Victoria Goddard > Quotes

“It is a small thing, yes, but on small things hinge the turning of the world. Very rarely does the opportunity come to stand up against torture and evildoing - or for justice and equality - in the grand gestures most of us dream of. On the other hand, the opportunity to stand up against a small injustice, or for a small truth or a small good, comes nearly every day.”
― Victoria Goddard, The Hands of the Emperor

“He left the visions of a perfectly just society to the philosophers; in his experience they usually required assuming one could simply ignore some fundamental element of human nature. He had spent his lifetime working within an ancient, complex, and corrupt bureaucracy and court. He no longer believed one could legislate out of existence greed, or stupidity, or sheer perversity of will. It reassured him that neither could one legislate out of existence love, or hope, or the desire for beauty.”
― Victoria Goddard, The Hands of the Emperor

“He was not an artist of anything but the hidden intricacies underlying government bureaucracy, and no one else actually cared whether those were beautiful or not.”
― Victoria Goddard, The Hands of the Emperor

“Fitzroy made me an island this morning. I cannot think about philosophy right now. I have only poetry in my heart.”
― Victoria Goddard, At the Feet of the Sun

“Fitzroy smiled slowly, like the sunrise. “Let us walk in legends, Kip Mdang.”

Cliopher’s heart was hammering. “Yes,” he breathed. “Yes. What—What is your island, Fitzroy Angursell?”

“This one.”

Fitzroy dropped his hands.

The fire at the heart of the world rose up.”
― Victoria Goddard, At the Feet of the Sun

“The world changes one person and one decision at a time. None of us know what decision, precisely, is the telling one.”
― Victoria Goddard, The Hands of the Emperor

“I am not, and have never been, willing to compromise my principles. When I look back on what I have done with my life I rest content knowing that when I have made mistakes, I made them from my principles and to the best of my knowledge, and that I was able to learn from those mistakes and do my best to fix them.”
― Victoria Goddard, The Hands of the Emperor

“It is by taking stands in small matters that we change the world. Sometimes in small ways. Sometimes in much larger ones.”
― Victoria Goddard, The Hands of the Emperor

“what is the purpose of government?” “To steward the resources of all for the benefit of all,” he replied automatically to the sudden sharp question, the response one he had laboured over for so many nights trying to discern the right way forward.”
― Victoria Goddard, The Hands of the Emperor

“Islander culture did not think it shameful to show strong emotions. It was, in fact, considered the mark of a strong soul, one to be admired, when beauty or love or grief could call forth such powerful response.”
― Victoria Goddard, The Hands of the Emperor

“Hal and Mr. Dart exchanged glances, quite as if they had years of friendship behind them, and for a moment my heart rejoiced in the rightness of the moment.”
― Victoria Goddard, Bee Sting Cake

“But first: Kip Mdang, I would like you to have this, as a token of my esteem, a promise of my affection, an affirmation of my readiness to follow your star wherever you wander with it, an acknowledgement of my willingness to raise an island for you whenever you need one, and…” Fitzroy took a deep breath. “And a statement of something I have never quite dared say in its full simplicity before, which is that I love you.”

Before Cliopher could say anything—before Cliopher could do anything—Fitzroy tugged off his signet ring and placed it on the palm of Cliopher’s hand.

Cliopher looked at his fanoa. “That’s the Imperial Seal,” he said, but even without looking down he had closed his hand around the ring. It was warm in his hand from Fitzroy’s body-heat, his inner fire.

“It is,” said Fitzroy. “And you know very well that there is not another person in all the Nine Worlds and the lands beyond whom I would trust with it.”

“I don’t know what to say,” Cliopher said, knowing his face and his heart were both open as the proverbial shell on the beach.

Now Fitzroy smiled, a curving, splendid smile, a Fitzroy Angursell smile. “‘Thank you’ will be quite sufficient, my dear Kip. Seeing as you’ve already done all the hard work of taking down the empire and creating a home for me.”
― Victoria Goddard, At the Feet of the Sun

“I suppose we always hope that those closest to us can see into our hearts—but unless we invite them, or show them in words or deeds, how can they?”
― Victoria Goddard, The Hands of the Emperor

“not everyone had had the benefits of a cantankerous relative beating the need to learn to think for oneself into their heads at a young age.”
― Victoria Goddard, The Hands of the Emperor

“Fitzroy gave him a burning, gloriously amused look, the sort that had made everyone fall in love with him. But Cliopher was the one he had chosen back.”
― Victoria Goddard, At the Feet of the Sun

“The vast majority of people wish to have meaningful lives. They wish to live well—to do meaningful things. If we give them all the opportunities to do so, and take away the fear that they will have nowhere to go, nothing to eat, nothing to support themselves with—the world will change.”
― Victoria Goddard, The Hands of the Emperor

“In the first lesson Dominus Lukel had discussed fighting [a dragon] without armour, shield, lance, sword, or proper training. That class had been a roll-call of almost-famous heroes who had died facing definitely-famous dragons.
I had no armour, shield, lance or sword, and as for proper trainig, well… Dominus Lukel didn't pretend he'd ever seen a dragon, much less fought one.
I did, however, have a cake knife.
And an off-set spatula.”
― Victoria Goddard, Bee Sting Cake

“...do remember that gossip when well organized is sociology, and when ill regulated, slander.”
― Victoria Goddard, Stargazy Pie

“Ghilly returned with a tiarë flower tucked behind her ear and another for each of them. “There’s a thicket of them over there,” she said, handing the flowers out. “There, Fitzroy, that’s a proper Islander look.”

