Thomas Maltman > Quotes

“A good story defies the reader's expectations, and in doing so, brings them satisfaction.”
― Thomas Maltman

“We all say we want The Truth, but we all want our secrets kept.”
― Thomas Maltman, Little Wolves

“In birth all things are kindred, the sounds we make universal to any species. We enter wailing of a lost world.”
― Thomas Maltman, Little Wolves

“For beauty is nothing / but the beginning of terror,’ ” she recited from memory. “ ‘Which we still are just able to endure,’ ” he continued, surprising her, “ ‘and we are so awed because it serenely disdains / to annihilate us. Every angel is terrifying.’ ”
― Thomas Maltman, Little Wolves

“She wrote as if her life depended on it, and maybe it did.”
― Thomas Maltman, Little Wolves

“How strange it is than when two races first meet they trade in both the sacred and the profane.”
― Thomas Maltman, The Night Birds

“Few people know you so well as those who hate you.”
― Thomas Maltman, Little Wolves

“Clara gathered up her courage and climbed out of bed. Moonlight illuminated her room, scattered with cardboard boxes, the lids peeled open. From one she hefted out her Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, which she figured suitable weapon for doing battle with ghosts trying to take up residence under the stairwell. She held the substantial bulk of the alphabet in her hands, a word for every reality. Madness was for when words failed.”
― Thomas Maltman, Little Wolves

“You work too hard," she warned him on his way out the door. "I worry about you." Really, what she wanted was for him to stay here. They deserved a night together. No responsibilities. Just the two of them up late talking like when they were engaged.

"This is only temporary," he said on his way out, "things'll get better."

She looked away. He was pouring himself into this place. The weight he'd lost made his blue eyes even more piercing and prominent above the hollows of his cheeks. He was pouring himself out as she tried to hold what fell in her hands.”
― Thomas Maltman, Little Wolves