really heartily.”
― A.J. Demas, Sword Dance

“I'll probably be sold on from the Horses and end up a laborer or something - I think I'll be able to stand that. But I don't want to be a man. It disgusts me. I don't want to WANT anyone in the way the men at the Horses want me. I don't want to understand what that's like - and I'm afraid I will. You can tell already, can't you? It's close.”
― A.J. Demas, One Night in Boukos

“If we were in a romantic novel,” Damiskos said, relaxing a little, “I would have to—I don’t know—perform a feat or, or go on a quest to prove my devotion after not recognizing you.”
― A.J. Demas, Saffron Alley

“I don’t know how I make you happy—if I really do—unless it’s that you enjoy having brought a wretched man back to life.”
― A.J. Demas, Sword Dance