“Proper for Tisiamo,” Toucan murmured, but he was smiling. “No, Fitzroy, you put it behind your left ear if you’re single—your right if you’re taken.”

Fitzroy gave Cliopher a very brilliant look and carefully moved the flower to his right ear.

Cliopher felt a wash of some nameless emotion—some indescribable wonder, some intense humility, some astonishing gratitude, some sort of awe. He blinked hard, unable to prevent the smile, the dawning joy, from showing on his face.

“Don’t hurt yourself,” Toucan whispered. “He’ll still be there tomorrow.”
― Victoria Goddard, At the Feet of the Sun

“I am suggesting that as a leader it is your responsibility to shape the culture of your communities, to encourage them to beauty and resilience and prosperity, to make them thrive.”
― Victoria Goddard, The Hands of the Emperor

“He no longer believed he could legislate out of existence greed, or stupidity, or sheer perversity of will. It reassured him that neither could one legislate out of existence love, or hope, or the desire for beauty.”
― Victoria Goddard, The Hands of the Emperor

“They should send grown men on quests more often,” the sea-witch said, giving him a deeply unsettling smile.”
― Victoria Goddard, At the Feet of the Sun

“The vast majority of people wish to have meaningful lives. They wish to live well—to do meaningful things.”
― Victoria Goddard, The Hands of the Emperor

“...whoever takes the responsibility gains the power.”
― Victoria Goddard, The Hands of the Emperor

“The vendor looked at him through narrow eyes. “What is your name, what is your island, and what is your dance?”

The questions shocked him through to the core.

It took him a moment to pull up the traditional answers. “I am Cliopher Mdang of Tahivoa in Gorjo City. My island is Loaloa.” He paused a moment, before the desire for it to be true overcame the fear that he overreached himself in the claim. His third answer came, as a result, much more quietly. “My dance is Aōteketētana.”

“Where have you danced the fire?”

These were the questions out of the Lays of the Wide Seas. Cliopher had been expecting to haggle over price, not his identity. He took a breath. No one was listening to him but the vendor.

“I learned the steps on Loaloa from the direction of the tanà, my great-uncle Tovo. My feet bear the scars of my learning.”

He gestured down, though the old burns on the sides of his feet, where he had brushed up against the coals, were hidden by his Solaaran-style sandals.

“And I danced the fire across the Wide Seas when I sailed down the river of time in a ship of my own hands’ shaping.”
― Victoria Goddard, The Hands of the Emperor

“The book of censored poetry was the only thing he'd ever stolen from the Palace.
Well. Except for the government, of course.”
― Victoria Goddard, At the Feet of the Sun

“Did you want to be buried there?”

Fitzroy shook his head convulsively. “No. I want to be cremated and my ashes scattered. You’ll see that done, if I die before you?”

“Of course,” Cliopher said, forbearing any protests or the grief that rose up in his throat at the mere thought. “Of course.”

“Of course,” Fitzroy repeated, not quite sarcastically, and stared, dry-eyed, at the bones of his distant relative. “I suppose you’d want to be taken to the Island of the Dead? Someone pointed it out—To lie with your ancestors? In the manner of your people?”

Cliopher was about to say of course, but there was a note in Fitzroy’s voice—

And he recalled the stories that the Sea-Witch sent her birds down to fetch the spirits of those lost at sea, to return them home.

The Sea-Witch had given him the garnet that still rattled in the efela the Grandmother (The Old Woman Who Lives in the Deeps, the in-gatherer of all life, in the end) had named Kiofa’a. Cliopher carried the mirimiri of Ani, to give to Vou’a to take to his fanoa. Vou’a was his great-uncle’s husband.

He would not be lost, though he did not follow the traditions of his people.

“If I die first,” he said, “cremate me and keep the ashes until—until—until they can be scattered with yours. So you can be free but you don’t have to be—alone—we can sail with the Ancestors together—”

Fitzroy said, “Kip.”

His voice was not the serene one, but fighting for equanimity.

“I will not be lost, and neither will you,” Cliopher replied fiercely. “The Sea-Witch likes me. The Old Woman Who Lives in the Deeps likes me. Your ancestors have not forgotten you.”
― Victoria Goddard, At the Feet of the Sun

“I sit at the feet of the Sun.'
'And what will you bring home?'
'My name is Cliopher Mdang of Tahivoa. My island is Loaloa. My dance is Aoteketetana. From the feet of the Sun I will bring home the fire.'
'And what is this fire you bring?'
'I will bring home the hearth-fire of a new life for the world.”
― Victoria Goddard, The Hands of the Emperor

“It made me feel indescribably pleased to know that there were those who were happiest, most themselves, as forty-year-olds. It had always seemed hard to me to imagine that everyone lived the better part of their lives wishing they were decades younger.”
― Victoria Goddard, Blackcurrant Fool

“Before Cliopher could speak, Fitzroy suddenly leaned forward again, grabbed his hands in his, and drew Cliopher’s up to his heart. “Cliopher, Kip, you are my right hand, my outrigger, my mirror that shows me my better side. My people do not have a word for this, but yours do.”

Now he had too much air in his lungs to speak, as if all the winds of the whole sky were contained inside him. “Yes.”

“Ask me,” Fitzroy whispered. “Ask me so I can say yes.”

They held there, hands clasped, the air thundering around them, roaring like a bonfire.

Then Cliopher spoke, his quiet words falling clear as water drops. “You are my fanoa. My beloved. My own. Will you let me be yours?”

“Not let,” said Fitzroy. “You are. You are.”
― Victoria Goddard, At the Feet of the Sun